Elizabeth Cotten

Elizabeth Cotten (January 5, 1895 - June 29, 1987 in Syracuse) was an American musician. Her style was traditional blues and folk, but she is known for her unique method of playing a right-handed guitar "upside down" in standard tuning, picking the high melody with her right thumb. This style has become know as "Cotten picking." As a child, she toyed with her older siblings instruments, and began playing the guitar upside down (left handed). By age 8 she was playing songs, and scraped together enough money for her own guitar.

As a child, she toyed with her older siblings instruments, and began playing the guitar upside down (left handed). By age 8 she was playing songs, and scraped together enough money for her own guitar.

She possessed a remarkable ability to hear a song and play it exactly after hearing it only once. By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which was Freight Train, which would go on to be one of her most recognized.

Cotten's' unmistakably original chords, melodies and finger picking techniques have influenced many musicians, and in 1984 she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for her album, "Elizabeth Cotten Live".