Everything about The Piedmont Blues totally explained
The
Piedmont blues (also known as
Piedmont fingerstyle) is a type of
blues music characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the
guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb
bass pattern supports a
melody using
treble strings. The result is comparable in sound to a
ragtime piano. The Piedmont style is differentiated from other styles (particularly the Mississippi Delta style) by its older, ragtime rhythms, which also prevented it from being particularly influential on later electric band blues and rock 'n' roll, but influential on rockabilly, and folk.
The basis of the Piedmont style was the older guitar style that seems to have been universal throughout the South and was based at least to some extent on formal "parlor guitar" techniques. Varieties of this older style can be heard in players such as Peg Leg Howell and the Hicks brothers from Georgia, plus musicians from other areas, including Mississippi John Hurt from the Delta, Frank Stokes from Memphis, and Mance Lipscomb from Texas--but if one is going to group musicians into regional styles, these clearly can't be classed as Piedmont players. What was particular to the Piedmont was that a generation of players adapted these older, ragtime-based techniques to blues in a particular way, influenced by such guitar virtuosos as Blind Blake and Gary Davis (as well as less-recorded masters like Willie Walker).
The Piedmont blues typically refers to a greater area than
Piedmont, which refers to the East Coast of the
United States from about
Richmond, Virginia to
Atlanta, Georgia. Piedmont blues musicians come from this area, as well as
Maryland,
Delaware,
West Virginia,
Pennsylvania and
Florida, eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. It was made popular in the early
twentieth century from about mid-20's through to the mid-40's. Blind Boy Fuller's record of"Step It Up & Go" apparently sold over half a million copies to both Blacks and Whites in the early forties.
Musicians
Prominent musicians who play or played the Piedmont blues include:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Piedmont Blues'.
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