What a wonderful piece of old time blues piano this video presents….as longtime Austin blues musician Robert Shaw performs live on Austin City Limits. These Robert Shaw originals of Piggly Wiggly ….along with Do The Mess Around…..plus Playing In The Grass are not only classic pieces of blues piano….but are also quite humorous.
Robert Shaw was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist….who was best known for his 1963 album, The Ma Grinder…..as he learned a barrelhouse style of playing from musicians in the Fourth Ward, Houston. In the 1920’s Shaw was part of the “Santa Fe Circuit”….which was named after touring musicians utilised the Santa Fe freight trains. Although he played in Chicago….Shaw mainly restricted himself to Texas….while performing as a soloist in the clubs and roadhouses of Sugarland, Richmond, Kingsville, Houston, Dallas and Austin….where he settled down and took up residence, owning a grocery store known as The Stop and Swat.
