Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins

Pinetop Perkins (born Joe Willie Perkins on July 13, 1913 in Belzoni, Mississippi) is an American blues musician from Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a ch

Pinetop Perkins (born Joe Willie Perkins on July 13, 1913 in Belzoni, Mississippi) is an American blues musician from Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a choirgirl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play guitar, Perkins switched to the piano, and also switched from Robert Nighthawk's KFFA radio program to Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time. He continued working with Nighthawk, however, accompanying him on 1950's "Jackson Town Gal".

In the 1950s, Perkins joined Earl Hooker and began touring, stopping to record "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (written by Pinetop Smith) at Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis. ("They used to call me Pinetop," he recalled, "because I played that song.") He then relocated to Illinois and left music until Hooker convinced him to record again in 1968.