Pinetop Perkins, Last of the Great Mississippi Bluesmen

Pinetop Perkins, the last of the great Mississippi Bluesmen, passed away Monday at his home in Austin, Texas at the age of 97.  

 Playing music right up until the end, Perkins is the oldest winner of a Grammy award having earned one this last February for best traditional blues album "Joined at the Hip: Pinetop Perkins & Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith." 

Perkins lived his life in the tradition of many bluesmen, rambling from place to place, watching most of his contemporaries pass on. Perkins, whose real first name was Willie, was born in 1913 in Belzoni, Mississippi and gave himself the name “Pinetop” because he liked the music of another musician named Pinetop Smith.  He spent his childhood picking cotton and plowing fields with a mule, very rarely going to school.

Well known for his piano blues, Pinetop was originally a guitar player but switched to piano after an encounter with a woman left him with tendon damage from stab wound to his arm.   In the late 1940’s Perkins played on the King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast and by the next decade he was touring with Ike Turner and playing with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk.

Pinetop’s big break came while he was in his 50’s.  Muddy Waters was looking new piano player when Perkins showed off his aggressive keyboarding during a jam session. "He liked what he heard. The rest is history," said Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, who was a drummer in Waters' band back in 1969.

Perkins' first solo album, "Boogie Woogie King" was released in 1976.  Beginning in 1992 with "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," he released 15 albums in 15 many years.  He received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005 and won a 2007 Grammy for best traditional blues album for his collaboration on the "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas."

His manager, Patricia Morgan, said funeral arrangements were pending in Austin and a graveside service would be held near Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he wanted to be buried.  "We knew he lived a good life. What can you say about the man? He left here in his sleep. That's the way I want to go."