Pinetop Perkins
Blues Unplugged III
Carpenter Performing Arts Center - Cal State Long Beach
Long Beach, California
April 17, 1990

Born Willie Perkins in Belzoni, Mississippi in 1913, Pinetop worked primarily in the Mississippi Delta throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, spending three years with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas.
Pinetop also toured extensively with slide guitar player Robert Nighthawk and backed him on an early Chess session.
After briefly working with B.B. King in Memphis, Perkins barnstormed the South with Earl Hooker during the early ‘50s.
The pair completed a session for Sam Phillips’ famous Sun Records in 1953.
It was at this session that he recorded his version of “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie,” a song originally written and recorded by pianist Clarence “Pinetop” Smith – the influential blues pianist who had died from a gunshot wound at age 24 in 1929.
Although referred to as “Pinetop” when he played on King Biscuit in the 40s, it was his sensational version of this song that secured his lifelong nickname.
Replacing Otis Spann in 1969, Pinetop helped shape the Waters sound and anchored Muddy’s memorable combo throughout the seventies with his brilliant piano solos.

Pinetop Perkins - piano and vocals

01. Chicken Shack
02. Ida B.
03. Down In Mississippi
04. Goin' Down Slow
05. High Heel Sneakers
06. How Long Blues
[28:57]


From master DAT tape recorded by Bill W.
Sony ECM-909A Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone > Sony TCD7

Transfer by Flying -M- (3/2021)
Otari DTR 8S > Korg MR 2000S
Har-Bal 3.7 & iZotope RX 8 advanced (prep) > CD Wave > Korg Aqua (16-44) > TLH

Thanks to Bill for recording and loaning me his masters so this could be shared.

For historical reference only and not intended for resale or any commercial use
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Enjoy…
-M- (July 2022)

FLYING M PRODUCTIONS