Pinetop Perkins, Willie Smith are "Joined at the Hip"

If anyone has been paying attention, you'll know how much BlueNotes loves his great old blues. So I've got a brand new (last week) CD that I'm going to move to the top of pile, because it's exactly that -- great old Chicago blues played by some of the old masters.

It's a joyful union of Willie "Pinetop" Perkins and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, on "Joined at the Hip" (Telarc Records), a spirited session of Chcicago and Delta blues from two of the men who had an awful lot to do with its success.

Pianoman Perkins, known to every blues fan as simply "Pinetop," will be 97 on July 7. He's been playing blues longer than just about anybody else alive, and still has the fingers and the feeling for the music.

Smith, 73, who began his career playing harp and then switched to drums and became a mainstay behind Muddy Waters, is back to the harp. He's written most of the tracks here and handles most of the vocals. I caught him last year at the Western Maryland Blues Fest in Hagerstown, and he did a blues set that was as tough as they get.

Like I said, most of the songs come from Smith, who writes with a keen ear for the blues, and the chops to make them sound just right. Perkins sticks mostly to the piano but turns the classic Thomas A. Dorsey spiritual "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," into a slow, mournful blues as he takes the lead on piano and vocals. Pinetop and Smith both lead into Perkins' churning version of his own "Grindin' Man." They also cover a couple of great songs by both of the Sonny Boys -- "Cut That Out" from the original Sonny Boy, John Lee Williamson, and "Eyesight to the Blind" by Rice Miller, or Sonny Boy the second.

Here's a sample of "Grindin' Man."

I suppose these two bluesmen could make great music by themselves, but they've surrounded themselves here with a a excellent band, mostly members of Smith crackling blues band: There's the great Chicago blues bassist Bob Stroger, the excellent John Primer sharing guitar duties with Little Frank Krakowski,  and Smith's son, Kenny, on drums. I know thet "Little Frank" probably doesn't ring a bell as a blues guitarist, but he's been with Smith's band for a while now, and he plays tough Chicago blues (he was part of Smith's band that I saw in Hagerstown last year, so I'm an eyewitness).

But you don't really need BlueNotes to tell you that this will be a fine album. All you need to know is "Pinetop" and "Big Eyes."