HIS NAME’S Edward Antoine, the man who’s singing, but he calls himself King Edward, just like the historic hotel a mile away. He just turned 87, and though he must sit down to perform, his voice still sparks and crackles like autumn leaves. The house band behind him, most members young enough to be his grandchildren, keep the beat. The crowd at Hal & Mal’s in Jackson, Mississippi, whoops with pleasure at the end of every stanza.
“What you have to learn about the blues,” says Bobby Rush, the man sitting next to me, “is it ain’t just something to make you sad. Because the same thing that will make you laugh is the same thing that will make you cry.” Rush, 91, has just won his third Grammy award,…