Biography
Alvin “Little Pink” Anderson was born on July 13, 1954, in South Carolina. His father, blues legend Pink Anderson, raised him and taught him the same Piedmont blues style with the same techniques he possessed (old school, rural blues, Southern blues, etc.). “My father was a bigger influence on me than I realized for forty-something years,” Little Pink said.
How We Helped:
Music Maker Relief Foundation has helped Little Pink with heating bills and moving expenses, provided him with quality guitars, and produced two CDs for him. Music Maker has also played a major role in setting up tours, performances, and festivals in the US, Belgium, and France for Little Pink, including the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. In 2004, Little Pink was featured in the book Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America.
Blues has always been a part of Little Pink’s life whether he wanted it to be or not. There were times when he felt the blues weren’t for him. He recalled the 1960’s saying, “I’m sitting here playing this stupid music.” Times have changed, however, and so have his attitudes toward blues music. “…Now 40 years later, I’m sitting here playing this stupid music and enjoying it.”
Little Pink’s life wasn’t a fairy tale by any means. In 1972, he was arrested for armed robbery and spent seven years in jail. Many of his friends also got caught up in drugs and alcohol. In 2005, Little Pink had a stroke. Afterwards, his life began a downward spiral. As things got worse, Little Pink’s health got worse as well. “The doctors told me I was diabetic…it explained a whole lot of what was going on with me.”
But he got on medication and made a full recovery just before meeting Tim Duffy from Music Maker. With Tim’s help, Little Pink started to write, record and perform again.
Performing is his life. He expresses that one basic element you need in music, is feeling. “I think feeling is the most important part of music…They can be the best musicians in the world, but if they have no feeling in the music, they don’t convey feeling. So, learn to feel…learn to feel yourself.”
