Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes (Full Album)

Country: United States
Year: 1989

(1) 00:00 Wilson Rag
(2) 01:37 Freight Train
(3) 04:21 Going Down The Road Feeling Bad
(4) 06:32 I Don't Love Nobody
(5) 07:45 Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now
(6) 08:42 Graduation March
(7) 11:12 Honey Babe Your Papa Cares For You
(8) 13:25 Vastopol
(9) 15:35 Medley - A) Here Old Rattler Here B) Sent For My Fiddle Sent For My Bow C) George Buck
(10) 19:25 Medley - A) Run...Run B) Mama Your Son Done Gone
(11) 21:45 Medley - A) Sweet Bye And Bye B) What A Friend We Have In Jesus
(12) 24:46 Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie
(13) 29:30 Spanish Flangdang
(14) 32:21 When I Get Home

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1893 -- June 29, 1987) was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. 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" - wikipedia

This complete reissue of Elizabeth Cotten's first LP is best known for containing the original recording of her classic Freight Train. The breadth of her repertoire and endearing style have captivated generations of guitarists and fans of traditional American music. Freight Train includes guitar and banjo accompanied songs and tunes and features Mike Seeger's updated notes that include comments on cotten's life, musical style and song lyrics. Cotten's self-taught, upside-down, left-handed style made her one of the most original guitar and banjo players in the history of American folk music. Several of her deeply personal compositions, such as the immortal Freight Train and Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie, are included. A classic and belongs in every collection - Smithsonian Folkways

Recorded in 1957 and early 1958 by Mike Seeger, Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes collects the influential debut sides cut by a then-62-year-old Elizabeth Cotten; even decades after their first release, they remain a veritable primer in the art of finger-picked style guitar playing. The quaint, homespun quality of the material -- much of it recorded at Cotten's home with her grandchildren looking on in silence -- adds immensely to its intimacy and warmth; the sound quality varies wildly from track to track, but the amazing instrumental work shines through regardless on tracks like the opening "Wilson Rag" and the now-standard "Freight Train" - allmusic

Elizabeth Cotten was born in January of 1895 in Chapel Hill, NC, where her father worked in the mines and her mother was a maid servant and laundress. She began playing guitar at the age of eight, secretly practicing on her older brother's instrument. At the age of 12, she began to work with her mother in helping the family to scrape by, though she continued to play music with her family, in particular her siblings. Sometime around 1912 she was married and joined the church, which occasioned her to give up playing music for the next 25 years. Through a series of strange accidents, she once found the daughter of Peggy and Pete Seeger in a department store and came to work for them, which led to her re-involvement with music. She played frequently during the '60s and '70s, often with Mike Seeger; the recordings collected here were made during 1957 and 1958 at her home in Washington. Cotten has a very distinctive picking style and a beautifully fragile and off-key voice; both make these recordings a pleasure. Included are a mix of originals and personal versions. Of note are "Vastopol," which sounds nothing like the John Fahey version, and "Sweet Bye and Bye," of which this version might be specific to North Carolina. Also enjoyable is "Honey Babe Your Papa Cares for You," whose melodically vague style is characteristic of Cotten's ear and unique way of suppressing melody. If this album intrigues you, you might want to check out her live album on Arhoolie, which some believe to be even better - Rukus Juice