clarkspicks.com

Libba Cotton was working at a seasonal, Christmastime, job in a department store in Washington D.C. when she discovered a lost child and returned her to her mother. That child was Peggy Seeger, sister of Mike and Pete and daughter of musicologist Charles Seeger and composer Ruth Crawfor Seeger. Cotton went to work for the Seeger family as a cook and housekeeper when her department store job was finished and was soon discovered playing one of her original compositions “Freight Train” on a guitar belonging to the Seeger family. With the Seegers’ encouragement Cotton went on to perform and record her songs, starting a new career which lasted the rest of her long life. I saw Elizabeth Cotton perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1986, when she was 92 years old.

Cotton played left handed on a guitar strung right handed. She had taught herself to play as a child in Chapel Hill North Carolina and made up her own songs. Her playing style is similar to that of Merle Travis and Chet Atkins but upside down. In folk music circles this alternating bass fingerstyle is sometimes referred to as “Cotton Picking.” (upside down not required)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS