Featuring many legendary guitarists including Blind Blake, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller, this album is a must fans of ragtime guitar playing. A friendlier and laid back form of the blues, full of melodic grace and guitar virtuosity, the East Coast was a hotbed for blues musicians, influenced by its many different musical traditions.

Includes a FREE download card allowing you to download the full album

An incredibly diverse selection of tracks which includes upbeat rags, classic songster & hokum tunes, gospel and slow blues, it Includes the little known masterpiece ‘South Carolina Rag’, by the legendary guitarist Willie Walker.

Often referred to as the Piedmont blues, it is very different in style from the harder and intense sounding Mississippi Delta blues and was pioneered by some of the greatest blues guitarists that ever lived. Typically, the Piedmont guitarist would create an alternating rhythmic bass accompaniment by moving the thumb of the picking hand between the different bass strings of the guitar, whilst one or more fingers of the same hand would pick out the melody on the higher strings. Essentially this approach gives the impression that the guitar is being played like a piano.

Blind Blake was the first commercially successful performer of this style, whose intricate fingerstyle technique and diverse repertoire ranging from upbeat rags and hokum tunes to slow blues numbers influenced all who followed, from the likes of Blind Boy Fuller, Josh White and Reverend Gary Davis, to modern day guitarists Ry Cooder, Ralph McTell and Jorma Kaukonen. Another huge influence on guitarists past and present was Blind Willie McTell who exclusively used a twelve-string guitar and, like Blake, could draw on a huge repertoire of songs from different styles. McTell was also a brilliant slide guitarist, which was unusual among the East Coast players.