"Pinetop" Perkins, Dead at 97

From Statesman.com, thanks to Chris "Beerboy" Anderson for the heads up.

"Legendary piano player Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, who gave Austin a walking, talking, piano thumping monument to the blues when he moved here in 2003, passed away from cardiac arrest Monday at his home in North Austin. The oldest-ever Grammy winner, whose third golden gramophone came last month, Perkins was 97.

When the Rolling Stones played Austin for the first time in October 2006 at Zilker Park, the sight they most wanted to see was Perkins backstage before their show.

Even in failing health, Perkins went to Antone’s nightclub three or four times a week to sell CDs and DVDs and chat with fans, who couldn’t believe they were hanging out with the piano player in Muddy Waters’ great band from 1969 until 1980. He was often called onstage to jam, including Saturday at South by Southwest, when he played piano for fellow Mississippi native Bobby Rush.

Although Perkins is not survived by relatives, Susan Antone said “he was a member of our family, not just the Antone’s family, but the Austin family.”

An original Mississippi Delta bluesman, Perkins came up with musical folk heroes such as Robert Johnson and Son House and played on Sonny Boy Williamson's essential “King Biscuit Time” radio program in the 1940s, He received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2005."

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