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Folk Blues/Country Blues (& Delta Blues)

When: 1910

Super Genre: Blues

Description:

“Country Blues means rural Blues; Blues far away from the city, at a time when there existed almost no popular music whatsoever. Country Blues did not evolve out of Country music: it was the other way around. Therefore the only existing music besides Folk and Classical music at the time of Blues’s conception was Gospel. Almost automatically, Blues becomes the antithesis of Gospel. Wandering black singers who lost their faith due to misfortune slowly but steadily developed their personal, secular type of Gospel or more accurately: “badspel”, as there was little positive news for them to tell. At first they simply used (cheap) banjos, and later bottleneck guitars on which they liked to play blue notes while singing AAB verses. The music was very spontaneous and improvised: singers would play any chords and sing any lyrics that would come to mind, but often about tragic or depressing events.

Folk or Country Blues has almost as many different subgenres as there are regions in southeastern US: Delta Blues, Acoustic Texas Blues, Memphis Blues, Atlanta Blues, Piedmont Blues, etc.
Delta Blues aka Mississippi Blues evolved around 1927 in the Mississippi Delta and remained a small but long-lasting subgenre.
Piedmont Blues encompasses different local Blues styles around the east coast (from Virginia to Atlanta) that exhibit a more Country-like sound. And Hokum Blues is a very early and fast type of Blues with piano and two guitars where humor and innuendo play a great deal of importance: proto Boogie Woogie.

Folk or Country Blues doesn’t die but keeps lingering as a parallel Blues stream, even when Classic Blues and Jazz start to build up momentum. The appeal of minimal, DIY, sincere Blues music ensures that many subgenres remain alive until this very day.” - Musicmap

Favorite Song: That’s No Way To Get Along by Robert Wilkins


Up next…Bluegrass

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