DELTA BLUES
Also known as Mississippi blues, this is the earliest guitar-dominated music to make it onto record. Consisting of performers working primarily in a solo, self-accompanied context, it also embraces the now-familiar string-band/small-combo format, both precursors to the modern-day blues band.
The Delta Blues style comes from a region in the Southern part of Mississippi, a place romantically referred to as "the land where the blues were born." In its earliest form, the style became the first African American guitar-dominated music to make it onto phonograph records back in the late 1920s. Although many original Delta Blues performers worked in a string band context for live appearances, very few of them recorded in this manner. Consequently, the recordings from the late 1920s through mid 1930s consist primarily of performers working in a solo, self-accompanied context. Either way, Delta Blues form is dominated by fiery slide guitar and passionate vocalizing, with the deepest of feelings being applied directly to the music. Its lyrics are passionate as well and in some instances stand as the highest flowering of blues songwriting as stark poetry. The form continues to the present time with new performers working in the older solo artist traditions and style; it also embraces the now-familiar string-band/small-combo format, both precursors to the modern-day blues band.
ACOUSTIC DELTA BLUES
One of two subgenres existing within the main parameters of Delta blues, the acoustic strain is the only one to exist at both ends of the music's chronological spectrum. The Delta style comes from a region in the southern part of Mississippi, a place romantically referred to as "the land where the blues were born." In its earliest form, the style became the first black guitar-dominated music to make it onto phonograph records back in the late 1920s. Although many original Delta blues performers worked in a string band context for live appearances, very few of them recorded in this manner. Consequently, the recordings from the late 1920s through mid-1930s consist primarily of performers working in a solo, self-accompanied context. The form continues to the present time with new performers working in the older solo artist traditions and style.