Country Blues vs. City Blues

Source: Oster, Harry. Living Country Blues. Detroit: Folklore Associates, 1969, p. 24.

Country Blues [a.k.a., "Down Home Blues"]	City Blues [Includes female "classic blues" singers]
Spontaneous expression of thought and mood.	Planned, arranged texts and music.
Wide range of subjects.	Concentration on love [and sexual themes].
Fluid use of form.	Precise classical form, predictable 12-bar structure.
Non-European harmony, use of drones, tendency toward single chord accompaniment.	Standard chord progressions, clearly defined use of tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords.
Unaccompanied voice, or most commonly solo performer accompanying himself on a guitar; in groups, reliance on folk and sometimes home-made instruments, e.g., guitar, harmonica, country style fiddle, percussion in the form of a washboard.	A. For the accompaniment of the so-called "classic blues singers" of the twenties and early thirties, women like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, etc., the use of a group of formal instruments, piano, trumpet, trombone, sometimes clarinet, saxophone, plus a rhythm section, playing in the idiom of the small jazz band of the 1920s. B. With the supplanting of the "classic blues singers" by mostly male performers, whose singing and playing were rooted in country styles, the use of some informal instruments for accompaniment, guitar, piano, plus a rhythm section of drums and bass. However, as in A, adherence to definite arrangements.