The Piedmont Fingerstyle

Featuring Etta Baker . David Holt . John Dee Holman .Piedmont Blues . George Higgs . Move On . Cephas and Wiggins . Little School Girl . Sonny Terry . Brownie McGhee . Red River Blues . Crow Jane . Dirty Piedmont Blues . Brandon Turner . Freddie Vanderford . She Can Cook Good Sallat . Charlie Parr . Hogkill Blues . Etta Baker .

UNC-TV : Blues musicians who shifted from the banjo to the guitar may have learned the art of picking a tune on one-stringed, homemade instruments. This homemade instrument may have introduced the “slide” technique typical of the later Piedmont Blues, mainly for the variation of notes since one string allowed less flexibility for melody.

Worlds Beyond Rittman : When I read about Mr. Johnny Miller in a local Greenville, S.C. newspaper, I had to go meet him. I was really into playing the blues guitar during that time, and I had no idea that a Piedmont Blues legend lived no more than a mile from my home.

Star Maker Machine : Together, Cephas and Wiggins distinguished themselves with their ability to adapt classic blues tunes from other regions to the Piedmont Style. And Cephas also wrote new songs that were firmly in the Piedmont tradition, and sounded like they were old standards. Black Cat on the Line is one of these.

On muddy Sava riverbank : Charles Henry Tate was born in Georgia, but moved as a child to Greenville, South Carolina, where he knew Blind Boy Fuller. After serving in the Army in WW II, he moved to Spartanburg, and was active in that city’s blues scene when not poursing his trade as a bricklader.

Piedmont Blues Preservation Society : The Piedmont Blues Preservation Society (PBPS) has been helping to keep the Blues alive since 1985. We are an all volunteer, 501(c)3 nonprofit Affilliate of The Blues Foundation. The PBPS hosts the annual Carolina Blues Festival presented by YES!Weekly each early May in Downtown Greensboro, NC USA.

Music Maker Relief Foundation : “Because of her stunning beauty, Etta’s husband refused to let her travel and perform away from home; nevertheless, she never stopped playing her music. This gracious grandmother was the source of a great deal of joy and surprise when I found that she still played guitar after I had heard her early recordings from the 60s. One of the signature chords of my guitar vocabulary comes from her version of “Railroad Bill”. This was the first guitar picking style that I ever learned.”–Taj Mahal

Stefan Wirz : Scrapper’ Blackwell : Francis Hillman Blackwell b. February 21, 1904 in Indianapolis, Indiana neither in (never existing) “Syracuse, North Carolina” nor in Syracuse (Darlington County), South Carolina d. October 6, 1962 in Indianapolis, Indiana discography.

New Georgia Encyclopedia : “Bumble Bee Slim” Easton’s work exemplifies the beginnings of what came to be known as the Chicago style, retaining elements of earlier country blues while anticipating the more polished urban sounds of the postwar period.