Lurrie Bell with Pinetop Perkins
Waterfront Blues Festival
Portland, OR.
July 4, 2007

Recorded from KBOO FM again this year. KBOO is an all volunteer radio station that has been broadcasting this festival for 20 years. There will be some inherrent reception problems and some drops in the music from time to time, but I have tried to "fix" all where possible.

Recorded from FM > Sharp MD > HD > Wave Editor > FLAC > you

Enjoy the tunes, twofthrs

Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins — widely recognized as the world's premier blues pianist and one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen — created a style that has influenced three generations of piano players and will continue to be the yardstick by which blues pianists are measured.

Born in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1913, this keyboard legend actually began his professional career as a guitarist, until an arm injury in 1942 prompted his switch to piano. Pinetop worked with Robert Nighthawk, and later with Rice "Sonny Boy Williamson" Miller, on the King Biscuit radio show before settling down in Chicago. National recognition came only after he replaced Otis Spann in the Muddy Waters Band in 1969.

In 1980 he left to form his own group, the Legendary Blues Band with Jerry Portnoy. Pinetop continues to delight audiences around the world with his famous "Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie." Along with guest appearances on numerous recordings, Pinetop has released several solo CDs. In 1999 Pinetop was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Recording and received a National Endowment for the Arts Award and a W.C. Handy Award for Best Piano.

As with his last appearance at the festival in 1999, blues fans will again be able to help Pinetop celebrate his birthday - his 94th.

Lurrie Bell
"Perhaps the most talented blues guitarist of his generation….eclectic, accidental genius..." Boston Phoenix

"If there is one Chicago blues child who perhaps epitomizes the blues life, it's Lurrie Bell…the premier guitarist in the Windy City," Boston Blues News

Blues child Lurrie Bell, son of famed Chicago harmonica legend Carey Bell, continues to be a bright spot on the Chicago blues scene. A gifted guitarist, he taught himself the instrument at age 6 and drew on the legends that hung around his house, including Muddy Waters, Eddie Taylor, Big Walter Horton, Eddie Campbell, Eddie Clearwater, Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Dawkins. Bell worked his way onstage with Willie Dixon by age 17, and continued to wow audiences with stints with Koko Taylor and as a founding member of Son of the Blues with Willie Dixon’s son Freddie and harmonica player Billy Branch.

Bell has remained a traditionalist, playing dates and recording with his dad (including a stellar recording in 2004, “Second Nature,” on Alligator Records), as well as his own band.

Set List
1. crosscut saw
2. the sky is cryin'
Pinetop joins the band his 94th birthday!!
3. chicken shack
4. down in mississippi
5. how long
6. got my mojo workin'
7. grindin' man
8. happy birthday pinetop