Pinetop's Blues

You know you're listening to a bona fide, dyed-in-the-wool, old-school bluesman when he's got a cool nickname. Usually, it involves some combination of blindness, geography, size, and instrument of choice, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter, Guitar Slim, Pinetop Smith, and a host...

By Dan Sweeney

February 28, 2002

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You know you're listening to a bona fide, dyed-in-the-wool, old-school bluesman when he's got a cool nickname. Usually, it involves some combination of blindness, geography, size, and instrument of choice, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter, Guitar Slim, Pinetop Smith, and a host of other men who came up through the Delta (and were not necessarily without eyesight). Most of those ancient names have now passed from the Earth, but not Pinetop Perkins. Although approaching his 90th birthday, the barrelhouse pianist is in no hurry to slow down. This is a man who took up piano in the 1940s after a wound received in a knife fight assured he would never play guitar again. You just don't get much more bluesy than that.

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