The other day I was rummaging through my blues LP collection in an attempt to find something that would satisfy my listening desires.  No matter how big your music collection, sometimes it seems like everything you look at won’t cut it as far as scratching the listening itch.  This was one of those times.   And suddenly, there it was!  And it was definitely an oldie-but-a-goodie, on the New York-based Riverside Records label, an imprint that was probably most well-known for its releases by jazz luminaries such as Thelonius Monk, Cannonball Adderly, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, and numerous other esteemed artists of the genre.

But the label also brought forth recordings of blues and roots artists like John Lee Hooker and The Staple Singers.  And what I pulled from my collection was an LP entitled American Street Songs, an album with eight songs by Reverend Gary Davis and seven selections by Pink Anderson.  For the next 45-50 minutes, I indulged in the wonderful offerings of this near mint 1956 album.  I found myself completely thrilled with the work of both musical artisans, but for whatever reasons I was particularly enamored with Anderson’s work.  Perhaps it was because I just had completed surveying a three-CD set of Davis’ music.  It also occurred to me that I have not provided a brief overview of Anderson’s life and career.  Now seems to be the ideal time to do so.

Pink Anderson came into the world in mid-February, 1900 as Pinkney Anderson in Laurens, South Carolina, a town in Laurens County, a region in the northwestern portion of the state.  Though born in Laurens, Anderson’s formative years were spent in both Spartanburg and Greenville. 

Alas, as is so often the case with our early blues heroes who operated on the fringes of the music, never attaining what would be considered a reasonable level of recognition and success, scant information is available regarding Anderson’s earliest years, his influences, and how he came to the guitar and the decision to make music his lifelong pursuit.  But it is reasonable to postulate that Anderson, being from South Carolina, was heavily influenced by the country Piedmont blues model, one that finds a guitarist employing a fingerpicking attack where the thumb is used to provide a consistent bass design while the index finger, and maybe others, play an accented melody on the higher strings, creating a format that may sound akin to ragtime music.

At some point once he and his music were discovered as being sufficiently developed as to be consistently entertaining, Anderson was approached by the Indian Remedy Company, specifically by a Dr. William Kerr, to join the company’s itinerant show to entertain a collected crowd while Dr. Kerr hawked his tonics and other “medicines.”  Certain research indicates that Anderson may have been no older than 14 years of age at the time he started traveling with Kerr’s troupe, an assemblage often referred to as a medicine show.

But Anderson was not exclusively confined to the medicine show circuit.  He also worked around South Carolina with the country bluesman Blind Simmie Dooley.  This was something of a long-lived association, as Anderson recorded in 1928 with Dooley for the Columbia label, seeing two 78rpm records released with the titles “Papa’s ‘Bout To Get Mad” b/w “Gonna Tip Out Tonight,” and “Every Day In The Week Blues” b/w “C.C. & O. Blues.”  These sides were recorded on a transportable recording unit while the pair was in Atlanta.

Anderson’s guitar playing was certainly syncopated, containing tasteful flourishes, confident and well-structured, and his voice clear and convincing; his ability to “sell” a song was strong.  Both his approach to, and results of, his tunes always seemed to be aimed at the quality of the entertainment value they provided.  His seemed to be a methodology of high performing dignity with a likewise compelling enjoyment value for his audience, whether they be enjoying his blues in a “live” setting or listening to his music via a record.

Anderson and Dooley eventually parted ways, and in the 1950s Anderson could again be found touring with another medicine show collective, this one in association with a Potawatomi tribal nation member named Leo Khadot, a man who used his full name of Leo “Chief Thundercloud” Khadot as he meandered with his show.  During this period with Khadot’s show, Anderson many times performed with noted harmonica player Peg Leg Sam (aka Arthur Jackson), a man who was also said to be a comedic performer.

As mentioned previously, due to his extensive travels and solid reputation, Anderson recorded the American Street Songs LP, and he continued to perform often in the medicine shows and other performing venues. 

As it was, Anderson was fortunate to be active when the early 1960s ushered in the folk blues revival among young Caucasian enthusiasts, and notable roots music producer Sam Charters recorded three LPs of Anderson’s music, with those albums being entitled Carolina Blues Man – Pink Anderson – Vol. 1 (1961), Pink Anderson – Vol. 2 – Medicine Show Man (1962), and The Blues Of Pink Anderson – ballad & folksinger, vol. 3.  All of these LPs were released on the Prestige Bluesville imprint.

In 1963, Anderson achieved even more awareness for his music via the film entitled The Bluesmen, in which he appeared.

Just as his blues career was on an upswing, Anderson suffered a debilitating stroke in later part of the 1960s, and the result was a severe cutback of his musical livelihood.  There were, however, a couple of further efforts to try to resurrect Anderson’s blues career.  One was by the ethnomusicologist Peter Lowry who wanted to record Anderson in 1970, but overall, the attempt was not successful, though it was said that Anderson was able, albeit fleetingly, to summon his prior musical prowess.

And in the beginning of the 1970s, one of his protégées, Roy Book Binder, enlisted Anderson to tour with him on the east coast.

However, in mid-October, 1974, Anderson suffered a fatal heart attack in Spartanburg.

Anderson’s blues spirit lived on via his son, Alvin “Little Pink” Anderson, who performed with his father as a tap dancer in the medicine shows and who also sang with him.  It is this writer’s belief that “Little Pink” is still active, and he is still seen on the Music Maker Foundation web page.

Though it is widely known, it bears repeating here yet again.  The progressive rock group Pink Floyd is said to have attained their name when, in 1965, founding guitarist Syd Barrett used the Pink Anderson’s first name and that of North Carolina blues artist Floyd Council as the basis for the band’s name.

Anderson is yet another rather anonymous bluesman except to the most zealous fans whose music is yet another component of the blues’ rich history.  It is worth seeking out, and with many of Anderson’s recordings still available, obtaining them should not be whatsoever difficult.