Elizabeth Cotten
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1895 – June 29, 1987) was an American
blues and folk musician
, singer, and songwriter
.
A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
, at the border of Chapel Hill, to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevills and Louise Price Nevills. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo
. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At 11, after scraping together some money, she bought her own guitar
. She became very good at playing the instrument, which she named "Stella." By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, "Freight Train
", would go on to be one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote "Freight Train" when she saw a train pass by her house on Lloyd Street in Carrboro, North Carolina
.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. Soon after at age 15, she was married to Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family
and church
.
Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around eastern United States
for a number of years between North Carolina
, New York
, and Washington, D.C.
, finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
While working for a brief stint in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger
. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger
's children, Mike
, Peggy
, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.
began making bedroom reel to reel
recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. The culmination of these recordings would later go on the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records
. Since its release, her songs, especially her signature track, "Freight Train", written when she was 11, have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia
, Bob Dylan
, Joan Baez
, Devendra Banhart
, Laura Gibson
, Laura Veirs
, His Name Is Alive
and Taj Mahal
.
Shortly afterwards, she began playing selected joint shows with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College
. One of her songs, "Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now", was in fact recorded by Blind Boy Fuller
under the title "Lost Lover Blues" in 1940.
Over the course of the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play more shows with big names in the burgeoning folk revival
. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt
, John Lee Hooker
, and Muddy Waters
at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival
and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The newfound interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play and in 1967, she released a record created with her grandchildren which took its name from one of the songs she had written, Shake Sugaree
.
Using profits from her touring and record releases, as well as from the many awards given to her for contribution to the folk arts, Elizabeth moved with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington and bought a house in Syracuse, New York
. She continued touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984 she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for her album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles
, her comment was "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all". In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women chosen to be included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.
Elizabeth Cotten died in Syracuse, New York
, at the age of 92.
Her unmistakably original chords
, melodies and finger picking techniques would go on to influence many other musicians.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues and folk musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, singer, and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
.
A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
Early life
Elizabeth Nevills was born in Carrboro, North CarolinaCarrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro is a town in Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 19,582 at the 2010 census. The town, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, was named after North Carolina industrialist Julian Shakespeare Carr.Located near Chapel Hill and...
, at the border of Chapel Hill, to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevills and Louise Price Nevills. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At 11, after scraping together some money, she bought her own guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. She became very good at playing the instrument, which she named "Stella." By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, "Freight Train
Freight Train (song)
Freight Train is a song on the 1989 album by Nitro, O.F.R.. In the video for Freight Train, Michael Angelo Batio uses the one-of-a-kind quad guitar, which is a guitar with 4 necks. The top two necks have 7 strings and the bottom 2 have 6 strings. Unfortunately, that guitar was stolen after the...
", would go on to be one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote "Freight Train" when she saw a train pass by her house on Lloyd Street in Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro is a town in Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 19,582 at the 2010 census. The town, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, was named after North Carolina industrialist Julian Shakespeare Carr.Located near Chapel Hill and...
.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. Soon after at age 15, she was married to Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
and church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
.
Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around eastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for a number of years between North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
Re-discovery
Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. It wasn't until she reached her 60s that she began recording and performing publicly. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.While working for a brief stint in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger , born Ruth Porter Crawford, was a modernist composer and an American folk music specialist.-Life:...
. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger
Charles Seeger
Charles Seeger, Jr. was a noted musicologist, composer, and teacher. He was the father of iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger .-Life:...
's children, Mike
Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary...
, Peggy
Peggy Seeger
Margaret "Peggy" Seeger is an American folksinger. She is also well known in Britain, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl.- The first American period :...
, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.
Later career and recordings
During the later half of the 1950s, Mike SeegerMike Seeger
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary...
began making bedroom reel to reel
Reel to Reel
* For the audio technology, see "Reel-to-reel audio tape recording"Reel to Reel is the debut album by Grand Puba. It was Puba's first solo venture, following group projects with the likes of the short lived group Masters of Ceremony and Brand Nubian. Both of the group’s albums were critically...
recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. The culmination of these recordings would later go on the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
. Since its release, her songs, especially her signature track, "Freight Train", written when she was 11, have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart
Devendra Obi Banhart is a singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San...
, Laura Gibson
Laura Gibson
Laura Gibson is a Portland-area folk singer and songwriter. She was raised in Coquille, Oregon.She currently records for the independent U.S. label Hush Records. In 2008, she toured the United States as the opening act for Colin Meloy. She also added vocal harmonies to his Colin Meloy Sings Sam...
, Laura Veirs
Laura Veirs
Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter.Veirs was raised in Colorado, studied geology and Mandarin Chinese at Carleton College, worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.While growing up, she heard folk-country, classical, and pop...
, His Name Is Alive
His Name Is Alive
His Name Is Alive is an experimental rock band/project from Livonia, Michigan. After several self-released cassettes, they debuted on 4AD Records in 1990, starting a long run at the label...
and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
.
Shortly afterwards, she began playing selected joint shows with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
. One of her songs, "Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now", was in fact recorded by Blind Boy Fuller
Blind Boy Fuller
Blind Boy Fuller was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists with rural Black Americans, a group that also included Blind Blake, Josh White, and Buddy Moss.-Life and career:Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina,...
under the title "Lost Lover Blues" in 1940.
Over the course of the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play more shows with big names in the burgeoning folk revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, and Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The newfound interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play and in 1967, she released a record created with her grandchildren which took its name from one of the songs she had written, Shake Sugaree
Shake Sugaree
Shake Sugaree is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Fishin' Blues"# "Brown Girl In The Ring"# "Light Rain"# "Quavi, Quavi"# "Shake Sugaree"# "Funky Bluesy ABC's"# "Talkin' John Henry"# "Railroad Bill"# "A Soulful Tune"...
.
Using profits from her touring and record releases, as well as from the many awards given to her for contribution to the folk arts, Elizabeth moved with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington and bought a house in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
. She continued touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984 she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for her album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, her comment was "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all". In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women chosen to be included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.
Elizabeth Cotten died in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, at the age of 92.
Unique style
Elizabeth Cotten began writing music while toying around with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed so she played the banjo "backwards". Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, a unique style was formed, since on the banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, as on the guitar but a short high pitched string called a drone string. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar, which she first played with all finger down strokes like a banjo. Later this evolved into a unique style of finger picking, and her signature, alternating bass style is known as "Cotten Picking".Her unmistakably original chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
, melodies and finger picking techniques would go on to influence many other musicians.
Liner notes
- Seeger, Mike. Liner Notes accompanying Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, by Elizabeth Cotten. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Folkways, 1989.
Recordings on CD
- Elizabeth Cotten. Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes. Smithsonian Folkways.
- Elizabeth Cotten. Shake Sugaree. Smithsonian Folkways.
- Elizabeth Cotten. Live!. Arhoolie Records.
- Elizabeth Cotten. Vol. 3: When I'm Gone. Folkways Records.
Special collections
- "Mike Seeger Collection Inventory (#20009)" Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, November 2002
Video and DVD
- Masters of the Country Blues: Elizabeth Cotten and Jesse Fuller. Yazoo, 1960.
- Elizabeth Cotten with Mike Seeger. Vestapool Productions, 1994.
- Legends of Traditional Fingerstyle Guitar. Cambridge, Mass.: Rounder Records, 1994.
- Mike Seeger and Elizabeth Cotten. Sparta, NJ: Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, 1991.
- Jesse Fuller and Elizabeth Cotten. Newton, NJ: Yazoo Video, 1992.
- Me and Stella: A film about Elizabeth Cotten. New Brunswick, NJ: Phoenix Films and Video, 1976.
- John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten: Rare Performances and Interviews. Vestapool Productions, 1969, 1994.
- Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger. Judy Collins and Elizabeth Cotten. Shanachie Entertainment, 2005.
- Libba Cotten, an interview and presentation ceremony. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1985.
- Homemade American Music. Aginsky Productions, 1980.
- Elizabeth Cotten in concert, 1969, 1978, and 1980. Vetstapool Productions, 1969, 2003.
- The Guitar of Elizabeth Cotten. Sparta, NJ: Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, 2002.
- The Downhome Blues. Los Angeles, California: Distributed by Philips Interactive Media, 1994.
- Elizabeth Cotten Portrait Collection. Public Broadcasting System, United States, 1977–1985.
Further reading
- Smith, Jessie Carney. Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1993.
- Hood, Phil. Artists of American Folk Music: the legends of traditional Folk, the stars of the sixties, the virtuosi of new acoustic music. New York: Quill, 1986.
- Wenberg, Michael. Elizabeth's Song. Oregon: Beyond Words Pub.Beyond Words PublishingBeyond Words Publishing is a book publishing company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1983, the company was unprofitable in its early years, though its works were award winning. The privately owned company focuses on non-fiction titles in the New Age genre, but began as a...
, 2002. (Children's Book) - Escamilla, Brian. Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the people in music. Volume 16. 1996.
- Cohen, John, and Greil Marcus. There is no eye: John Cohen Photographs. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2001.
- Cohn, Lawrence. Nothing But the Blues: the music and the musicians. New York: Abberville Press, 1993.
- Santelli, Robert. American Roots Music. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
- Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
- Conway, Cecilia. African Banjo Echoes in Appalacia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.