The Piedmont Blues, a finger-picking style of blues guitar, was influenced by earlier traditions of ragtime, parlor guitar, and string band music. Beginning in 1930s Durham, the Piedmont Blues style was prominent among the musicians who played for the large crowds at North Carolina tobacco auctions, cementing the reputations of such blues artists as Reverend Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, and the great Fulton Allen, better known as “Blind Boy” Fuller. Edgecombe County native George Higgs first saw the blues performed at Durham’s tobacco auctions, and he spent the next 60 years performing, composing and recording blues on guitar and harmonica. Carrboro resident Elisabeth Cotten (1895–1987) famed for her finger-picked song “Freight Train,” received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1984 and a Grammy Award in 1985, at age 90. Another Orange County native, John Dee Holeman, was born in 1929 and learned the Piedmont Blues style from family members. Honored with both the National Heritage Fellowship and the North Carolina Heritage Award, Holeman, who has toured internationally, continues to occasionally perform locally in conjunction with the Music Makers Relief Foundation. Early in his career, Holeman added buck dance and tap to his repertoire, features that were also a staple of blues guitarist Algia Mae Hinton’s (1929–2018) performances. She, too, received a North Carolina Heritage Award.

Foothill and mountain counties also fostered Piedmont Blues musicians. Etta Baker (1913–2006), a guitarist and banjo player, received highest honors from the nation and her home state for her lifetime of music. She received the National Heritage Fellowship in 1991, and the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1989. Baker’s music blended blues, old-time country, and other styles, a diversity of art that was mirrored in her own tri-racial (white, black, and American Indian) heritage. Howard Colbert grew up in a musical family in Lenoir, the son and grandson of banjo players. As a blues guitarist he moved to New York where he played music professionally, and then returned home to North Carolina. Other leading practitioners of the Lenoir-area blues tradition include guitarist Clyde "Pop" Ferguson and his son Clyde Ferguson, Jr., a bass player, guitarist Roger Hicks, and the Harris Brothers.

Click on the picture to the left to read an article from the Oxford American about the Piedmont Blues.