Speckled Red

Rufus Perryman, known as Speckled Red (born 1892 in Monroe, Louisiana; died 1973 in St. Louis, Missouri), was an archetypal barrelhouse piano player. The older brother of Atlanta pianist Piano Red, he earned his nickname due to his albinism and heavily freckled skin. Migrating through the lumber camps and juke joints of the South, he eventually settled in St. Louis. He is best known for his 1929 Brunswick recording of "The Dirty Dozens," a syncopated, driving piano track based on a traditional African American game of rhythmic, rhyming insults.