Tickling the keys at this year's sunny Long Beach Blues Festival was a sweet piece of living history, a guy born in 1913, one of the last living blues greats.
Pinetop Perkins replaced legendary piano player Otis Spann in Muddy Waters' band in 1969. He played with Muddy for twelve years. In 1980 he and other Waters alumni formed the Legendary Blues Band.
This cat has been around for a long time. He even has a state marker in his name by the side of the road in Mississippi.
What's impressive about Pinetop, though, is not just that he's alive at nearly a hundred years old or even that he plays at this age. Or that he still looks so good.....Man! It's that he is very much alive and turned on. His playing is tender and friendly, evoking a quilt of community and reverence as he delivers classic songs in a mellow, settled way.
Pinetop knows how to ride the crest of the wave. He's 95 years old. He tours, plays piano and sings. He has a website with digital downloads and a MySpace page with YouTube videos. He records. In his 80s, he went solo. His new release, Pinetop Perkins and Friends
, is coming out on Telarc in June 2008.
I came to the festival today to see Pinetop.
Early on, I decided I probably wouldn't get a chance to meet him in person.
But then i felt it about an hour after his set -that scientifically unacnowledged sense that someone's attention is focused on you. I turned to see Pinetop pointing directly at me. Totally out of the blue. I did one of those movie scene bits, scanning over my shoulder to see if it was actually I he meant. Boy did i feel it. Everything around me stood still and i walked right to him. His mojo was working strong.
Perhaps a bit of a scoundrel like Muddy, his charm is hypnotic. He reached out to me and said 'I like you, pretty girl'. He gently took my hand in his, a customary introduction, and we just held hands there for some long minutes.
His hands are sensitive and firm, his fingers long and soft. Guitarist buddy Bob Margolin warned me later to watch those hands of Pinetop's which like to travel.
We locked eyes. The brown was right here with me, the blue layer beckoned company from a time afar. I tried for something like conversation - we covered his great performance and where he was headed next - then he declared he wanted to steal me away. My husband turned up and that's when, i swear, those mesmerizing eyes - big blue and brown rings with hugely dilated pupils - turned off and Pinetop looked away. He'd had enough. Party over.
Check out his story and more:
http://www.myspace.com/pinetopperkinshttp://www.pinetopperkins.com/A snippet of
How LongLuxury Grace's comments: "I like his tie."
String trio Marcus Very Ordinary played a sparse live set in the studio, striding the dark, atonal side. This would be nice music for mud bathing in a swamp, among other more traditional listening venues.
On the 1st stretch of their trip, the 5 members of James Jackson Toth's touring band are still adjusting to being crammed with their gear into a little modern family van they rented in San Fransisco.
What a great surprise at the Long Beach Blues Festival!
Tickling the keys at this year's sunny Long Beach Blues Festival was a sweet piece of living history, a guy born in 1913, one of the last living blues greats.
We floated in on a buzzing cloud at the tail end of a mammoth road trip to Berkeley with the sole purpose of encountering Fat Dog and his World Famous Subway Guitar Shop. It couldn't have been a nicer day or a better way to drop into the Fat Dog alternate universe. We first spotted his illustrious cloud-painted building in its pleasant neighborhood, a gentle yet noticable beacon of friendliness in accepting white-bread liberal-land. The parking was easy enough, and in what seemed to be random order, we pulled up directly behind the Fat Dog mobile, a cloud-painted vintage hunk of iron. Strolling into the old shop jarred the senses - we were greeted by a friendly giant in a cloud-painted t-shirt that said 'Berkeley' in a rainbow across the chest. The room dripped with frankensteined guitars and assorted other string instruments, additionally adorned by funky amplifiers and posters akimbo. Blues infusing the airspace, it felt like we had stepped into an obsessive collector's living room a half-dollar ago.
Here's his website: Fat Dog's World Famous Subway Guitars
He’s witty, smart, polite and charming. Clean cut and well-kempt, a bit of edge and some interesting twists. Austin Hartley-Leonard recently graced Chessvolt Studios, playing acoustic guitar and singing his original songs backed by buddy and bandmate, Matt Ramsey, on tenor banjo and vocal harmonies.
Mack Winston & the Reflections: Mack, Ben, Jesse, Sweet Joey, Brady
Mellifluous tunes with valerian undertones ooze naturally from the 'songcatching' team, Renee and Jeremy. They are a vibrant and complimentary pair, like salt & pepper or bacardi & ice: Renee supplies the smooth, Jeremy adds the energetic and together they bring the fun, in a comfy, feel-good way.
Claire, the spokesperson for The Bowmans out in the world, handles business for the largely DIY pair. On stage, she plays tambourines, egg shaker, violin, and sings background vocals that are so locked in they are, at times, nearly inseperable from Sarah's mighty lead. A powerful dynamo onstage, Sarah is the songwriter, guitar player and lead vocalist. She is a stunningly strong singer and a dramatic composer who employs striking changes and a wide range of mood, sound, and time. The Bowmans are linked by a force stronger than static cling or dog hair on a black sweater. Although they swear they 
have no 'psychic twin' thing going on, it's apparent they have 
grown together since before birth. They are impeccable in timing from beginning to end. In fact, the most apt description I can find for their performance is perfection.
They came, they played, they left behind an autographed bottle of Boone's Strawberry Hill.......!
Matt Ellis and Josh Norton @ Chessvolt Studios
Olin & The Moon's Kyle, David, Travis, Marshall, and Brian
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