Pinetop Perkins

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #117 (April/May 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Pinetop Perkins

Ladies' Man

by Elliot Stephen Cohen

"Iain't too much of a talker. I'm more of a squawker than I am a talker, but I do the best I can. I'm 91 years young," laughed celebrated blues pianist Pinetop Perkins. The veteran bluesman is seated next to me in a car in front of a club called the Turning Point. The venue, located in the small town of Piermont, New York, a quiet village of fewer than 3,000 people and smaller than one square mile in size, is situated alongside the Hudson River. Perkins was attired in the fashion of his current place of residence, Austin, Texas -- a red checkered flannel shirt, blue jeans, and a black cowboy hat perched on his head. He peeled an orange while fielding questions about himself.

A white stubble frames the lower portion of his face, but his dark handsome features still retain an almost babyish quality. His elegantly long fingers befit someone who has contributed so much to the lexicon of blues piano. In less than an hour, Perkins, at the very early time of 1 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, will have changed into an impeccably tailored dark pinstriped suit and white shirt, complemented with a silver tie and matching handkerchief, the black cowboy hat having been replaced with a more fashionable white banded one. Even at this stage of his life, the somewhat frail Perkins is not only still meticulous about his dandyish appearance, but he is even more concerned about the presentation of his famous piano artistry. He will soon entertain a wildly enthusiastic, sold-out crowd of white suburban admirers who have come out to see the venerable bluesman in person.

Before I got into the car to interview Perkins, George Kilby Jr., the leader of the band that will back him up, was sure to remind me of his mentor's age, and firmly but politely instructed me not to "tire out the old man" because "he has a show to do." Kilby is fiercely protective of Perkins, and understandably so. It was back in 1983 that the nervous 23-year-old asked to sit in with Pinetop's Legendary Bluesband, composed mostly of the musicians who had left Muddy Waters' band along with Perkins. "I was terrified," Kilby later confided, but Perkins let the outwardly cocky kid sit in with the band, liked his playing, and took him under his wing. Shortly afterward, Kilby moved to Chicago to live with Perkins and advised him to leave the all-star ensemble and strike out on his own. The two have been together ever since.

At an age when most of his contemporaries are playing cards or sitting around watching television in nursing homes, Perkins maintains a work schedule that would be admirable for someone 20 years younger. His latest album, Ladies Man [M.C. Records], has been nominated for a Grammy. The all-star, estrogen-filled lovefest features such talented female performers as veteran folk songstress Odetta, R&B pioneer Ruth Brown, singing guitarists Deborah Colemen and Susan Tedeschi, and pianist Marcia Ball, who dueted with Perkins on a swinging update of his signature tune, renamed "Pinetop's New Boogie Woogie." Ladies Man was recorded the honest, old-fashioned way, with all of the participants right there in the studio with Perkins. Although the sessions were held up as a result of a serious accident in which one of his arms was fractured, he came back to finish up the album as a vocalist. This suited Perkins just fine, even though he modestly says, "I ain't too much of a singer. I'd rather back people up."

[cover #117]