Folksongs And Instrumentals With Guitar (studio album) by Elizabeth Cotten

From RoundTheBend 02/11/2016 01:32

I'll admit the voice threw me off, so I appreciate MeccaLecca saying something about her age at the time of the recording. At first glance this is like an amateur recording from some old lady, but as you truly pay attention, it has some of the sweetest/real to life recordings I've ever heard. There's no convoluted performance. No trickery of any kind, just pure human.

From meccalecca 12/04/2013 19:02

From here lies the origin of the term “Cotten-picking”, based around her unique technique of guitar playing. Recorded in the 50s, while Cotten was in her 60s, Freight Train & Other North Carolina Folk Songs & Tunes is a collection of songs that Elizabeth Cotten had originally written in the early 1900s as a young girl. Freight Train, the most famous song of Cotten’s career was written when she was only 11 years old. Dusty, intimate folk, Cotten’s aged voice cries with the wisdom of an old soul. It’s hard to imagine the songs providing such an impact when sung in her youth. The marriage of the playful songs of her youth with the weathered voice of her 60s bridges a gap that is rarely left to be returned to.