Country blues

Country blues
Stylistic origins	Blues folk country
Cultural origins	Early 20th century, Southern United States
Typical instruments	Guitar harmonica
Derivative forms	Chicago blues Detroit blues electric blues Memphis blues New Orleans blues swamp blues hill country blues
Subgenres
Delta blues Louisiana blues Piedmont blues

Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues, that mixes blues elements with characteristics of country and folk. After blues' birth in the Southern United States, it quickly spread throughout the country (and elsewhere), giving birth to a host of regional styles. These include Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, Texas, Piedmont, Louisiana, West Coast, St. Louis, East Coast, Swamp, New Orleans, Delta, Hill country and Kansas City blues.

When the African-American musical tastes began to change in the early 1960s, moving toward soul and rhythm and blues music, country blues found renewed popularity as "folk blues" and was sold to a primarily white, college-age audience. Traditional artists like Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson II reinvented themselves as folk blues artists, while Piedmont bluesmen like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee found great success on the folk festival circuit.

Seminal compilations of pre-WWII country blues recordings assembled in the 1950s are the Anthology of American Folk Music and The Country Blues.

See also

• List of country blues musicians
• Hill country blues
• Fife and drum blues