Editing Piedmont blues

{{short description|American blues guitar style}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Piedmont blues
| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|[[Blues]]|[[ragtime]]|[[piano blues]]}}
| cultural_origins  = 1920s, [[East Coast of the United States]]
| other_topics      = [[List of Piedmont blues musicians|List of musicians]]
}}

'''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|bass]] string rhythmic pattern<ref name="fac"/> supports a syncopated [[melody]] using the [[Treble clef|treble]] strings generally picked with the fore-finger, occasionally others.<ref name="Music">{{cite book | first= Paul | last= Du Noyer | year= 2003 | title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music | edition= 1st | publisher= Flame Tree Publishing | location= Fulham, London | isbn= 1-904041-96-5 | page= 169}}</ref> The result is comparable in sound to [[ragtime]] or [[stride piano]] styles.<ref name="Music"/> Blues researcher [[Peter B. Lowry]] coined the term, giving co-credit to fellow [[folklorist]] [[Bruce Bastin]].<ref name="sunday">{{cite web | last =Harris | first =Jeff | title =Some Ramblings On Peter B. Lowry, Field Recording & The Trix Label | date = 6 September 2008 | work = Big Road Blues | url = http://sundayblues.org/archives/198 | access-date = 17 February 2014}}</ref> The Piedmont style is differentiated from other styles, particularly the Mississippi [[Delta blues]], by its ragtime-based rhythms.<ref name="fac">{{cite web | author = UNC Asheville students | url = http://facstaff.unca.edu/sinclair/piedmontblues/Default.htm | title = East Coast Piedmont Blues | date = 25 October 2005 | access-date = 18 February 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060208185423/http://facstaff.unca.edu/sinclair/piedmontblues/Default.htm | archive-date = 8 February 2006}}</ref>

==Origins==
[[File:BuddyMossGreeneCountyConvictCamp.jpg|thumb|upright|"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 [[Reverend Gary Davis|Gary Davis]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Lowry | first = Pete | author-link = Peter B. Lowry | year = 1973 | title = Some Cold, Rainy Day: Part 5 – Robert and Charlie Hicks | journal = Blues Unlimited | issue = 103 | page = 15}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Lowry | first = Pete | year = 1972 | title = Some Cold, Rainy Day: Part 2 – Curley Weaver | journal = Blues Unlimited | issue = 99 | pages = 10–11}}</ref>

==Geography==
The Piedmont blues was named after the [[Piedmont (United States)|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 City|New York]].<ref name="Music"/><ref>{{cite book |title = ''Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast'' | last=Bastin |first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Bastin |year=1986 |publisher=University of Illinois Press }}</ref>

Nick Spitzer, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, folklorist, and producer of ''American Routes''<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tulane University|title=Nick Spitzer|url=https://americanroutes.tulane.edu/content/nick-spitzer|access-date=September 23, 2021|website=AmericanRoutes.Tulane.edu}}</ref> describes Piedmont Blues in this way: <blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Spitzer|first=Nick|date=|title=Piedmont Blues|url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/americanroutes/geographies/piedmont-blues/|access-date=September 23, 2021|website=scholarblogs.emory.edu}}</ref></blockquote>

==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.<ref name="Music"/> 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.<ref> [https://www.allmusic.com/song/step-it-up-and-go-mt0028600369  Blind Boy Fuller Step It Up and Go] All music. Retirieved 12 August 2022</ref>

==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 (blues musician)|John Jackson]] in later years.<ref name="Music"/><ref>{{cite book | last = Bastin | first = Bruce  | editor1-last = Cohn | editor1-first = Lawrence | title = Nothing But The Blues: The Music and the Musicians | url = https://archive.org/details/nothingbutbluesm00cohn | url-access = registration | date = 1993 | publisher = Abbeville Press | location = New York | chapter = Truckin' My Blues Away: East Coast Piedmont Styles}}</ref>
While musicologists such as [[George Mitchell (music historian)|George Mitchell]], [[Peter B. Lowry]] and [[Music Maker (label)|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 (musician)|Michael Roach]], Samuel James, [[Eric Bibb]], [[Ry Cooder]], [[David Bromberg]], and [[Guy Davis (musician)|Guy Davis]] have carried on the Piedmont tradition, often having "studied" under some of the old Piedmont masters.<ref name="Music"/>  The Piedmont fingerpicking style of guitar playing has also influenced other folk and popular musicians such  as [[Doc Watson]] and [[Ralph McTell]].<ref>Grossman, Stefan. "Ralph McTell – European Fingerpicker", Guitar Player, August 1976</ref> [[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.<ref name=rollingstone>Doyle, Patrick (November 26, 2014). [https://web.archive.org/web/20141129014546/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/arlo-guthrie-looks-back-on-50-years-of-alices-restaurant-20141126?page=2 Arlo Guthrie looks back on 50 years of Alice's Restaurant]. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved November 29, 2014.</ref>

==Preservation efforts==
Cultural organizations in North Carolina have supported the preservation of the Piedmont blues. The [[Greensboro, North Carolina|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.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Bn3Vot9lF50 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210628085444/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn3Vot9lF50 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| title=Weso and Max "You Must Be Jelly, 'Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That"|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn3Vot9lF50|publisher=[[YouTube]]|accessdate=June 28, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=Blues in the Schools|url=https://piedmontblues.org/learn-blues-culture/blues-in-the-schools/|publisher=PiedmontBlues.org|accessdate=June 28, 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Piedmont blues musicians]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last =Bastin | first =Bruce | author-link =Bruce Bastin | title =Crying for the Carolines | year =1971 | publisher =Studio Vista | location =London | isbn =978-0-289-70209-3 }}
* {{cite book | last =Bastin | first =Bruce | title =Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast | year =1995 | publisher =University of Illinois Press | location =Urbana; Chicago | isbn =978-0-252-06521-7 | url-access =registration | url =https://archive.org/details/redriverblues00bruc }}
* {{cite book | last =Cohen | first =Andrew M. | editor1-last =Evans | editor1-first =David | editor1-link =David Evans (musicologist)  | title =Ramblin' on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues | chapter =The Hands of Blues Guitarists | year =2008 | publisher =University of Illinois Press | location =Urbana; Chicago | isbn =978-0-252-03203-5 }}
* {{cite journal | last =Lowry | first =Peter B. | author-link =Peter B. Lowry | title =Atlanta Black Sound: A Survey of Black music from Atlanta During the 20th Century  | journal =The Atlanta Historical Bulletin  | issue =2  | volume = II  | pages = 88–113 | date = 1977 }}
* {{cite journal | last =Lowry | first =Peter B. | title =Against the Wind: Tim Duffy and the Music Maker Relief Foundation  | journal = Rhythms | location = Melbourne | issue = 130 | pages = 48–50 | date = May 2003 }}
* {{cite journal | last =Lowry | first =Peter B. | title = DIY Fieldwork: George Mitchell's Southern Trawlings | journal = Rhythms | location = Melbourne | issue = 203 | pages = 26–27 | date = June 2009 }}
* {{cite book | last1=Wiggins |first1=Phil |last2=Matheis |first2=Frank |year=2020 |title=Sweet Bitter Blues. Washington, DC's Homemade Blues |location=Jackson, MS |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-4968-2691-6}}
* {{cite book | last1 = Welker | first1 = Gayle | last2 =Lowry | first2 =Peter B.| editor1-last =Komera | editor1-first =Edward | title = Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues | date = 2006 | chapter =Piedmont Blues  | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | isbn = 0-415-92699-8 }}

==External links==
*[https://www.acousticblues.com/ Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation]
*[http://www.piedmontblues.org/ Piedmont Blues Preservation Society]

{{blues}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piedmont blues}}
[[Category:Blues music genres]]
[[Category:Music of Virginia]]