The oldest living Delta Bluesman, legendary multi-Grammy-winning blues pianist Pinetop Perkins has died at his home in Austin. Pinetop who played with Muddy Waters’ band for years, was 97. Perkins, along with his musical partner Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, recently won a Grammy for best traditional blues album, Joined At the Hip.

After switching from guitar to piano due to an injury suffered in a fight, Perkins worked at historic blues station KFFA with Sonny Boy Williamson on the popular King Biscuit Time program, one of the most influential blues programs in America, broadcast from Helena, Ark.

Pinetop, a familiar and beloved fixture in downtown Austin, played Nuno’s on 6th street and other venues for tips nearly every week for 6 years. Austin was lucky to have had him. A devout Christian, Pinetop never played on Sundays unless it was a hymn. Nuno Vasconcellos, who bought Pinetop the electric piano he played with, said “Pinetop asked for very little, but he gave so much to everyone.” Nuno’s wife Angie added Pinetop always said “All I’m trying to do is to make people happy and make a little bean money.”

Perkins received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and another Grammy in 2008 for his collaboration with blues greats Honeyboy Edwards, Henry James Townsend, and Robert Lockwood, Jr. on Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas.