In honor of Elizabeth Cotten's birthday, we want to share this rare clip of her playing "Washington Blues," a song she wrote in 1965. | Dust-to-Digital

At age 85, Elizabeth Cotten demonstrates how she taught herself to play guitar as a child and performs the first tune she ever learned, "Wilson Rag." Special thanks to Mike Seeger for everything he did to bring Elizabeth Cotten's music to the world including this footage filmed at Black Hawk College in 1978. | Dust-to-Digital

Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten was born on this day in 1893. Through her songwriting and unique left-handed, upside-down playing style on guitar and banjo, Cotten has influenced generations of musicians. Here she performs her classic “Freight Train” at the Seeger family home in 1957. Cotten wrote the song as a teenager, inspired by the train sounds near her home in Carrboro, North Carolina. It appeared on her 1958 debut album, Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, released on Folkways Records and l

Remembering Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) She was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. 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 meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".

Remembering Elizabeth Cotten who was born on this day in 1893. A North Carolina born folk and blues singer/songwriter, Cotten’s unique picking style was a significant influence for Jerry during his study of American roots music. In the summer of 1961, Jerry acquired a portable record player and spent the summer studying the Elizabeth Cotten-style guitar picking and Flatt & Scruggs, among others. Cotten’s influence can be heard in Jerry’s early bluegrass and folk projects, and in later work like