Pinetop Perkins Was A Ladies Man

This was a review I wrote back in 2004 that likely appeared in the DC Blues Society’s newsletter.

While Pinetop Perkins has recorded a number of albums, one limitation has been the fact that he has a small core of songs that he repeatedly records. While his performances are solid, one does wish to get some fresh material. M.C. Records has just issued a new Pinetop Perkins, Ladies Man which avoids some of these problems by having Pinetop record accompanying some blues women including Deborah Coleman, Susan Tedeschi, Madiline Peyroux, Ruth Brown, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, Ann Rabson and Odetta. I believe this was recorded around the time of the 2003 Handy Award shows which enabled these recordings to take place. Pinetop's renditions of Leroy Carr's How Long Blues and Wilbert Harrison's hit Kansas City, don't break new ground but are typically pleasant performances amiably sung. It certainly nice to hear Susan Tedeschi sing Ivory Joe Hunter's ballad Since I Met You Baby with nice accompaniment, while Odetta gives us a strong rendition of Trouble in Mind with Ruth Brown's revival of her old friend, Big Joe Turner's Chains of Love, to which she embellishes with her own sassy self.

Pinetop Perkins at
2005 North Atlantic Blues Festival
Photo © Ron Weinstock

I was not familiar with Madeleine Peyroux who sings the delightful vaudeville-styled He's Got Me Goin'. Deborah Coleman sings Meanest Woman, credited to Muddy Waters but really Tommy Johnson's classic Maggie Campbell Blues. Marcia Ball duets on piano with Pinetop on Pinetop's New Boogie Woogie while I believe Ann Rabson shares the piano on a lovely Careless Love. Angela Strehli salutes the pianist with Hey Mr. Pinetop Perkins, a song that takes at its premise Pinetop's tall story of having written Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, which was recorded by the legendary Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith in the twenties when Joe Willie Perkins was a wee boy. It may have been a signature number for him, leading him to be identified for the song, but it was not his song. However, the nonsensical lyrics did prevent me from enjoying her performance.

This was a varied and enjoyable release that is distinguished from much of Pinetop’s recordings.

Here is Pinetop performing Miss Ida B.

Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator Has Strong Appeal

Each having successful solo careers, spouses Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have put that part of their career behind for a period to co-lead a band. Both have developed into established and focused performers, who often joined each other on stage when possible. This new combination is not surprising. The Tedeschi Trucks Band have recently issued The Tedeschi Trucks Band have recently issued Revelator, on Sony Masterworks.


In addition to the leaders, Kofi Burbridge from Derek's band is on keyboards while his brother Oteil, from the Allman Brothers, handles the bass. Mike Mattison, Derek's vocalist is aboard for harmony vocals (and he contributes to some of the songs, which are all originals). Tyler Greenwell and J.J. Johnson are on drums, while Mark Rivers, David Ryan Harris and Ryan Shaw are on harmony vocals. There is also a horn section that includes Kebbi Williams on saxophone, Maurice Brown on trumpet, and Saunders Semmons on trombones. The horns add some punch and atmosphere, but with one exception little else.


Few will be surprised with the music here. There is plenty of Trucks' piercing, vocalized slide guitar and Tedeschi certainly has matured to a superb singer.Certainly she is equal to others in the blues-r&b-roots-pop vein able to move from a honey-toned straight-ahead to a church-rooted shout, always sounding natural. Its easy to simply sit back and listen to the solid, tight performances here and certainly one should expect that the live performances equal, if not surpass, the level of the music here.


This is not to say that everything is perfect. Their is some sameness to some of the material and some of the material on closer examination is not as strong as the band's execution. Bound For Glory, seems like a stringing together of hooks, and the entire lyric does not cohere, although Simple Things, is a gem, with Tedeschi's vocal acknowledging that she has not been giving enough in the relationship and maybe that's why one has the walls around himself.

The groove of Until You Remember evokes classic Memphis soul, and has another of the better lyrics here as Tedeschi sings it ain't right to be holding on too tight "until you remember you are mine." There is a nice suggestion of the Memphis Horns or Bar-Kays at the opening, while Derek's guitar builds upon the intensity generated by Susan's vocal. An intriguing performance is These Walls, with its addition of sarode and tabla to the musical mix to a tune that has a melody similar to Angel From Montgomery, with a lyric about a woman whose man has left town and whose times have been hard praying that the walls don't fall down and "thinking 'bout you baby for such a long, long time." The interplay between the sarode and Truck's very restrained slide work here is very nice.


In addition to the uneven songwriting, this writer also wishes that the horns might have been given more than simply the supporting role they exhibited. Maurice Brown, for example, is an especially gifted soloist with considerable warmth and originality and certainly would have further spiced up the performances. The horns on Love Has Something Else To Say, provide a hint of this point with a dialogue between guitar and tenor sax.


Of course, these are minor criticisms at most and "Revelator" certainly will be on many lists of the best recordings of 2011. Incidentally, after the conclusion of Shelter, there is an hidden performance of an instrumental, Ghost Light.


My review copy was provided by a publicist.