Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,337

This is the grave of Pinetop Perkins.

Born in Belzoni, Mississippi in 1913, Joe Perkins grew up as a sharecropper. This was the reality of Black life in Mississippi at this time. He was functionally illiterate, having only received a third grade education. This was the time when the modern blues were being developed and Perkins was quite interested in this. He learned to play the guitar and was starting to have a career. He worked on Robert Nighthawk’s show on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas, which was a blues oriented station in the Delta. But then he got into a knife fight with a woman sometime in the 40s. She cut a tendon in his hand and he couldn’t play guitar anymore.

In the aftermath of his injury, Perkins switched to the piano and picked it up adroitly. He moved to Sonny Boy Williamson’s band and was a go to piano player for a lot of the bluesmen of the era. This made him mostly a sideman of course and so he did not have the fame that the guitarist/singers did. But he was definitely in demand. He started playing with Earl Hooker in the 50s. They were up in Memphis, recording at Sun Studios with Sam Phillips. Hooker decided he wanted to record “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie,” which was an old tune written back in 1928 by Pinetop Smith. Listening to Smith was how Perkins had learned to play the piano, at least in part. So the recording of Smith’s song was so good that Perkins became known as “Pinetop” himself, which was certainly more colorful than Joe.

But there really wasn’t any money in playing the blues, especially as a sideman. He moved to Chicago and quit the music business, getting a regular job. He did not return to playing publicly until 1968, when Hooker convinced him to do it. That was a good thing for Perkins who had a second career. The next year, Muddy Waters needed a new piano player after Otis Spann left the band. That gave Perkins a steady gig for the biggest star in the blues (or second to B.B. King perhaps) for the next ten years.

In the late 70s, Perkins decided to create his own band, the Legendary Blues Band, with Big Eyes Smith. That was a pretty steady outfit for about 20 years. Still, Perkins wasn’t too famous. He was a guy, a throwback to the old days of the blues as most of the original guys had passed on. He did not have a solo album with his name as the frontman until 1988. He was known enough to have a brief appearance in The Blues Brothers, arguing with John Lee Hooker.

Perkins was a heavy drinker and prone to depression, especially after his long-time partner died in 1995. But he overcame some of that through playing pretty constantly. By the early 2000s, he had relocated to Austin, where he had a regular gig. And this is how I saw Perkins, toward the end of his life. In fact, Perkins is one of only two old blues guys I ever saw play live, along with Gatemouth Brown, who I should say was awesome both times I saw him.

What I remember about the Perkins show was that yes, the guy was a great pianist and a ton of fun, but he was also the only Black person in the club. His band was all white and so was the audience. I don’t blame anyone for this, but by the early 2000s, blues music was for white people and increasingly by white people. It is what it is I suppose, you can’t blame other generations for finding new music more interesting or other demographics for finding older music more interesting. But the loss of a great musical tradition is always sad and the blues is so connected to the Black experience in America that it feels drained of its power when there aren’t Black people connecting to it. I think this has changed some, as there are a number of younger Black artists doing good work not only in blues but in the whole historical trajectory of African American music.

By the time I saw him, Perkins was also very old and was not at the height of his powers. This must have been about 2008. He died in 2011, at the age of 97. But if I can do anything publicly in my mid 90s, I have won at life and so had Perkins. His late life saw a lot more success and attention that ever got in his younger days and I am happy about that.

Let’s listen to some Pinetop Perkins.

Pinetop Perkins is buried in McLaurin Memorial Garden, Clarksdale, Mississippi.

If you would like this series to visit other blues legends, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Muddy Waters is in Alsip, Illinois and Robert Nighthawk is in Helena, Arkansas. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.