Fans of Pink Floyd already know the name was created when Syd Barrett noticed the names of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council in the liner notes of a 1962 Blind Boy Fuller album and put them together, but how many have actually listened to his music? Born in 1900, Pink began his career performing at medicine shows, and recorded some tracks for Columbia Records in 1928 alongside Blind Simmie Dooley, but it was only with the renewed interest in the blues in the Fifties that he was encouraged back into the studio where he recorded a session with fellow South Carolinian Rev. Gary Davis (which would be released as part of a split LP in 1956). It took until 1961 for him to finally record this his debut album, but apart from the quality of the recording it sounds as if this could have been undertaken 30 or 40 years earlier.
Pink had his own style of playing chords and fingerpicking which provided a very full sound and undoubtedly impacted many guitarists in the Sixties as there are times when it sounds as if there are two musicians providing complex interplay as opposed to one person being recorded live in the studio while he also sings. We get a series of traditional blues numbers such as “Meet Me in the Bottom” and “Mama Where Did You Stay Last Night” as well as Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (I must confess that although this is a great version, I do find Ted Nugent’s over the top version on ‘Double Live Gonzo’ to be my favourite).
Sadly, Pink only recorded a few more albums before he died in 1974, a stroke in his later years means recording sessions had to be aborted, but this remastered reissue is an absolute delight as it takes us back to the times when music just needed one person and an acoustic instrument combined with emotion and a love of the blues.
Rating: 9/10