Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Baby, What You Want Me to Do” by Pinetop Perkins:

Pinetop Perkins — “Baby, What You Want Me to Do”

Pinetop Perkins died a little over two years ago.  He was one of the many great blues musicians who found their way to Chicago in the mid-20th Century, in Pinetop’s case when he joined Muddy Waters’s band in 1969.  Pinetop started out as a guitarist but concentrated on piano after a stabbing at the hands of a chorus girl in Helena, Arkanasas left him unable to play.  He was almost 98 years old when he died, so a whole raft of lived music history died with him.  The Pinetop Perkins Foundation raises money to help both young and very old musicians.