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Blues did not develop in the area that stretches from Atlanta, Georgia to Richmond, Virginia, bordered by the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic cost until quite late. The area had been one of the first regions to be cultivated for cotton and tobacco. When the soil became depleted there was a move toward industrialization.

The folk music tradition was very strong in the area impeding the development of blues. When blues did arise it was influenced heavily by folk music. Folk traditions were merged with other newer musical styles from nearby regions in the north such as ragtime. The banjo techniques were transferred to the guitar, where musicians would use their thumb to strum down low while fingerpicking the melody high on the neck of the guitar.

When blues began to change with the introduction of the electric guitar and the urbanization of the music as more musicians migrated north to big cities, East Coast Piedmont blues died out since it could not be easily adapted to these new styles.

In the 1840s planters moved with their slaves into the Delta, a region that stretches from Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south to Memphis Tennessee in the north and from central Mississippi in the east to the Ozark plateau of Arkansas in the west. After the Civil War when slavery was abolished, African-Americans continued to work in the region on the plantations.

The early Delta blues was very similar to work songs and field hollers. The workers would sing to pass the time. With the introduction of musical instruments, blues moved from the fields to recreational gatherings. The rhythms of blues made for easy dancing and the style became popular at parties. The music was usually performed by a solo guitarist due mainly to the fact that it was easier and less expensive to travel alone and the guitar was an inexpensive and portable instrument.

Delta blues style is recognized by the gritty intensity of the vocals and by the slide guitar technique employed. The guitarist uses a knife or bottleneck on the strings of the guitar to make the instrument "talk" in speech like inflections. Most of the early Delta blues performers were part time musicians who worked in the fields during the day. As their popularity grew many performers were able to record their songs and leave their farm work to become full time musicians. Charlie Patton was the first Delta blues man to make a recording. As conditions in the South deteriorated in the 1920s many of these musicians migrated north.

Although many musicians left the region, the Delta is considered to be the origin of the blues.

Slaves were moved into the area rimmed by Houston, Austin and Dallas and cut by the Trinity and Brazos rivers to avoid the Emancipation proclamation. After the war many stayed to work on the plantations or were part of the prison farm system and were leased to white landowners.

East Texas blues is heavily influenced by work songs. The vocals are breathy and usually accompanied by a guitar or piano played percussively. Since Texas was isolated from the entertainment industry there were few commercial influences on early East Texas blues. The first recording of Texas Blues was in 1925 by Blind Lemon Jefferson. In the 1940s T-Bone Walker introduced the electric guitar to East Texas blues.