Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bassline string rhythmic pattern
Origins
The basis of the Piedmont style began with the older "frailing" or "framming" guitar styles that may have been universal throughout the South, and was also based, at least to some extent, on formal "parlor guitar" techniques as well as earlier banjo playing,
string band, and
ragtime. What was particular to the Piedmont was that a generation of players adapted these older, ragtime-based techniques to blues in a singular and popular fashion, influenced by guitarists such as
Blind Blake and Gary Davis.
Geography
The Piedmont blues was named after the Piedmont plateau region, on 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 northern
Florida, western
South Carolina, central
North Carolina, eastern
Tennessee,
Kentucky, and
Alabama – later the Northeastern cities such as
Boston, Newark, New Jersey, and New York.
Nick Spitzer, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, folklorist, and producer of American Routes
Among the rolling hills, small farms, mills, and coal and railroad camps of the rural East Coast Piedmont, between Tidewater coast and the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, black and white economic and cultural patterns have overlapped considerably — more so than in the nearby areas or the Deep South. Piedmont blues styles reflects this, meshing traces of gospel, fiddle tunes, blues, country, and ragtime into its rolling, exuberant sound.
Recordings
Recording artists such as
Blind Blake,
Josh White,
Buddy Moss, and Blind Boy Fuller helped spread the style on the strength of their sales throughout the region.
It was nationally popular with the
African-American audience for about twenty years from the mid-1920s through to the mid-1940s. Blind Boy Fuller recorded "Step It Up and Go" in 1940.
[ Blind Boy Fuller Step It Up and Go All music. Retirieved 12 August 2022]
Post-World War II
As a form of Black American popular music, Piedmont blues fell out of favor on a national basis after World War II. By the late-1950s, it was being performed at US folk music revivals and festivals initially by established Piedmont blues artists such as
Josh White, Rev. Gary Davis, and
Brownie McGhee and
Sonny Terry, as well as Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson in later years.
While musicologists such as George Mitchell, Peter B. Lowry and Tim Duffy collected recordings by the aging community of Piedmont blues players, younger musicians such as
Stefan Grossman, Roy Book Binder,
Jorma Kaukonen,
Paul Geremia, Keb Mo', Michael Roach, Samuel James,
Eric Bibb,
Ry Cooder,
David Bromberg, and Guy Davis have carried on the Piedmont tradition, often having "studied" under some of the old Piedmont masters.
The Piedmont fingerpicking style of guitar playing has also influenced other folk and popular musicians such as
Doc Watson and
Ralph McTell.
[Grossman, Stefan. "Ralph McTell – European Fingerpicker", Guitar Player, August 1976] Arlo Guthrie famously used a Piedmont blues backing for his "Alice's Restaurant" monologues, as it was easy to play repeatedly for long stretches of time.
[Doyle, Patrick (November 26, 2014). Arlo Guthrie looks back on 50 years of Alice's Restaurant. Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 29, 2014.]
Preservation efforts
Cultural organizations in North Carolina have supported the preservation of the Piedmont blues. The Greensboro-based Piedmont Blues Preservation Society has partnered with musicians such as
Max Drake and a number of public schools in North Carolina to provide performances, exhibitions, and educational programs.
[Archived at Ghostarchive and the
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine:
See also
-
List of Piedmont blues musicians
Further reading
External links
