The Musical Box

pinetop perkins; photo by doug nelson

Leave it to Pinetop Perkins to court two audiences at a single show.

On one side of the stage at a Kentucky Horse Park concert in 1994 was Bill Payne, keyboardist and founding member of the co-billed Little Feat. On the other was an enthusiastic outdoor crowd that cheered on Perkins’ ageless boogie woogie piano rolls and bold blues phrasings.

Payne was clearing savoring the up-close moment with a mentoring musical inspiration. The Horse Park audience was similarly thrilled at hearing Perkins rip through such Muddy Waters staples as Honey Bee and Got My Mojo Working.

But the biggest, broadest smile that day likely belonged to Perkins himself. Granted, as his fingers strolled along the keys, Perkins summoned the spirits of his Mississippi youth, of ‘50s recording sessions in Memphis and, yes, even ‘70s road trips with Waters as the blues icon’s career enjoyed an unexpected renaissance. But the smile told the story. For a musician then in his early ‘80s, Perkins looked to be having the time of his life.

“I think people like the stuff I’m doing,” said Perkins, who turned 95 last week. “It’s all I know how to do.”

The pianist returns to Kentucky next weekend as one of the featured performers of the Master Musicians Festival. The annual musical celebration in Somerset seems tailor-made for an artist of such influence and historical stature as Perkins. It was designed to honor musicians whose life’s work has been devoted to pioneering and preserving musical traditions.

Initially, though, Perkins’ talents extended to guitar as well as piano. Then one of those dangerous, almost folkloric events occurred that set the direction of his career. It all began with an altercation with a dancer in a Helena, Arkansas club.

“Well, the girl stabbed me in the arm,” Perkins said. “I couldn’t play guitar no more.”

The tendons in his left arm forever severed, Perkins shifted full focus to the piano. During the 1940s, he was playing alongside such formidable blues figures as slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk and harmonica ace Sonny Boy Williamson. By the end of the decade, he headed from his native Mississippi to the electric blues capitol of the universe: Chicago.

Perkins worked, traveled and toured continually during that time. While he also recorded some of his own music at Sam Phillips’ famed Sun Studios, Perkins’ big break came in 1969, when he replaced Otis Spann in Waters’ band.

“Oh, yeah. I loved Muddy Waters,” Perkins said. “We were together for a long time. A long time. We traveled everywhere together. Shoot, Muddy had me playing all over the place, man. I loved him.”

Perkins’ also recorded extensively with Waters. First came 1973’s underrated Can’t Get No Grindin’ album, a return to traditional form for the singer after years of psychedelic and brass-oriented records. Perkins was also there when Waters signed to Columbia for a series of albums produced by Texas roots rock guitarist Johnny Winter (which began with 1977’s extraordinary Hard Again) that introduced the learned Chicago artists to a new blues generation.

Perkins’ bandmate on all of the Waters recordings was drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith , whose band will back up the pianist this weekend in Somerset.

“I don’t like to play by myself,” Perkins said of performing live.

Curiously, it wasn’t until after Waters’ death in 1983 that Perkins’ solo career took full flight. He has recorded for a variety of independent labels, including Telarc, which released an all-star outing called Pinetop Perkins and Friends in June.

“Oh, yeah, I got lots of friends,” Perkins said. “I love all good people.”

Among Perkins’ pals in the album are guitar giants B.B. King (who Perkins first collaborated with in Memphis near the beginning of their respective careers), Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan and Eric Sardinas. Smith is again in the drum chair for the album’s golden moment: the slow blues sway, with Perkins and Vaughan in rich simpatico, of the Nighthawk gem Anna Lee.

Times haven’t always been this celebratory, though. In 2004, while driving in La Porte, Indiana, Smith saw his life passing before him in the form on an oncoming train. He was hit by a locomotive at railroad crossing. His car was destroyed, but the pianist escaped with only minor injuries.

“That train knocked me out, man. Shoot, I come to and I haven’t driven since. I thank the lord for me being here. That’s all I can say.”

Now that’s what you call a testimonial. How many bluesmen can outlive a train wreck to play into their mid ‘90s?

“They used to call me Pinetop,” Perkins said. “But now I done got so old they call me Pinebottom.”

The Master Musicians Festival will be held July 18 and 19 at Somerset Community College, 808 Monticello Rd. in Somerset. Tickets range from $20 to $45. Call (866) 349-1738 or (606) 677-2933. Perkins will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday with the Willie “Big Eyes” Smith Band.