Louisiana Red and Honeyboy Edwards
The Redstone Room
Saturday, June 17, 9 p.m.
In this corner, weighing in with a W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Artist, a discography that spans more than three decades, and a list of influences that includes Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Arthur Crudup - ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage that bluesman extraordinaire, the Alabama slamma ... Louisiana Red! And in this corner, weighing in with his own W.C. Handy Award, a 1996 induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, and both an autobiography (The World Don't Owe Me Nothing) and a documentary (Honeyboy) to his name - ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the Baron of Blues, the Goliath of the guitar ... David Honeyboy Edwards! One's a touring dynamo whose 2006 gigs have taken him to Ghana, Greece, and Belgium; one's a 90-year-old inspiration called "always enjoyable and occasionally brilliant" by Living Blues magazine. Who will emerge victorious when the two meet at their shared performance in Davenport's Redstone Room on Saturday, June 17? Based on their stats, I'm makin' an early prediction, folks: It'll be a draw. For more information, visit (http://www.redstoneroom.com). - Mike Schulz