Blues » Country Blues » Folk-Blues

Folk-Blues describes a type of blues usually played on non-electric musical instruments. It embraces a wide range of guitar and musical styles that thrived in the early days of the music style's gestation. But folk-blues is not limited to merely guitar music; its "folk" appellation is an elastic enough term to also include down-home, no-frills music played on mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and other non-electric instruments, with its group sound being projected through the jug bands. Folk-blues evokes the sound and image of a rough-hewn, somewhat informal music, a sound and style born of southern plantations, house frolics, and juke joints; it is true folk music, played by and for the people. The term also provides a convenient general heading for all the multiple regional styles and variations (Piedmont, Atlanta, Memphis, Texas, Delta, ragtime, songster, etc.) embraced by the form.