Piedmont Blues and Roots Festival Brings Music Roots Back to Laurens  

Now, after nearly 100 years, the City of Laurens is celebrating its history as the “Home of Piedmont Blues” with a new festival.

The Piedmont Blues and Roots Festival will celebrate and rediscover a style of music that was first played in Laurens.  The festival was first scheduled for Spring 2020 and then COVID hit.

In the heart of the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, at the dawn of the twentieth century, pioneers of a new form of blues began entertaining crowds with their distinctive style – Piedmont Blues.  This “happy” new style of playing did for the guitar what ragtime did for the piano, and people from every walk of life just couldn’t get enough.

The Piedmont produced musicians that would shape music and musicians for years to come, and two of the most influential artists of them all, Rev. Gary Davis and “Pink” Anderson, were born in the ‘Pride of the Piedmont,’ Laurens, S.C.  Their music, and the music from other artists like them, not only entertained crowds in the first two decades of the twentieth century, but they were also “rediscovered” in the 1950s and influenced the music of a new generation of musicians, like Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and many more.

“We are thrilled to bring a spring festival back to Laurens, and this new event is especially exciting because it celebrates Laurens’ important contribution to our culture.  This isn’t an idea that was ginned up by some committee looking for something to celebrate.  This is a city reengaging and celebrating its own truly homegrown, authentic style of music,” said Laurens Mayor Nathan Senn. “We’ve tried to maintain that authenticity in every aspect of the festival.  From the musicians who will be performing, to the craft vendors, to the decorations around town, we wanted it all to have the feel of turn-of-the-century Laurens, the time when this music was first entertaining crowds in our city.  This weekend, you’ll be able to travel through time and listen to music played in a way and in the place where it was first played.  It’ll be a great time, and we hope this will be a great start to a long tradition.”

Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style that is comparable in sound to ragtime piano.  The style is characterized by intricate fingerpicking in which the thumb alternates bass strings in a rhythmic pattern the treble strings. The highly syncopated guitar style connects closely with an earlier string-band tradition integrating ragtime, blues, and country dance songs.

The festival will begin on Saturday at 10 am with a biscuit bake-off competition and a vintage craft fair and vinyl swap that will continue throughout the day. Live music starts at noon and goes until 10 pm featuring eight different artists. Shops will be open and many food trucks will also be on the Square.

For more information and a schedule of events and performances click HERE.

Come be a part of it. Step back in time and enjoy the music that was born in Laurens, South Carolina.