Career
He died at age 29 of either poisoning or exhaustion. Henry Townsend recalled in his memoir that Pinetop played, like all other Saint Louis musicians, in the "speakeasy type places" such as Nettie"s on Delmar Boulevard, where he played for a long time. The boys had a sister, Jimmie Lee, who never recorded but, according to Townsend, had a wonderful singing voice from which Lindberg learned everything.
They were accompanied by a guitarist, Pete Bogans, and a trombone player, Ike Rogers.
Their first recording session was in 1932, when they recorded a number of blues and boogie-woogie songs. Pinetop also recorded "Bad Luck Blues" with Dorothea Trowbridge and "Whiskey Blues" with Elizabeth Washington, both in 1933.
Most often, the brothers would only play together occasionally. Notable recordings by Pinetop include a version of "Every Day I Have the Blues", recorded in 1935 and re-issued on the Windy City Blues compilation (Nighthawk, 1992).
In 1949, the song was co-opted under a different title by Memphis Slim.
Apparently the brothers did not always get along, didn"t always have work (they worked the bars and clubs of Street Louis), and ran into trouble with the law. Pinetop did some drinking, and Lindberg had killed a man (in self-defense), for which he spent time in a workhouse in 1937. Pinetop died, apparently of poisoning, in 1935.
Townsend, however, claims that he died of exhaustion: apparently Pinetop was in the habit of never saying no to a gig, playing all throughout the weekend and consequently losing sometimes 24 hours of sleep.
Combined with heavy drinking (to stay awake), this led to his death: "he just done burned himself out, according to Townsend.