Pinetop Perkins Official Web Site

Pinetop Perkins
Mississippi State Blues Trail Dedications

Dedication ceremonies will be held this May to honor the placement of Mississippi State Blues Trail Markers for Pinetop Perkins.

May 3, 2008 - 12 noon - 4:30 PM
Pinetop Perkins Blues Marker Dedication and Festival
Belzoni, MS
Music by Pinetop with the Billy Gibson Band

May 9, 2008 - 12:30 - 4:30 PM
Pinetop Perkins Blues Marker Dedication and BBQ
Hopson's Plantation - Clarksdale, MS
Music by Eden Brent

Click here for information on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Pinetop to Turn 95 With a New Release
on Telarc in June 2008
PINETOP PERKINS and FRIENDS/CD83680

Pinetop Perkins celebrates his 95th birthday with his friends and Telarc Recordings with a new release Pinetop Perkins and Friends, slated for June 3rd. There are very few direct ties left to the golden age of post-World War II American blues – that seminal period in the 1940s and ’50s when the acoustic sounds of the Mississippi delta migrated northward and gave way to the more electric groove of northern locales like Chicago and St. Louis. With the passing of John Lee Hooker and Robert Lockwood Jr. in recent years, almost no one can claim any first-hand connection to seminal figures like Muddy Waters or harpist Sonny Boy Williamson.

Pinetop Perkins is among the few. Perkins, now in his 90s, has been playing blues and boogie piano for more than six decades. In that time, he’s had numerous encounters and collaborations with the aforementioned legends, as well as titans like Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, B.B. King, Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf.

Pinetop is joined by a dozen high-caliber musicians, many of them legendary in their own right, all of whom hold him in the highest regard. Included on the star-studded guest list are Eric Clapton, Willie Kent, B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan and many more.

Article From Sing Out WordPress News
Telarc Records Website

"Born In The Honey" Nominated for Blues Music Award

The Blues Foundation has released the list of nominations to the voting public and "Born In The Honey - The Pinetop Perkins Story" is nominated in the newly created DVD category.

For the first time in their 29 year history the Blues Music Awards will be presented in the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the Blues. The event is scheduled for May 8, 2008 at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica, Mississippi. For more information click here.

If you are not already a voting member of the Blues Foundation it's easy to join as many membership levels are available. Join here and tell them Pinetop sent you!

Pinetop Perkins Accepts Grammy Award for Traditional Blues

Bluesmen finally get their due at the Grammys
By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two bluesmen in their 90s won the first Grammys of their colorful careers on Sunday, a reminder that there's more to the music industry than fresh-faced youngsters.

Pianist Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, 94, and guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards, 92, won the traditional blues Grammy for their appropriately titled album "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas."

They recorded the project with Henry James Townsend and Robert Lockwood Jr., who both died in 2006. Townsend, who was 96 when he died, was represented at the ceremony by his 21-year-old son, Alonzo.

Perkins, a former sideman with Muddy Waters, was nominated in the traditional blues category with another album, "Pinetop Perkins on the '88's -- Live in Chicago."

As an indication of their extraordinary reach into the annals of music, Edwards recalled that he played with Robert Johnson, the fabled "King of the Delta Blues," in 1937.

Johnson, who wrote and recorded such blues staples as "Crossroads" and "Sweet Home Chicago," is considered one of the most influential figures in rock music, with artists from Muddy Waters to the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton owing their careers to him.

According to legend, Johnson sold his soul to the devil in order to play guitar. "I don't know about that. He told me that, but I didn't believe him," Edwards said.

He also recalled the day that Johnson died in 1938, at the age of 27, possibly poisoned by a lover's jealous husband.

He was buried the day he died, on a Wednesday, Edwards said, "but his sister come on the Thursday and had him dug up, and put him in a casket, and put him back in the ground ... And I was there the same time when that happened."

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