Editing Piano Red (section)

===1930s–1940s===
By the early 1930s, Perryman was playing at house parties, [[juke joints]], and barrelhouses in Georgia, [[Alabama]], and [[Tennessee]]. He developed his percussive playing style and harsh singing style to compensate for the lack of sound systems and to overcome the noise of people talking in venues. He worked these circuits with other Georgia bluesmen, including [[Barbecue Bob]], [[Charlie Hicks]], [[Curley Weaver]], and [[Blind Willie McTell]].<ref name=NGE/>

He obtained seasonal employment performing in [[Brevard, North Carolina|Brevard]], North Carolina, a mountain resort town, and commuted back and forth between there and Atlanta. The Brevard job brought him before white audiences; by 1934 he had also begun to play at white clubs in Atlanta. In Atlanta he would play at a white club until midnight and then head over to an African-American club, where he would play until 4 a.m. Perryman developed a repertoire of pop standards, which were more popular among the white audiences, while continuing his blues sets in African-American clubs.<ref name="NGE"/>

Around 1936 he began to be billed as "Piano Red". He made his first recordings with McTell in Augusta for [[Vocalion Records]], but they were never released. He also began working as an upholsterer, a trade which he occasionally maintained through later years.<ref name="NGE"/>