Honeyboy Edwards has recorded in every format
Story by Kevin Halverson/Muse Electronics
As stated in the liner notes in
the upcoming release: "At 84, David "Honeyboy" Edwards is once again on
the cutting edge of recording technology. He has recorded 78s, 45s, 33s
and CDs. By participating in this, the first blues recording in DVD
format, Edwards has recorded in every format of the 20th Century." This
project began as many do, as an inspiration. 
The goal was to capture and preserve one of the true Blues legends in
such a way as to convey both the man and his music. Despite his long
career, no visual record of a Honeyboy recording session has been made.
Unlike the "MTV" type of music videos that we are all familiar with,
Shake 'Em On Down was to be an audiophile project at every step.
Contiguous takes of both audio and video enhance the experience by
allowing the listener to peer into the actual recording event. Rather
than simple speculation as to the relationship between players, one can
see the interplay and techniques each member brings to the performance.
In order to be true to the audiophile nature of the project, a carefully
balanced use of the available data rate was required. Most DVD projects
use low data rate Dolby Digital® audio in order to squeeze more playing
time into a single layer. On Shake 'Em On Down, high performance PCM
audio at 96 kHz sampling rate and 24-bit depth was used to preserve
every nuance of the recording. This required a whopping 4.6 million bits
per second of the DVD's available data rate. (In contrast, a typical
Hollywood blockbuster DVD movie devotes only 300,000 to 600,000 bits per
second to 5.1 channels of audio.) This leaves much less available data
rate for the video content than would normally be available, so the best
processes were applied to preserve the high-resolution, wide-screen
look of the performance. With careful execution and expert
craftsmanship, Shake 'Em On Down is both an audiophile recording of the
highest resolution and an opportunity to see the actual recording as it
happened. In closing, also from the liner notes: "Can there be another
Delta blues musician who has seen more than Honeyboy Edwards? From
playing Southern jukes to standing on Beale and Maxwell Streets to
recording for Alan Lomax in 1943, then Sun, Artist and Chess records in
the 1950s, it is only fitting that 84-year-old Edwards should be the
first blues artist to record using the technology of the future."