Pinetop Perkins

At age 94, Pinetop Perkins is one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen still performing. He began playing blues around 1927 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest blues pianists ever. He’s created a style of playing that has influenced three generations of piano players and will continue to be the yardstick by which great blues pianists are measured.

Born Willie Perkins on the Honey Island plantation in Belzoni, MS, in 1913, to a 15 year old mother. His father was a preacher, but the marriage busted up when young Willie was only 6. He started out playing guitar and piano at house parties and honky-tonks when not doing time behind a mule. He left home at age 16 after a beating from his grandmother and hit the road, heading for Tutwilwer, where he worked as a manual labourer

Perkins worked primarily in the Mississippi Delta throughout the thirties and forties, spending time at Clarksdale, and later, after teaming up with Robert Nighthawk in 1943, in Helena Ak. At Helena then he spent three years with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA,.

His work in the cotton industry kept him out of WW2, but he might have wished he had gone to war after sustaining a serious knife injury in his left arm caused by an altercation with an outraged chorus girl at a Helena, AR, nightspot. This injury forced him to drop the guitar.

1. Pinetops Piano Shuffle – 1996 – Hightone Sessions – Tk 14 – 3.20

Pinetop’s travels with slide guitar player Robert Nighthawk led them to a 1950 session for the Chess brothers but Chicago couldn't hold him at the time. After briefly working with B.B. King in Memphis, Perkins travelled the South with Earl Hooker during the early fifties. The pair completed a session for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records in 1953. .

2. Earl’s Boogie Woogie – July 1953 – Two Bugs and a Roach – Tk 14 – 2.36

It was at this session that he recorded his version of the song Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie. He admittedly wasn't the originator of the piano piece "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," but everyone associates it nowadays with Pinetop Perkins rather than with the man who devised it in the first place, Clarence "Pinetop" Smith.

One of the driving forces behind the advent of boogie-woogie piano, Clarence "Pine Top" Smith was one of the most influential blues figures of the 1920s. Born January 11, 1904, in Troy, AL, he was raised in nearby Birmingham. A self-taught player, he relocated to Chicago in 1928. While boogie-woogie's exact origins are a mystery, Smith's energetic "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" (cut in 1928) marked the first known use of the phrase on record, and its lyrics — a cry of "Hold it now/Stop/Boogie Woogie!" — became the template for any number of subsequent piano tunes. In early 1929 Smith's career came to an abrupt halt when he was shot and killed by a stray bullet during a dancehall fracas; he was just 25 at the time of his death,

Here is PP’s version (one of many) - This track is on every PP album!

3. Pinetops Boogie Woogie – 1988 – After Hours – Tk 12 – 3.15

Pinetop settled in Cairo, Illinois for a while, then relocated to Chicago. Music gradually was relegated to the back burner until Earl Hooker coaxed him into working on an LP for the Arhoolie label in 1968. called Two Bugs and a Roach. Track featuring PP on piano and recently departed Carey Bell on vocals and harp.

4. Love Aint A Plaything – Nov 1968 – Two Bugs and a Roach – Tk 7 – 4.58

When pianist Otis Spann split from the Muddy Waters band in 1969 to go solo, Pinetop was in the right place at the right time, and Muddy invited Pinetop to take Spann’s place. It was the 12 year period with the Muddy Waters band that was, up till now his best known period. Whereas Spann had a more ‘fomal’ piano style, Perkins’ music came straight from the Barrelhouse.

Pinetop helped shape the Waters sound and anchored Muddy’s memorable combo throughout the seventies with his brilliant piano solos. Instrumental track from a live Chicago club date from 1971:

5. Mudcat – 1971 – Muddy Waters Live – Tk 17 – 3.40

In 1976, while in Europe with the MW band, Pinetop made an album for the French Black & Blue label, recorded live in Zurich, Switzerland.

Track from this album. Listen out for Luthar Guitar Jr Johnson’s guitar solo

6. Pinetop is Just on Top – 1976 – Pinetop Is Just Top – Tk 7 – 6.16 – fade out…

After more than a decade with the Muddy, Perkins and his bandmates left en masse in 1980 to form the Legendary Blues Band, a decision which apparently broke Muddy’s heart and contributed to his death three years later. Their early Rounder albums (Life of Ease, Red Hot 'n' Blue) prominently spotlighted Perkins's piano work and rich vocals.

7. Thanks A Million – 1981 – Life Of Ease – Tk 6 – 2.50 (MD)

Pinetop, who had been labeled a sideman throughout most of his working life, eventually left the Legendary band to concentrate on a long overdue solo career.

Finally, in 1988, he cut his first USA released album for Blind Pig, called After Hours, backed by New York based band Little Mike & The Tornadoes. Track with founder Mike Markowitz on harp..

8. Thanks a Million – 1988 – After Hours – Tk 5 – 3.27

Ever since then, Pinetop Perkins has made up for lost time in the studio, cutting discs for Antone's, Omega, Deluge, Earwig, and several other firms.

Two tracks from 1996

9. Intro/Chicken Shack – 1996 – Antone’s Anniversary – Tk 11 – 1.33 (MD)
10. Down in Mississippi – 1996 – Hightone Sessions – Tk 1 – 3.20

Since going solo, Pinetop has been featured on many nationally syndicated news and music shows, and appeared in numerous movie productions, as well as television and radio ads. He has also headlined nearly every major showcase room in North America and most of the major festivals around the world.

He had some troubles with the law in the mid 1990s over a number of drink driving offences which resulted him giving up whisky completely at the age of 85.

Track from a live album made in 2001 to mark his 88th birthday. Muddy Waters number you will all recognize:

11. Mojo – 1997 – Pinetop Perkins on the 88s – Tk 9 – 4.12

It’s certainly ironic that Pinetop waited for his eighth decade to blossom as a headliner, releasing 15 solo records in 15 years beginning in 1992. He had three Grammy nominations in the 1990s and in 2005 he was also presented with a lifetime achievement award.

He was featured in the documentary Piano Blues directed by Clint Eastwood for the Martin Scorsese PBS series, The Blues. In addition, he continued to win the Blues Music Award for best blues piano every year until 2003 when he was retired from that award, which now bears his name-- the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year.

In 2007, in his 94th year he is still on the road. His website shows him playing a festival in Greeley Colorado this coming Sat, and two more festivals on the USA West Coast in the first week of July.

Pinetop Perkins’ unique life was chronicled in a graet biographical documentary DVD, Born In The Honey, which includes the 88th birthday live album

Beyond his musical accomplishments Pinetop is a friendly, charming, and gentle man. He says yes to everything and goes where he's taken, but somehow, life turns out well for him. He's quick to joke and play with words and he still goes out every night. He loves people and makes everyone around him feel good. Then he plays the piano and sings his blues and brings us his special gift.