American musician Joe Willie Perkins, who became known as Pinetop Perkins after he recorded a song titled 'Pinetop's Boogie Woogie', was regarded as the premier blues pianist of all time with a career that lasted some 80 years until his death aged 97 in 2011. He had turned from guitar to the piano only because of a wound to his hand when he was 39 but he ended up playing with all the great blues artists and remained a celebrated performer and recording artist throughout his life. Honoured for Lifetime Achievement by the Grammy Awards in 2005, he became the oldest winner of a Grammy Award when 'Joined at the Hip' with Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith, which went to number 12 on the Billboard Blues Album chart, was named Best Traditional Blues Album in 2010.
Born in Mississippi, he played guitar from his youth and after switching to the piano in the late 1950s he played on the radio with Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williamson. He recorded Pinetop Smith's 1928 song 'Pinetop's Boogie Woogie' and gained his nickname but for a time he abandoned his music career until the late '60s when he re-emerged and played with Muddy Waters for ten years. He played on the Waters album 'Hard Again' which won the 1977 Grammy Award as Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording. Perkins did not make his solo recording debut until his album 'After Hours' was released in 1988 but many solo records followed along with collaborations with other artists.
He played on 'Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 3', which was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best ethnic Or Traditional Album in 1979 and he was nominated for the Best Traditional Blues Album award for 'You're Gonna Miss Me (When I'm Dead and Gone)' (1996). 'Portrait of a Delta Bluesman' (1993) and 'Down in Mississippi' (1998) are also among his most highly regarded albums. His 2008 release, 'Pinetop Perkins and Friends', with Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Eric Sardinas, went to number eleven on the Billboard Blues Albums Chart. Perkins passed away in 2011 at the age of 97.
