Alvin "Little Pink" Anderson (born July 13, 1954) is an American Piedmont blues singer-guitarist. Mentored by his father Pink Anderson, he is known for his authentic performing of his father's style of blues and is highly reputed for his

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

skills. Anderson committed himself to a full-time music career in the 1990s, recording

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s that cover his father's work. Anderson was born in

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city had a population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in South Carolina, 11th ...

, United States; he is the son of popular Piedmont blues guitarist Pink Anderson. At an early age, Anderson was encouraged and mentored by his father, who constructed him a miniature

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, to perform his particular style of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

. "My father was a bigger influence on me than I realized for forty-something years," said Anderson. Father and son began performing together on the

medicine show Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European Charlatan, mountebank shows and were common ...

circuit, and at 13 years-old Anderson joined

Clarence Carter Clarence George Carter (born January 14, 1936) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. His most successful songs include "Slip Away (Clarence Carter song), Slip Away", "Back Door Santa" (both released 1968), "Patches (Ch ...

's band on tour but was forced to leave when Carter discovered how young Anderson was. In the early 1970s, Anderson made a name for himself as an

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

and

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

player on the local blues scene. However, in 1972, Anderson was arrested for

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

; his father, disheartened by his son's imprisonment, died in October 1974 while Anderson was still in jail. He received a parole in 1979, allowing Anderson to resume an intermittent music career, but the death of his son in 1991 and another prison sentence in 1994 temporarily derailed him. Anderson refused parole to give him time to reinvent himself and—reinvigorated by his desire to follow in his father's footsteps—devoted himself to a full-time career in music when Anderson was released in 1996. Anderson focused more on acoustic guitar, although he was still highly regarded as an amplified guitarist, often performing his father's repertoire at festivals with

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

player Freddie Vanderford. The pair documented this phase of Anderson's career with a privately distributed

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

. He released two further albums, ''Carolina Bluesman'' (where he was joined on playing the guitar by Cool John Ferguson) in 2005, and ''Sittin' Here Singing the Blues'', originally issued in 2006 on Music Maker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Little Pink 1954 births Living people Piedmont blues musicians American blues guitarists American blues singers American male singers American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians