East Coast Blues

History

The term covers musicians from the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and adjacent circuits whose music shared fingerstyle technique and East Coast performance culture without always fitting a single regional sub-box. Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Josh White, Brownie McGhee, Rev. Gary Davis, and Blind Willie McTell exemplify the tradition’s breadth, from street and medicine-show roots through the folk revival’s reframing of East Coast blues as a major American acoustic art.

Defining artists

• Blind BlakeSpotifyYouTube
• Blind Boy FullerSpotifyYouTube
• Josh WhiteSpotifyYouTube
• Brownie McGheeSpotifyYouTube
• Rev. Gary DavisSpotifyYouTube
• Blind Willie McTellSpotifyYouTube

Essential listening

• Diddie Wa Diddie — Blind BlakeSpotifyYouTube
• Step It Up and Go — Blind Boy FullerSpotifyYouTube
• Outskirts of Town — Josh WhiteSpotifyYouTube
• Sportin' Life Blues — Brownie McGheeSpotifyYouTube
• Cocaine Blues — Rev. Gary DavisSpotifyYouTube
• Statesboro Blues — Blind Willie McTellSpotifyYouTube

Sources

• Music Maker Foundation, “Discover the Piedmont Blues”
• North Carolina Music Office on Blind Boy Fuller
• New Georgia Encyclopedia on Blind Willie McTell
• Smithsonian on John Cephas and the East Coast/Piedmont geography