List of Piedmont blues musicians-The Daily Ledger

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 bassline pattern supports a melody using the treble strings. The result is comparable in sound to ragtime or stride piano styles. The Piedmont blues originated in an area including and extending beyond the Piedmont plateau of the eastern United States, which stretches from about Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia. Piedmont blues musicians come from this area and also from Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. Piedmont blues was popular in the early 20th century.

Below is a list of Piedmont blues musicians.

List of Piedmont blues musicians

A

Pink Anderson (February 12, 1900 – October 12, 1974). Born in Laurens, South Carolina, Anderson was an early country blues guitarist and singer who performed Piedmont blues. He recorded in the late 1920s with the guitarist and singer Blind Simmie Dooley, from Greenville, South Carolina. Anderson had a long career as a medicine show performer. Interest in him was renewed by blues revivalists in the 1960s, and many of his recordings from that time have been released by Prestige Records.

List of Piedmont blues musicians

B

Memphis Willie B. (November 4, 1911 – October 5, 1993). Memphis blues and Piedmont blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter. Etta Baker (March 31, 1913 – September 23, 2006). Born in Caldwell County, North Carolina, Baker was a country blues guitarist, banjo player and singer who performed Piedmont blues. In the 1990s she released two solo albums, one for Rounder Records. In 2004 Music Maker Records released some recordings she made with Taj Mahal in 1956 and 1998. Willie Baker (dates unknown). Baker recorded a number of sides, probably eight, in January and March 1929 in Richmond, Indiana for Gennett Records. He played a twelve-string guitar in a frailing style to back his strong vocals. Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931). Guitarist and singer. Ed Bell (May 1905 – 1960, 1965 or 1966). Born in Fort Deposit, Alabama, Bell released work under his own name and as Sluefoot Joe and Barefoot Bill from Alabama. Scrapper Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – October 27, 1962). Born Francis Hillman Blackwell in Syracuse, Darlington County, South Carolina, he performed acoustic Piedmont blues and was an early exponent of Chicago blues. He worked closely with the pianist Leroy Carr also backed the singer Black Bottom McPhail. Document Records has issued most of his work in three volumes. Blind Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934). Born in Newport News, Virginia, Blake was a guitarist and singer who played in a range of musical styles. He performed early ragtime on guitar, Piedmont blues, country blues, Delta blues and Chicago blues. A musician of great influence, he recorded frequently for Paramount Records. Gabriel Brown (1910 – 1972). Born in Florida, Brown was a country blues guitarist and singer. He was discovered in the 1930s by the folk music researchers Zora Neale Hurston and Alan Lomax and had a career lasting several decades, mainly in New York City, recording for Joe Davis. Precious Bryant (January 4, 1942 – January 12, 2013). Born in Talbot County, Georgia, Bryant was recorded by the music historian George Mitchell in 1969, in one of his field recordings of folk blues. She subsequently appeared at blues festivals and, late in life, recorded two albums for Terminus Records.

List of Piedmont blues musicians

C

Carolina Slim (Edward P. Harris, August 22, 1923 – October 22, 1953). Guitarist and singer. Cephas & Wiggins (John Cephas, September 4, 1930 – March 4, 2009; and Phil Wiggins, born May 8, 1954). Guitarist and harmonica player, respectively, who performed as a duo. Virgil Childers (c. 1901 – December 10, 1939) Guitarist and singer, who was recorded in 1938. Jaybird Coleman (May 20, 1896 – January 28, 1950). Born in Gainesville, Alabama, Coleman was a country blues harmonica player, guitarist and singer who performed early Piedmont blues and harmonica blues, active mostly in the 1930s. Elizabeth Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987). Singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Floyd Council (September 2, 1911 – May 9, 1976). Guitarist and singer.