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Chapter 11
Acoustic Roots: Delta Blues
and Its Country Cousins
In This Chapter
Hammering out the Delta blues
Discovering the roots of Piedmont blues
Melding Delta and Piedmont blues: Country and folk blues
Producing a new form of blues: Rockabilly
Performing with style: Acoustic slide guitar
Acoustic-guitar blues is one of the earliest forms of blues. Before acoustic
blues developed into its own instrumental style, the guitar was just a
convenient instrument to play and accompany yourself while you sang. A
performer naturally played rhythmically when singing and more melodically
in between the vocal phrases. So the guitar style was woven into the singer’s
approach to accompanying himself on the guitar. Gradually, the guitar went
from being just a background instrument into a solo, unaccompanied instrument
and then evolved into the different branches of ragtime, country blues,
and even rockabilly.
In this chapter, you explore the different forms of acoustic blues — Delta blues,
Piedmont blues, country and folk blues, and rockabilly. You also take a tour of
slide guitar.
Delta Blues: Where It All Began
The Delta is an area of northern Mississippi and Arkansas that was agriculturally
and musically fertile. When people refer to the “Delta blues,” they describe
the music specific to a geographic region and the hard-edged, acoustic blues
played by Charlie Patton, Son House, and especially Robert Johnson — its
most famous and influential practitioner, who has contributed some of the best
lasting recorded examples.
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