Blues Styles
Country Blues
Source: Library of Congress
Originating around the turn of the twentieth century in the Mississippi River delta and East Texas,
Country Blues (also called “Down Home” or “Rural” Blues) is characterized by a male singer playing
an acoustic steel-stringed guitar. The timbre and style vary greatly from performer to performer.
Country Blues singers were “buskers,” or street singers, who incorporated the Blues into a vast
repertoire of the latest styles. Country Blues became popular with the recordings of Blind Lemon
Jefferson in the mid-1920s. This style of Blues was marketed as “old-fashioned” and “down home.”
Urban Blues
Source: Wikipedia User Wener100359
Also popular in the 1920s, this style of Blues is often characterized by a female singer backed by a
pianist or multi-instrument band. Urban Blues, also known as “Classic” Blues, was the first style of
African-American Blues to attain vast popularity in America, and was the style of Blues with which
most white Americans were familiar in the 1920s.
The 12-bar form and “call and response” techniques are important features of
both the Urban and Country Blues.
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