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)

Tonight we have Mississippi John Hurt, who is on Pete Seeger’s TV show Rainblow Quest some time in the mid 1960s. If I seem to be paying a lot of attention to fingerstyle guitar players I don’t apologize - it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.

Sittimg around the table with John and Pete are Hedy West, a folksinger from Northern Georgia who wrote the classic “Five Hundred Miles” and Paul Cadwell. Paul Cadwell was, or is, a banjo player, but seems to have fallen into obscurity. Any information that you have about his would be appreciated.

Pete Seeger financed the making of “Rainbow Quest” with his own money. Some might argue, after seeing this clip, that the money would have been better spent on a new sweater, but we are left with a historic collection of performances unavailable anywhere else. It is widely available on a collection of DVDs.

Jerry Reed is known to most of the world as an actor and a country singer. He had the part of Burt Reynold’s buddy “Snowman” in “Smoky and the Bandit” and sang the movie’s theme song. Jerry was also, for many years, a Nashville studio session musician and songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded two of his songs (with Jerry Reed on guitar.) Reed considered himself more of a songwriter, despite his amazing fingerstyle chops. Chet Atkins had to coax him into including instrumentals on his records. He recorded an album with Chet Atkins called “Me and Chet” in 1972.

Lately Jerry Reed has been seen on the fishing channel catching and refusing to release a largemouth bass. He is still performing at least occasionally. Here are Jerry and Chet on the show “Pop Goes the Country” in 1975.