Buck and Drew's Country Blues Review

Playing blues of the Piedmont region from the 1920s-1940s, Buck and Drew will take you back in time. From the juke joint to the back porch, singing songs about bootleggers, gamblers, rough men and rowdy women. Wailing harmonica and intricate ragtime guitar will take you back to the days of old.

Buck Hoffman was born in Austin, Texas. He moved to Maryland and he started to play guitar at age eleven. As a teenager he met a couple of the Piedmont Blues greats which influenced his style. Drew Fisher was born in Knoxville Tennessee and was raised on country and bluegrass. In his 20s Drew learned to play harmonica touring with a local blues fusion group. Listening to old recordings Drew developed his own harp style. Buck and Drew met in Knoxville and together they have a sound that reflects the deep traditions of their backgrounds. They strive to emulate the sound of Piedmont guitar and harmonica duos such as: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and John Cephas and Phil Wiggins. Their music is at home anyplace from a back porch, to a juke joint, or a festival.

Piedmont blues is an acoustic roots music, characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the guitar in which a alternating-thumb bassline pattern supports rhythm and melody. The result is comparable in sound of a ragtime panio. The Piedmont blues originated in an area including and extending beyond the Piedmont plateau of the eastern United States, which stretches from about Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia.

Noted Piedmont musicians:
Blind Blake
Reverend Gary Davis
Blind Boy Fuller
Pink Anderson
Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten
Etta Baker
Barbecue Bob
Lonnie Johnson
John Jackson
Peg Leg Howell
DeFord Bailey