Several pieces selected from the GW Collection of artwork are now on display in the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery through December 16, 2023. In GW Collection: Faculty Selection, 10 professors from the Corcoran School of Art and Design respond to the works they chose in relation to their artistic practice, pedagogical approach, or personal interests. Director of the Corcoran School and Professor of Music Lauren Onkey chose to highlight a photograph of the legendary folk singer Elizabeth (Libba) Cotten. The portrait by Brian Lanker “radiates the joy and history embedded in her music,” Onkey writes in the accompanying text.
Born near Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1893, Cotten taught herself how to play her brother’s right-handed banjo with the opposite hand, which she played backward without restringing. Elizabeth Cotten left school to work after the third grade. Making 75 cents a month cleaning houses and cooking, she saved up the $3.75 required to purchase her own guitar from a local dry-goods store. With determination and self-reliance, Cotten developed a unique picking style characterized by simple figures played on the bass strings with her fingers in counterpoint to a melody played on the treble strings with her thumb. Despite criticism from other guitarists, Elizabeth Cotten took pride in her distinctive inverted technique, creating what decades later became known as the “Cotten style.”
Elizabeth Cotten was married and had a daughter in her mid-teens. As she became immersed in family life, religion began driving a wedge between Cotten and her blossoming music career. At the recommendation of her church community, Elizabeth Cotten stopped playing her “worldly” guitar music. Ironically, many of Cotten’s songs express the devotion of their deeply religious author. “Time to Stop Your Idling,” in particular, demonstrates Cotten’s fervent faith:
“If you don’t like your brother, don’t scandalize his name/ Put it in your bosom and take it on to God/ Used to have some friends, to come along with me/ But when I got converted, they turned their backs on me.”
It was not until many years later that Cotten returned to music.
By chance encounter, Elizabeth Cotten started working for the Seeger family in Washington, D.C. as a maid and cook at age 60. The Seegers were a family of influential folk musicians and musicologists. Ruth Crawford Seeger was a noted composer and music teacher, while her husband, Charles, pioneered the field of ethnomusicology. The Seegers soon recognized Cotten’s enormous talent and, as a result, documented her music and stories in the early 1950s. Thanks to Mike Seeger’s early recordings of her work, Elizabeth Cotten gained attention by giving small concerts in the homes of Congressmen and senators, including that of John F. Kennedy. At age 62, she recorded her first album, Elizabeth Cotten: Negro Folk Songs and Tunes, which features her famous tune “Freight Train.” Unfortunately, Elizabeth Cotten battled many cases of copyright infringement after “Freight Train” experienced unexpected international success. Copyright laws often disadvantaged Black artists who were not well-educated or resourced and inexperienced in navigating the copyright system. Like many of her peers, Cotten didn’t realize that publicly performing her work would allow anyone to fix the lyrics and claim copyright. Elizabeth Cotten later was ascribed only a third of the songwriting credit.
The Cotten style, although difficult for right-handed guitarists to master, became a staple of the folk revival of the 1960s. Cotten’s career generated media acclaim and many awards, including the National Folk 1972 Burl Ives Award for her contribution to American folk music. At the age of 92, her album Elizabeth Cotten – Live! (1983) won the Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording. Moreover, Brian Lanker included her photograph in his book, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, which put her in the company of Rosa Parks, Marian Anderson, and Oprah Winfrey.
Through her songwriting, commanding personality, and unique left-handed guitar and banjo styles, Elizabeth Cotten’s influence has reverberated through generations of younger artists– permeating every genre of music. Her legacy endures not only through her recordings but also in the many musicians who continue to cover her work. Bob Dylan performed “Shake Sugaree,” and The Grateful Dead produced several renditions of “Oh, Babe, It Ain’t No Lie”. Please enjoy this playlist featuring some of Elizabeth Cotten’s masterpieces, popular interpretations of her most cherished works, and artists inspired by her innovation.
by Kendall Larade, Gallery Assistant, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery