Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast,orSoutheastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern[1] supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger, occasionally others.[2] The result is comparable in sound to ragtimeorstride piano styles.[2] Blues researcher Peter B. Lowry coined the term, giving co-credit to fellow folkloristBruce Bastin.[3] The Piedmont style is differentiated from other styles, particularly the Mississippi Delta blues, by its ragtime-based rhythms.[1]
Origins
[edit]"In the convict camp in Greene County, Georgia", 1941. Buddy Moss is playing guitar; other men unidentified.
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.[4][5]
Nick Spitzer, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, folklorist, and producer of American Routes[7] describes Piedmont Blues in this way:
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, exhuberant sound.[8]
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.[13][14]
Cohen, Andrew M. (2008). "The Hands of Blues Guitarists". In Evans, David (ed.). Ramblin' on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues. Urbana; Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN978-0-252-03203-5.
Lowry, Peter B. (1977). "Atlanta Black Sound: A Survey of Black music from Atlanta During the 20th Century". The Atlanta Historical Bulletin. II (2): 88–113.
Lowry, Peter B. (May 2003). "Against the Wind: Tim Duffy and the Music Maker Relief Foundation". Rhythms (130). Melbourne: 48–50.
Lowry, Peter B. (June 2009). "DIY Fieldwork: George Mitchell's Southern Trawlings". Rhythms (203). Melbourne: 26–27.
Wiggins, Phil; Matheis, Frank (2020). Sweet Bitter Blues. Washington, DC's Homemade Blues. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-4968-2691-6.
Welker, Gayle; Lowry, Peter B. (2006). "Piedmont Blues". In Komera, Edward (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York: Routledge. ISBN0-415-92699-8.