Blues Directory: Piedmont Blues
From the Carolinas to Virginia and Georgia, the Piedmont Blues developed a lighter, finger-picked ragtime-influenced style that stood in contrast to the rawness of Delta blues — melodic, rhythmically intricate, and deeply rooted in the dance traditions of the Southeast. These artists brought an elegance and technical sophistication to the blues that continues to inspire guitarists worldwide.
Blind Blake (Arthur Phelps) (c. 1896 – c. 1934)
The undisputed king of Piedmont ragtime-blues guitar, Blind Blake was a Paramount Records recording star in the late 1920s whose fluid, two-finger picking style created a piano-like bass-and-treble independence that left musicians baffled for generations. Little is definitively known about his biography — even his birth name and death date remain disputed — but his recordings, more than 80 sides made between 1926 and 1932, are masterclasses in rhythmic sophistication and melodic invention. Songs like “Police Dog Blues,” “West Coast Blues,” and “Diddie Wa Diddie” reveal an artist of supreme technical command who never sacrificed feeling for flash. Blake’s guitar work remains a benchmark for fingerstyle blues players worldwide.
Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen) (1907 – 1941)
The most commercially successful Piedmont blues artist of the 1930s, Blind Boy Fuller was a Durham, North Carolina street musician whose recordings for ARC captured the full vitality of the Southeast blues tradition — bottle-neck slide, ragtime picking, and playfully suggestive hokum all rolled into one. Discovered by local promoter and talent scout J.B. Long, Fuller recorded over 120 sides before his death at 33, including the enduring “Step It Up and Go” and “Truckin’ My Blues Away.” His partnership with harmonica player Sonny Terry produced some of the era’s most joyous recordings, and both artists influenced generations of East Coast blues players. Despite his short life, Fuller’s recordings remain a touchstone of the Piedmont style.
Mississippi John Hurt (1892 – 1966)
One of the most beloved figures in American folk-blues, Mississippi John Hurt was a sharecropper from Avalon, Mississippi, whose 1928 recordings for OKeh revealed a gentle, introspective artist whose fingerpicking style bore little resemblance to the raw Delta blues recorded by his contemporaries. After those early sessions, Hurt returned to farming and near-total obscurity for 35 years — until music researcher Tom Hoskins tracked him down in Avalon in 1963 and brought him to the Newport Folk Festival. The rediscovery launched a late-career renaissance: Hurt performed and recorded prolifically until his death in 1966, enchanting folk revival audiences with his warm voice, impeccable guitar work, and gentle humor. His “Frankie and Albert,” “Spike Driver Blues,” and “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” became folk revival anthems.
Rev. Gary Davis (1896 – 1972)
A blind street evangelist, Reverend Gary Davis was one of the most technically gifted guitarists of the twentieth century — a master of ragtime, gospel, blues, and folk whose picking style influenced a generation of 1960s guitarists including David Bromberg, Stefan Grossman, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Born in South Carolina and ordained as a Baptist minister, Davis performed primarily as a religious musician but possessed a blues vocabulary of breathtaking depth, evident in recordings like “Candy Man Blues” and “Cocaine Blues” from his early career. He settled in New York in the 1940s and became a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk scene, passing his techniques to dozens of students through direct mentorship. His recordings and teachings remain a living curriculum for acoustic guitar players around the world.
