Elizabeth Cotten

Elizabeth Cotten was born in North Carolina in 1897. She made her first instrument at age eleven, a one-string guitar from a cigar box and broom handle. That homemade guitar was where she began developing the fingerpicking style she'd become known for, playing folk and blues songs she heard growing up.

Her song 'Freight Train' became one of her most recognizable pieces, but 'Shake Sugaree' is the one that seems to have stuck around in other people's hands. It's been covered by artists like Joan Baez and Taj Mahal. She also played with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie at times, part of that mid-century folk revival scene.

Cotten's music stayed mostly acoustic and personal, songs like 'Willie' and 'Going Down The Road Feeling Bad' keeping that straightforward, unadorned quality. She didn't record much until later in life, but those recordings from the 1950s and 1960s are what people still listen to.