Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten

Photograph: Original Toronto Star caption: 7/24/1980, Strumming time. Elizabeth Cotton, 87-year-old composer of Freight Train and Cotton Fields, is one of the headliners performing this weekend at the Toronto Folk Festival at Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Islands. [Incomplete].

Photographer: Boris Spremo
Publisher: Toronto Star (Firm)
Collection: Toronto Star Photograph Archive
Source: Toronto Public Library

Remembering Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, who was born on this day back in 1893. Cotten was a self-taught, American folk and blues musician. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, in the “Early Influence” category.

Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987), was born in Carrboro, NC. Cotten’s style was unique and highly regarded by many famous musicians. In 1984, Elizabeth Cotten won a GRAMMY award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording.

A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. She played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down, as she was left-handed. 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".

“I play my guitar upside down, I guess you can see that, can’t you? Well, I was learning to play my guitar, I would ask my brother to show me, and that’s the answer I would get: ‘You got it upside down, turn it around or change the strings.’ Well, I changed the strings, and it was worse when I changed, so I’d leave it like this. No one helped me. Everything I played tonight, I give myself credit, because no one helped me.”
- Libba Cotten