The Different Styles of Blues
Blues artists are, more or less, identified by the twelve bar blues pattern. They may use it a lot or they may use it a little. But throughout all of the different styles of blues, it can be found somewhere in their repertoire to signify them as an exponent of blues music.
So what makes different styles of the blues? Well, many things actually.
It could be where the blues artist is from. Blues from Chicago in the 1930s differed from Delta blues. Texas blues had a different sound again.
It could be technology. When electric guitars came to the world in a big way in the 1950s, Chicago blues morphed into something more vibrant and raunchy. This paved the way for Blues Rock.
It could be a blending of styles with other music genres. This has led to Country Blues, Rock Blues, Jazz Blues and Folk Blues.
Let’s take a look at some examples of different styles.
Blues Rock
When Chuck Berry first hit the airwaves in the 1950s, rock and roll had arrived. Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and others all helped for sure but Chuck’s music was in a direct lineage from the blues.
With catchy guitar hooks, a danceable backbeat and relatable lyrics to a younger generation, Chuck Berry became a superstar in rock and roll and a massive influence on blues rock.
Some of the best exponents of the blues rock genre were: The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top.
Check out my one of my favourite blues rock songs here ====> Jesus Just Left Chicago (2006 Remaster)
Country Blues
This is a tough one to narrow down. In the past, country blues has been a label applied to any artist that plays blues on an acoustic guitar.
Some of my favourite albums have fallen into that particular classification. It’s a great change up when a blues artist who normally plays electric with a backing band, strips it back to an unplugged setting. Albums like Muddy Waters Folk Singer and The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker are great examples.
It could be argued that all of the pre war blues artists were country blues and perhaps that’s true. Then you could break down the different styles of blues within that era to different regional styles.
Those styles could break down into sub genres like Piedmont (see below), folk blues and rural blues.
Check out my one of my favourite country blues songs here ===>John Lee Hooker – Black Snake (Official Audio)
Jazz Blues
Jazz was a blues and ragtime gumbo cooked up in New Orleans in the early 1900s. The legendary band leader, Buddy Bolden has been credited as the earliest known fusion of those styles and the advent of Jazz.
Somewhere along the line, more traditional blues artists took on a jazzier style and sound while keeping the twelve bar blues as a prominent thread in their music.
There have been some great exponents of this style including: BB King, Duke Robillard, T Bone Walker and Bessie Smith.
Check out my one of my favourite jazz blues songs here ====> Bobby Sox Blues
Piedmont Blues
The term piedmont blues (also called East Coast blues) is a regional one. A plateau that stretches from New York to Alabama, it produced artists with a style that blended in more of a ragtime feel to traditional blues.
The alternating thumb picking gave it a folkier feel. Then, with the melody picked out on the first finger, it takes on a quality similar to piano styles of the time.
Piedmont enjoyed a twenty year run from 1920s to 1940s before it fell out of favour as a popular style. Some of its best exponents were Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev Gary Davis and Brownie McGee with Sonny Terry.
It is another one of the different styles of blues that influenced future generations. This influence was helped by the work of musicologists and its place in Folk Festivals in the 1950s and beyond.
Check out my one of my favourite piedmont blues songs here ====>Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Hill Country Blues
If ragtime mixed with blues made Jazz, then drum and fife music mixed with blues made Hill Country (North Mississippi) Blues.
This is one of my favourites of the different styles of blues. There’s a trance-like quality to it that draws you in and holds you there.
The fife and drum history in the region, brought about a percussive element to the guitar players. Drums don’t have the option to “change chords” and quite often this is a feature of guitar based songs of this region. Many Hill Country songs will drone on one chord but the rhythm is hypnotic and holds the listener firmly in place.
Some of the best music from this region comes from artists such as RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jesse Mae Hempill and Robert Belfour.
Check out my one of my favourite hill country blues songs here ====> Hill Stomp
Jump Blues
This style could be categorised as a subgenre of Jazz Blues. The thing that distinguishes it from its parent style is its upbeat feel.
The groups that played this music were kind of like a shrunk down version of big band jazz. But they still packed a punch.
This music was tailored to a good time and featured shuffle rhythms underpinning boogie woogie bass lines. A horn section added punctuation to the sound to get people bouncing on the dance floor.
Of all the different styles of blues, this one was a fun era of music.
Check out my one of my favourite jump blues songs here ====> Good Rocking Tonight
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