Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten
Who's that Lady?
The late Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten, an unlikely musical legend of sorts, made her mark in the twilight of her life, as the songwriter of the folk classic, "Freight Train" and a regular performer during the 1960s folk revival. Cotten penned the song when she was only 11 or 12, sneaking to play her older brother's banjo and guitar, upside down, since she was left-handed. She developed a unique guitar style, which later was known as the "Cotten style."
During her teens, Cotten's church urged her to give up her "worldly" guitar, so she abandoned music for almost 50 years. It wasn't until she worked as a domestic for the Seeger family, in her mid 50s, that Cotten's musical genius was discovered. Picking up an old guitar the family had lying around, Cotten began playing tunes for young Mike and Peggy Seeger. Later, she recorded her first album—Elizabeth Cotten: Negro Folk Songs and Tunes, reissued as Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs—at age 62 and began touring.
The city of Syracuse, New York, where she spent the last years of her life, honored her in 1983 by building a park, the Elizabeth Cotten Grove, where it will erect a statue in her honor this year.
