If a stark Delta blues hits you like a ton of bricks, then a lilting Piedmont tune dances buoyantly along. Named for the area of Virginia and the Carolinas where it originated around the turn of the last century, the Piedmont (or East Coast) blues sounds more like ragtime and early country music than it does a gutbucket Delta song.

“Piedmont [blues] is more melodic than, say, Delta blues,” says musician Michael Baytop. “It reflects more of a melding of different cultures. You had more social interaction between cultures. It would be easy to say white and black, but there were other people, too, [such as] Native Americans. In the Delta there was less social interaction. In my opinion, Delta blues was more African-based because of the lack of social contact.”

But Baytop is quick to point out that blues musicians everywhere were adept at playing many different styles of music. Anyone who made a living as a musician had to be able to play whatever the audience wanted to hear. The Piedmont style, as described by noted blues researcher Barry Lee Pearson, “connects closely with an earlier string-band tradition, integrating ragtime, blues, and country dance songs.”

Piedmont blues is often characterized by syncopated rhythms perfected by such guitarists as Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, and Blind Boy Fuller. Importantly, Fuller in particular is cited as an influence as well on the Delmore Brothers, country pioneers who, in turn, influenced guitar legend Merle Travis. The distinctive “Travis picking” style—in which the melody is played on the treble strings accompanied by an alternating bass pattern on the bottom strings—can be heard in many Piedmont blues.

Blind Blake: "Blind Arthur's Breakdown"
Recorded 1929

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Blind Willie McTell: "Broke Down Engine Blues"
Recorded 1931, Atlanta, Georgia

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Blind Boy Fuller: "If You See My Pigmeat"
Recorded 1937, New York City

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