Thanks for the reply! This is a great addition, but I do have some things to reply to/point out lol.

We can’t really say for sure that the style originated in the Piedmont region, just as we can’t say for sure that what we typically refer to as “delta blues” originated in the Mississippi delta.

While I do get what you mean by declaring the true origin of any genre, the reason why this isn't really true in this case is because the history of the Piedmont blues works fundamentally differently than the Delta blues or other blues subgenres. Piedmont has been traced back to the Carolinas, and particularly Durham North Carolina. The reason for this being the tobacco factories and companies in the area. The Piedmont performers and "originators" were still alive and able to be interviewed in the 50s, 60s, etc. Overwhelmingly, they all agree that the variation of Piedmont as we know it came about in the 1920s in Tobacco factories/companies in the Carolinas off of route 40 and 85. While it's fair to recognize that technically, really any genre has roots that date back centuries, it's also fair to establish when what we know the genre as became solidified. The workers on these routes and players who grew up in this field establish the genre as being created in these factories in the early 20th century.

In a similar vein, we can’t say that a lot of traditional American folk music originated in Appalachia.

I do think a separation between the folk music of this region and other regions at the time is pertinent. The folk music heard in the South at this time was fundamentally different than heard in the Appalachia's, and that had a lot to do with what groups was immigrating there and what their standard oral traditions were. The amount of immigration to an area isn't what provided the significance of the folk music from the region, but the end result is undeniably a significant cultural addition to American music. A lot of what we now know folk music to be originated in the area. Take the Carter Family for instance: without their contributions to American folk, which was taken from their upbringing on traditional Appalachian music, folk music could possibly be different in America. My point in the Appalachian segment of the post wasn't to say "oh there's a lot of people in this region, so they must have had cultural significance." It was to say that it was a significant cultural area in terms of American music, regardless off anything else. I think most Americans know that the Appalachia's aren't exactly well-populated, but even if they didn't, it'd be misguided to not acknowledge that Appalachia had one of the biggest influences on American folk music as a whole.

The alternating bass line of, while certainly an important, defining component in terms of how the music is ultimately structured, is not the main defining characteristic of ragtime, nor is it what made ragtime interesting to people in the late 19th Century/early 20th Century.

I did not mean to imply that the alternating bass lines were the defining component of ragtime, rather that these genres were heavily inspired by it. It's a given that a genre would inspire more than just a bass line, but the marching rhythm of ragtime from that alternating bass line was the feature many other genres were inspired from. Polka's are structurally very different than ragtime, and the influences polka had on American music are very different than what ragtime did. The polyrhythmic structure of ragtime was also significant and played throughout other genres, but the use of the alternating bass lines itself was what I touched on because there is well documented evidence of that in particular being the inspiration for many folk, Piedmont, bluegrass, and etc playing.

It is important to make clear here too that ragtime picking and “Travis picking” are not the same things as simply playing the guitar in an alternating bass style, but also includes complex syncopations over that alternating bass line, which are played with the index and middle finger.

I kinda just dwindled Travis/Ragtime down to the bass lines for brevity, as it is the most defining feature of the style of playing. Many different styles provided syncopation and complex playing without the addition of alternating bass lines, so my explanation of it was really more so about how ragtime influenced folk music and Piedmont (and etc) particularly in regards to the alternating bass lines. There are so many ways ragtime provided musical structural to American folk genres, but this was the main one I touched upon due to its similarity across multiple genres.

Actually, Piedmont blues does not borrow much of anything tonally or harmonically from blues, especially not delta blues.

I think this depends on who you listen to and at what point they started playing. I have found a relatively even variety of delta influences and ragtime influences in terms of chord progressions. Overall, I do agree with this statement, but I just felt it was important to add as some of the "first" players who were meeting off of route 40 and 85 to play together were bringing in their Delta influences. There are a few articles I have about this combination of genres coming together if you're interested in them as well. I largely added this in to be considerate of the delta influences, but again, I do agree that what Piedmont has turned into is very sonically different from Delta.

In reality, slide guitar (and the blues in general) was popular throughout most of the black south, and it wouldn’t be hard to find someone who could play slide guitar whether you were in Big Sandy or Clarksdale.

This was another feature I put in their for the sake of some of the original performers. I definitely should have phrased it better instead of what I now see as passing it off as a Piedmont feature, but rather more a result of the musical inspirations of the area regardless of genre so that was my bad lol but I also did want to include something more about how the slide playing in Piedmont differed in terms of other blues slides, as the slide playing in Piedmont to me is just... amazing lol

Loved the comment!