Country blues, also called folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues, is one of the first types of blues music. It is also a mix of country music and blues. This style usually features a single person singing with an acoustic guitar played using fingers. It developed in the rural Southern United States during the early 1900s. It is different from urban blues, especially before World War II.

History

In the 1920s, musicians like Blind Lemon Jefferson from Texas, Charley Patton from Mississippi, and Blind Willie McTell from Georgia were among the first to record blues songs. At the same time, two types of blues developed: country blues, which came from rural areas, and urban blues, which was popular in cities.

Expert Elijah Wald explains that blues, bluegrass, and country and western music share similarities, all with origins in the southern United States. During the 1920s and 1930s, record companies separated musicians and created different styles for audiences based on race. Over time, music from rural Black and rural White communities became distinct, with artists like Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, and Willie Nelson expressing sadness about the growing differences.

Folklorist Alan Lomax was the first to use the term "country blues." He applied it to a recording he made of Muddy Waters at the Stovall Plantation in Mississippi in 1941. In 1959, music expert Samuel Charters wrote The Country Blues, a book that helped people learn more about this style. He also created an album with the same name, featuring early recordings by musicians such as Jefferson, McTell, Sleepy John Estes, Bukka White, and Robert Johnson.

Charters’ work helped bring attention to blues music that had nearly been forgotten during the folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. This movement, which focused on traditional sounds, led to terms like "folk blues" and "acoustic blues," often used for performances and recordings from that time. The term "country blues" has also been used to describe regional styles, such as Delta blues, Piedmont blues, or the earliest forms of blues from Chicago, Texas, and Memphis.