by Bill DahlHe admittedly wasnt the originator of the seminal piano piece Pinetops Boogie Woogie, but its a safe bet that more people associate it nowadays with Pinetop Perkins than with the man who devised it in the first place, Clarence Pinetop Smith. Although it seems as though hes been around Chicago forever, the Mississippi native actually got a relatively late start on his path to Windy City immortality. It was only when Muddy Waters took him on to replace Otis Spann in 1969 that Perkinss rolling mastery of the ivories began to assume outsized proportions.Perkins began his blues existence primarily as a guitarist, but a mid-40s encounter with an outraged chorus girl toting a knife at a Helena, AR, nightspot left him with severed tendons in his left arm. That dashed his guitar aspirations, but Joe Willie Perkins came back strong from the injury, concentrating solely on piano from that point on. Perkins had traveled to Helena with Robert Nighthawk in 1943, playing with the elegant slide guitarist on Nighthawks KFFA radio program. Perkins soon switched over to rival Sonny Boy Williamsons beloved King Biscuit Time radio show in Helena, where he remained for an extended period. Perkins accompanied Nighthawk on a 1950 session for the Chess brothers that produced Jackson Town Gal, but Chicago couldnt hold him at the time.Nighthawk disciple Earl Hooker recruited Perkins during the early 50s. They hit the road, pausing at Sam Phillipss studios in Memphis long enough for Perkins to wax his first version of Pinetops Boogie Woogie in 1953. He settled in downstate Illinois for a spell, then relocated to Chicago. Music gradually was relegated to the back burner until Hooker coaxed him into working on an LP for Arhoolie in 1968. When Spann split from Muddy Waters, the stage was set for Pinetop Perkinss reemergence.After more than a decade with the Man, Perkins and his bandmates left en masse to form the Legendary Blues Band. Their early Rounder albums (Life of Ease, Red Hot n Blue) prominently spotlighted Perkinss rippling 88s and rich vocals. He had previously waxed an album for the French Black & Blue logo in 1976 and four fine cuts for Alligators Living Chicago Blues anthologies in 1978. Finally, in 1988, he cut his first domestic album for Blind Pig, After Hours.Ever since then, Pinetop Perkins has made up for precious lost time in the studio. Discs for Antones, Omega (Portrait of a Delta Bluesman, a solo outing that includes fascinating interview segments), Deluge, Earwig, and several other firms ensure that his boogie legacy wont be forgotten in the decades to come.\r