{{Short description|American folk and blues musician (1893–1987)}} {{about|the American folk musician|the American librarian and activist|Elizabeth Brownrigg Henderson Cotten}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Elizabeth Cotten | image = Elizabeth Cotten.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Elizabeth Nevills | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1893|1|5}} | birth_place = Carrboro, North Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|6|29|1893|1|5}} | death_place = Syracuse, New York, U.S. | origin = | instrument = {{flatlist| * Guitar * banjo * vocals }} | genre = {{flatlist| * Folk * blues }} | occupation = {{hlist|Musician|songwriter}} | years_active = | label = {{flatlist| * Folkways * Smithsonian * Arhoolie }} }}
'''Elizabeth''' "'''Libba'''" '''Cotten''' ({{née}} '''Nevills'''; January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987)<ref name="bare">{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger | location= Santa Barbara, California| page=278 | isbn= 978-0313344237}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Happy Birthday Libba Cotten! |url=https://www.ncarts.org/comehearnc/365-days-music/happy-birthday-libba-cotten |access-date=March 8, 2022 |website=ncarts.org }}{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Remembering Elizabeth Cotten by L. L. Demerle' |url=https://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/nonfiction/demerlee.html |access-date=March 8, 2022 |website=eclectica.org}}</ref> was an influential American folk and blues musician. She was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down.<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last=Larkin |editor-first=Colin|year=2009|chapter=Cotten Elizabeth 'Libba'|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195313734.001.0001/acref-9780195313734-e-36858|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music |edition=4th |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531373-4}}</ref> This position meant that she played the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zollo|first=Rick|year=2006|title=Cotten Picking: Elizabeth Cotten and the Folk Revival|journal=Shenandoah|volume= 56| issue = 2|pages=67–75}}</ref> NPR stated "her influence has reverberated through the generations, permeating every genre of music."<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Elizabeth Cotten's music fueled the folk revival |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/06/29/1107090873/how-elizabeth-cottens-music-fueled-the-folk-revival |website=NPR|date=June 29, 2022 |last1=McCabe |first1=Allyson }}</ref>
Her album ''Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar'' (1958), was placed into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, and was deemed as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The album included her signature recording "Freight Train", a song she wrote in her early teens.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-14 |title=Elizabeth Cotten: musician who kickstarted the folk revival |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elizabeth-cotten-pioneering-musician-kickstarted-folk-revival/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1984, her live album ''Elizabeth Cotten Live!'', won her a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording, at the age of 90.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth Cotten: Master of American folk music |url=https://folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cotten-master-american-folk/music/article/smithsonian |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}</ref> That same year, Cotten was recognized as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth Cotten |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/elizabeth-cotten |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}</ref> In 2022, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as an early influence.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elizabeth Cotten {{!}} Rock & Roll Hall of Fame |url=https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/elizabeth-cotten |website=www.rockhall.com |access-date=May 4, 2022}}</ref>
==Early life== Cotten was born in 1893<ref name="U.S. Federal Census 1870">U.S. Federal Census, Chapel Hill. 1870, 1880, 1900.</ref> in or near Chapel Hill, North Carolina,<ref name="U.S. Federal Census 1870"/> although there is debate over her exact birth date due to the poor recordkeeping of the time.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Her parents were George Nevill (also spelled Nevills) and Louisa (or Louise) Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. She named herself on her first day of school, when the teacher asked her name, because at home she was only called "Li'l Sis".<ref name="I Dream a World">{{cite book |editor-last=Summers |editor-first=Barbara |editor-link=Barbara Summers |date=1989 |title=I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America |publisher=Stewart, Tabori, & Chang |others=photographs and interviews by Brian Lanker |location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/idreamworldportr00lank/page/156 156] |isbn=155670092X |oclc=18745605 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/idreamworldportr00lank/page/156 }}</ref> By the age of eight, she was playing songs. At age nine, she was forced to quit school and began work as a domestic worker.<ref name="Govenar">{{cite book| editor-last=Govenar |editor-first=Alan |year=2001 |chapter=Elizabeth Cotten: African American Songster and Songwriter |title=Masters of Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=1 (A-J)|location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-Clio |pages=144–146|isbn=1576072401|oclc=47644303}}</ref> At the age of twelve, she had a live-in job at Chapel Hill. She earned a dollar a month, that her mother saved up to buy her first guitar.<ref name=bailey>{{Cite book|title = The Remarkable Lives of 100 Women Artists|last = Bailey|first = Brooke|publisher = Bob Adams|year = 1994|isbn = 1-55850-360-9|pages = [https://archive.org/details/remarkableliveso0000bail/page/32 32]|url = https://archive.org/details/remarkableliveso0000bail/page/32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Elizabeth Cotten – Masters of Traditional Arts|url=http://mastersoftraditionalarts.org/artists/72|access-date=October 6, 2020|website=mastersoftraditionalarts.org}}</ref> The guitar, a Sears and Roebuck brand instrument, cost $3.75 ({{inflation|US|3.75|1904|fmt=eq}}).<ref name=bailey/> Although self-taught, she became proficient at playing the instrument,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/nonfiction/demerlee.html|title=Remembering Elizabeth Cotten |access-date=April 7, 2008 |author=Demerle', L. L. |year=1996}}</ref> and her repertoire included a large number of rags and dance tunes.<ref name="Govenar"/>
By her early teens, she was writing her own songs, one of which, "Freight Train", became one of her most recognized.<ref name="induction 2022"/> She wrote the song in remembrance of a nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home.<ref name="Govenar"/> The 1956 UK recording of the song by Chas McDevitt and Nancy Whiskey was a major hit and is credited as one of the main influences on the rise of skiffle in the UK.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chasmcdevitt.com/Skiffle.htm |title=Ridin' the Freight Train with Chas McDevitt |date=January 24, 2003 |access-date=February 2, 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524021114/http://www.chasmcdevitt.com/Skiffle.htm |archive-date=May 24, 2013 }}</ref>
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. On November 7, 1910, at the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten.<ref>Orange County Register of Deeds Office, Marriage License Book 10, p. 268.</ref> The couple had a daughter, Lillie, and soon after Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years, between North Carolina, New York City, 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.
==Rediscovery== Cotten retired from playing the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She did not begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Peggy Seeger, and the mother was the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Cotten again began working as a maid, this time for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger, and caring for their children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. The Seeger family kids, who were too young to pronounce "Elizabeth", began calling her "Libba", and she embraced that nickname later in life.<ref name="meaning of folk">{{cite news |last1=Struck |first1=Jules |title=A star after 60: Syracuse's Elizabeth 'Libba' Cotten taught Jerry Garcia, Pete Seeger the meaning of folk music |url=https://www.syracuse.com/music/2022/05/a-star-after-60-syracuses-elizabeth-libba-cotten-taught-jerry-garcia-pete-seeger-the-meaning-of-folk-music.html |access-date=5 May 2022 |work=The Post-Standard |date=5 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family that included Pete Seeger, a son of Charles from a previous marriage), she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again and relearned to play it, almost from scratch.<ref name=bailey/>
==Later career and recordings== In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel-to-reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house.<ref name="mike seeger">Mike Seeger Collection Inventory (#20009), Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.</ref> These recordings later became the album ''Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar'', which was released by Folkways Records. Since the release of that album, her songs, especially her signature song, "Freight Train" — which she wrote when she was a teenager — have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joe Dassin, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, Tommy Emmanuel, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal, Geoff Farina, Esther Ofarim and Country Teasers.<ref name="induction 2022"/><ref name="meaning of folk"/>
Peggy Seeger took the song "Freight Train" with her to England, where it became popular in folk music circles. British songwriters Paul James and Fred Williams subsequently misappropriated it as their own composition and copyrighted it. Under their credit, it was then recorded by British skiffle singer Chas McDevitt, who recorded the song in December 1956. Under advice from his manager (Bill Varley), McDevitt then brought in folk-singer Nancy Whiskey and re-recorded the song with her doing the vocal; the result was a chart hit. McDevitt's version influenced many young skiffle groups of the day, including The Quarrymen. Under the advocacy of the influential Seeger family, the copyright was eventually restored to Cotten.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://biography.yourdictionary.com/elizabeth-cotten |accessdate=July 17, 2017 |title="Elisabeth Cotten" |website=Biography.yourdictionary.com |archive-date=August 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826080720/http://biography.yourdictionary.com/elizabeth-cotten |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chas-mcdevitt-mn0000083674 |accessdate=July 17, 2017 |title="Chas McDevitt"|website=AllMusic}}</ref> Nevertheless, it remains mis-credited in many sources.
Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.
In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the 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.
[[File:Elizabeth Cotten Statue.jpg|thumb|Bronze statue of Cotten in Libba Cotten Grove, South State St., Syracuse NY.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nolan |first1=Maureen |title=Libba's legacy: Musician Elizabeth Cotten to be honored with statue |url=https://www.syracuse.com/cny/2010/02/libbas_legacy_musician_elizabeth_cotten_to_be_honored_with_statue.html |access-date=5 May 2022 |work=The Post-Standard |date=21 February 2010 |language=en}}</ref>]]
The newfound interest in her work inspired her to write more songs to perform, and, in 1967, she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, "Shake Sugaree". The song featured 12-year-old Brenda Joyce Evans, Cotten's great-grandchild, and future Undisputed Truth singer.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
Using profits from her touring, record releases, and awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Cotten was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She was also able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1985, she won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording, for the album ''Elizabeth Cotten Live'', released by Arhoolie Records. 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 included in the photo documentary ''I Dream a World''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth Cotten |author=<!--Not stated--> |url=https://wbssmedia.com/artists/detail/3356 |date=n.d. |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=WBSS Media}}</ref>
Cotten died in June 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/30/obituaries/elizabeth-libba-cotten-95-a-blues-and-folk-songwriter.html|title=Elizabeth (Libba) Cotten, 95, a Blues and Folk Songwriter|date=June 30, 1987|newspaper=New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref>
==Guitar style== Cotten began writing music while toying with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed, so she played the banjo in reverse position. Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, she formed a unique style, since on a 5-string banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, but a short, high-pitched string which ends at the fifth fret. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar. She first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo.<ref name=bailey/> Later, her playing evolved into a unique style of fingerpicking. Her signature alternating bass style is now known as "Cotten picking". Her fingerpicking techniques have influenced many other musicians.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=Josh|date=May 1, 2019|title=Elizabeth Cotten Wrote "Freight Train" at 11, Won a Grammy at 90, and Changed American Music In-Between|url=http://www.openculture.com/2019/05/elizabeth-cotten-wrote-freight-train-at-11.html|access-date=August 8, 2020|website=Open Culture|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Discography==
===LPs=== * ''Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar'' (1958) * Vol. 2: ''Shake Sugaree'' (1967) * Vol. 3: ''When I'm Gone'' (1979)
===Recordings on CD=== * ''Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes'' (also known as ''Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar'') (1958) * ''Shake Sugaree'' * ''Live!'' * Vol. 3: ''When I'm Gone''
===Special collections=== * [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Seeger,Mike.html Mike Seeger Collection (#20009)], Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
==Filmography== ===Video and DVD=== * ''Masters of the Country Blues: Elizabeth Cotten and Jesse Fuller'' (1960) * ''Me and Stella: A Film about Elizabeth Cotten (''1976) * ''Elizabeth Cotten Portrait Collection'' (1977–1985) * ''Homemade American Music'' (1980) * ''Libba Cotten: An Interview and Presentation Ceremony'' (1985) * ''Elizabeth Cotten with Mike Seeger'' (1994) * ''Legends of Traditional Fingerstyle Guitar'' (1994) * ''Mike Seeger and Elizabeth Cotten (''1991) * ''Jesse Fuller and Elizabeth Cotten (''1992) * ''The Downhome Blues'' (1994) * ''John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten: Rare Performances and Interviews'' (1969 & 1994) * ''Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger. Judy Collins and Elizabeth Cotten'' (2005) * ''Elizabeth Cotten in Concert, 1969, 1978, and 1980'' (1969 & 2003) * ''The Guitar of Elizabeth Cotten'' (2002)
==Awards and honors== * In 1980, 1982, and 1987, Cotten was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the Traditional Blues Female Artist category.<ref name="blues">{{cite web |url=https://blues.org/awards/ |title=Award Winners and Nominees [search] |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2019 |website=blues.org |publisher=The Blues Foundation |access-date=May 3, 2019}}</ref> * Cotten was a recipient of a 1984 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984|title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1984 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810221411/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984 |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref> * In 1985, she won the Grammy Award in the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category for ''Elizabeth Cotten Live!''<ref name="grammy">{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/elizabeth-cotten/1340 |title=Artist: Elizabeth Cotten|author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2019 |website=grammy.com |publisher=Recording Academy |access-date=May 3, 2019}}</ref> * In 1986, she was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Folk Recording category for her ''20th Anniversary Concert'' album.<ref name="grammy"/> * In 2022, Cotten was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category.<ref name="induction 2022">{{cite news |last1=Herbert |first1=Geoff |title=Syracuse folk legend Libba Cotten to be inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |url=https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2022/05/syracuse-folk-legend-libba-cotten-to-be-inducted-into-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html |access-date=5 May 2022 |work=The Post-Standard |date=4 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/music/rock-hall/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-2022-inductees-induction-class-dolly-parton-pat-benatar-eminem-duran-duran-eurythmics-judas-priest-carly-simon/95-780d297f-76c2-4105-a73d-58bedbe693b4#longform_chapter_3|title=Artist: Elizabeth Cotten:Early Influence Award|author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2022 |website=www.wkyc.com|access-date=May 4, 2022}}</ref> * In 2023, Cotten was named 36th best guitarist of all time by ''Rolling Stone''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2023-10-13 |title=The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-guitarists-1234814010/ |access-date=2023-10-14 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Further reading== * Bastin, Bruce (1986). ''Red River Blues''. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. * Cohen, John; Marcus, Greil (2001). ''There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs''. New York: PowerHouse Books. * Cohn, Lawrence (1993). ''Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians''. New York: Abbeville Press. * Conway, Cecilia (1995). ''African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. * Escamilla, Brian (1996). ''Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music''. Vol. 16. * Harris, Sheldon (1979). ''Blues Who's Who''. New York: Da Capa Press. * Hood, Phil (1986). ''Artists of American Folk Music: The Legends of Traditional Folk, the Stars of the Sixties, the Virtuosi of New Acoustic Music''. New York: Quill. * {{cite book | last=Menconi | first=David | title=Step it Up and Go | date=2020 | publisher=University of North Carolina Press | isbn=978-1-4696-5935-0}} * Santelli, Robert (2001). ''American Roots Music''. New York: Harry N. Abrams. * Seeger, Mike. Liner notes accompanying ''Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes'', by Elizabeth Cotten. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways, 1989 reissue of the 1958 album ''Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar''. * Smith, Jessie Carney (1993). ''Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference''. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. * Smith, Jesse Carney, ed. (1992). ''Notable Black American Women.'' Detroit: Gale Research. * {{cite book | last=Veirs | first=Laura | title=Libba | publisher=Chronicle Books | date=2018-01-16 | isbn=978-1-4521-4857-1}} * Wenberg, Michael (2002). ''Elizabeth's Song''. (Children's book.) Hillsboro, Oregon: Beyond Words Publishing.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://elizabethcotten.com/ Elizabeth Cotten] * {{AllMusic|id=mn0000796950|title=Elizabeth Cotten}} * {{Discogs artist}} * [https://folkways.si.edu/search?query=elizabeth+cotten/ Cotten discography at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080320003136/http://openvault.wgbh.org/saybrother/MLA000994/index.html%3A "Interview with Blues and Folk Singer Elizabeth Cotten"] for the WGBH series [https://web.archive.org/web/20100306075844/http://openvault.wgbh.org/series/Say+Brother/ ''Say Brother''] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812213721/http://guitarvideos.com/assets/vidramvesta/13019x.ram Clip of Cotten performing in 1969] * [http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood/1061/cotten_bio.html Elizabeth Cotten] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm5-WdB_aVE Elizabeth Cotten Freight Train] * [http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=G-129 North Carolina Highway Marker for Elizabeth Cotten] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108130401/http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=G-129 |date=January 8, 2021 }} * [https://sites.google.com/view/ladyplaystheblues/the-artists/elizabeth-cotten-1893-1987 Elizabeth Cotten page] at [https://sites.google.com/view/ladyplaystheblues/ Lady Plays the Blues Project]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotten, Elizabeth}} Category:1893 births Category:1987 deaths Category:American blues guitarists Category:American blues singers Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:20th-century African-American women singers Category:Blues revival musicians Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:Singers from North Carolina Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Carrboro, North Carolina Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Musicians from Syracuse, New York Category:Culture of Syracuse, New York Category:African-American guitarists Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:Guitarists from North Carolina Category:20th-century American women singers Category:Arhoolie Records artists Category:Folkways Records artists Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American women guitarists Category:Folk musicians from North Carolina Category:African-American women guitarists Category:African-American banjoists Category:20th-century American banjoists