Youth has not escaped 71-year-old Wildman Eddie Snow, who came out of retirement three years ago to bring his low-down delta blues sound back on the road.

Snow grew up in West Memphis, Ark., the son of a piano player. When he was five, he imitated one of his mother’s songs on the piano by ear.

He encountered the great blues men of the time in the juke joint his father owned. Players who entered the tavern struck the ivory with the essence of delta blues which originated on southern plantations. It was characterized by rough vocals and new, experimental chords.

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Snow said he observed each one of them, and he picked up the tunes watching their hands slide over the keys.

These men performed hill country blues, delta blues, celebratory and spiritual outcries. Snow said he soaked in these influences and learned from artists like Memphis Slim.

I got my style from listening to all of them, he said.

After his father’s death in the 1950s, Snow said he had to sacrifice his free time in order to make money for his family by playing piano and working in the cotton fields. It was there Snow first encountered B.B. King.

I played music with B.B. for a while, he said.

Snow earned his nickname from fellow musicians because of his unusual stage antics.

I play with my feet and boogie, so they started calling me Wild

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thing,’ he said. Now it’s just Wildman.’

Before he knew it, Snow said, he and B.B. found themselves in Memphis broadcasting on WDIA-FM, the pioneering black station. They performed with artists such as Albert King, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison and Junior Parker.

Snow cut a album with Sun Records in 1955. This advanced Snow’s career by distributing songs like Bringin’ Love Back Home around the nation.

Over the generations, Snow said lack of recognition generation after generation led blues men to further their horizons by traveling to the blues scene on Maxwell Street in Chicago or other larger cities. Memphis and the hill country could not support many blacks in the early 1940s, so Snow journeyed north.

Snow retired from music in 1967 because of an alcohol problem. In 1980, he settled in Springfield and was inducted into Springfield Blues Hall of Fame 14 years later.

After 25 years of retirement, Snow hit the road in 1992 and is now trying to record. The rumor is, he was approached at the Chicago Blues Fest in 1992 by Alligator Records, a Chicago-based blues label known for recording artists like Koko Taylor and J.J. Cale.

Eddie Snow and The Snowflakes will play at Pinch Penny Pub 9:30 p.m. tomorrow. Cover is $2.