This Week in the Shack

This week's show is dedicated to a longtime fixture on the Austin music scene, a legendary bluesmen, and a real gentleman of the old school, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, who passed away yesterday.

One of the problems of having a mostly-digital collection of music is that I don't have the liner notes for a substantial portion of my library, but, with a few exceptions, and within the limitations of the DMCA, this set is almost entirely tracks Pinetop played on. I'm not entirely sure if that's him on the Robert Nighthawk tracks, although I know he contributed to some of the recordings on that collection. Also, because the DMCA restricts how many tunes by a specific artist or from a specific album can be played over a block of time, there are a handful of tracks without him: Marcia Ball's "Down the Road", Cotton's "Down at Your Buryin'", Cary Bell & Lurrie Bell's "Wrapped Up in Love", and Snooky Pryor's "Nine Below Zero" don't feature Pinetop, although he played with all of those artists. And the Sunnyland Slim track is just a really nice recording of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".

The last time I saw Pinetop play was about three years ago, when he was already well into his nineties. He was on stage with another Muddy Waters veteran, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, and they were tearing the stage at Antone's up. He was always a class act, and it's hard right now to think about the blues scene here, and Antone's specifically, without him.

Goodbye, Pinetop. Thank you for the music and the memories.

1. Pinetop Perkins - Intro Chicken Shack (1:32)
2. Pinetop Perkins - Little Girl, Little Girl (7:00)
3. Pinetop Perkins/Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - Walkin' Down the Highway (6:40)
4. Maria Muldaur - Decent Woman Blues (3:59)
5. The Band ft Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy (6:40)
6. Big Bill Morganfield - Sloppy Drunk (4:03)
7. Pinetop Perkins - Pinetop's New Boogie (With Marcia Ball) (4:28)
8. James Cotton - Sugar Sweet (4:19)
9. Kenny Wayne Shepherd/Muddy Waters Band/Pinetop Perkins - Grindin Man (8:04)
10. Pinetop Perkins - Hey Mr. Pinetop Perkins (With Angela Strehli) (3:31)
11. Robert Nighthawk - Black Angel Blues (3:04)
12. Koko Taylor - Please Don't Dog Me (5:19)
13. The Legendary Blues Band - High Heel Sneakers (3:46)
14. Muddy Waters - Crosseyed Cat (6:00)
15. Earl Hooker - Earl's Boogie Woogie (2:38)
16. Nighthawks - Red Hot Mama (3:35)
17. Ronnie Baker Brooks, Pinetop Perkins, Rusty Zinn - Walk This Way (4:49)
18. Carey Bell - I Wanna Will My Love To You (3:40)
19. James Cotton/Johnny Winter/Muddy Waters - Dealin' with the Devil [#] (7:49)
20. Pinetop Perkins/Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - Lord, Lord, Lord (5:33)
21. Muddy Waters - Mamie (5:35)
22. Earl Hooker - Sweet Black Angel (3:12)
23. The Legendary Blues Band - I Almost Lost My Mind (5:48)
24. Koko Taylor - Walking the Back Streets (6:47)
25. Carey Bell - Sad Dreams (4:47)
26. Robert Nighthawk - Prowling Nighthawk (3:10)
27. Nighthawks - Long Distance Call (5:46)
28. James Cotton - Down at Your Buryin' (4:34)
29. Muddy Waters - No Escape from the Blues [#][*] (6:17)
30. Snooky Pryor - Nine Below Zero (6:48)
31. Sunnyland Slim - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie (2:21)
32. Marcia Ball - Down the Road (4:12)
33. James Cotton/Johnny Winter/Muddy Waters - Caledonia [#] (6:57)
34. Big Bill Morganfield - Screamin' & Cryin' (4:09)
35. Maria Muldaur - Ain't What you Used To Have (6:00)
36. Carey & Lurrie Bell - Wrapped Up In Love (3:41)
37. Pinetop Perkins/Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - Take My Hand, Precious Lord (5:57)

(blues 44)