Hidden Figures: Elizabeth Cotten

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Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) was an American folk musician, singer, & songwriter. Cotten is considered a key figure in both American & British rock and folk musical history; a self-taught left-handed guitarist, her music is foundational to popular folk music due to her distinct and original style.

Cotten was born in 1893 to a musical family in North Carolina. A self-taught prodigy, by the age of 8, she was composing songs. ("Freight Train", a song written when she was 13, would go on to become her most recognized.) In 1910, at the age of 17, she married & had a daughter, & for the next 40 years, retired from guitar playing to take care of her family. In the later half of the 1950s, Cotten began working as a housekeeper & nanny for the Seeger family, which was made up of famous composers & musicologists. Taking note of the songs Cotten would sing would while working in their home, Mike Seeger began making recordings of her. These recordings were released in 1958; the album was re-released on Smithsonian folk music imprint Folkways Records as 'Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes' in 1989.

Another member of the Seeger family, folksinger Peggy Seeger, performed Cotten’s song "Freight Train" when she traveled to England. It became very popular in UK folk music circles, & a pair of British songwriters stole the song, copyrighting it as their own composition & receiving royalties for years. The song also became a hit in the United States. When Cotten & the influential Seeger family heard of the song’s popularity in the US & overseas, they successfully sued for correct attribution of Cotten as the songwriter & owner of the copyright. She was subsequently paid royalties for the song.

After her first album was released, she began playing concerts in 1960, when she was 67 years old. She went on to play shows & festivals with big names in the folk revival scene, & in 1967, when she was in her mid-70s, she recorded her second album, ‘Shake Sugaree,’ followed by her third, ‘When I'm Gone.’ Using profits from touring, record releases and awards, Cotten was able to buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She continued touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984, at the age of 91, she was named a National Heritage Fellow and won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording, for her fourth album 'Elizabeth Cotten Live!'.

Elizabeth Cotten died on June 29, 1987 in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94. In 2012, a bronze casting of her was unveiled in a park near Syracuse University that is also named for her. In 2013, North Carolina named her an influential daughter of the state, putting up a Historical Marker in her honor.

#HiddenFigures #ElizabethCotten

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Links:

Remembering Folk Icon Elizabeth Cotten and Her Distinctive Guitar Approach:
https://acousticguitar.com/rememberin...

Elizabeth Cotten - Master of American folk music:
https://folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cot...

She was a maid at 9, wrote a hit song at 11 — and won a Grammy at 93:
https://timeline.com/elizabeth-cotton...

North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program:
http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx...

Elizabeth Cotten Wrote “Freight Train” at 11, Won a Grammy at 90, and Changed American Music In-Between:
https://www.openculture.com/2019/05/e...

"Remembering Elizabeth Cotten:"
https://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/nonfic...

"Freight Train" by Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten:
https://folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cot...

Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar - Elizabeth Cotten:
https://folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cot...

Elizabeth Cotten:
http://mastersoftraditionalarts.org/a...