Pink Anderson

by Richie UnterbergerA good-natured finger-picking guitarist, Anderson played for about 30 years as part of a medicine show. He did make a couple of sides for Columbia in the late 20s with Simmie Dooley, but otherwise didnt record until a 1950 session, the results of which were issued on a Riverside LP that also included tracks by Gary Davis. Anderson went on to make some albums on his own after the blues revival commenced in the early 60s, establishing him as a minor but worthy exponent of the Pidemont school, versed in blues, ragtime, and folk songs. Anderson also became an unusual footnote in rock history when Syd Barrett, a young man in Cambridge, England, combined Pinks first name with the first name of another obscure bluesman (Floyd Council) to name his rock group, Pink Floyd, in the mid-60s.