1. Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an influential American folk and blues musician.
23 Facts About Elizabeth Cotten
1. 2.
Elizabeth Cotten was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down.
3.
Elizabeth Cotten's signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
4.
That same year, Cotten was recognized as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.
5.
Elizabeth Cotten was born in 1893 in or near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, although there is debate over her exact birth date due to the poor recordkeeping of the time.
6.
Elizabeth Cotten's parents were George Nevill and Louisa Price Nevill.
7.
Elizabeth Cotten named herself on her first day of school, when the teacher asked her name, because at home she was only called "Li'l Sis".
8.
Elizabeth Cotten earned a dollar a month, that her mother saved up to buy her first guitar.
9.
Elizabeth Cotten wrote the song in remembrance of a nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home.
10.
Around the age of 13, Elizabeth Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother.
11.
The couple had a daughter, Lillie, and soon after Elizabeth Cotten gave up guitar playing for family and church.
12.
When Lillie married, Elizabeth Cotten divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
13.
Elizabeth Cotten retired from playing the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances.
14.
Elizabeth Cotten did not begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s.
15.
Elizabeth Cotten was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
16.
The Seeger family kids, who were too young to pronounce "Elizabeth Cotten", began calling her "Libba", and she embraced that nickname later in life.
17.
Elizabeth Cotten was able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s.
18.
In 1985, she won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording, for the album Elizabeth Cotten Live, released by Arhoolie Records.
19.
Elizabeth Cotten died in June 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94.
20.
Elizabeth Cotten began writing music while toying with her older brother's banjo.
21.
Elizabeth Cotten was left-handed, so she played the banjo in reverse position.
22.
Elizabeth Cotten first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo.
23.
Elizabeth Cotten's signature alternating bass style is known as "Cotten picking".