Noted folk singer Elizabeth Cotton
Still Going Strong
at age 92
By Jim Reilly - 1985

She has lived that dream many times.
Best known as the songwriter of "Freight
Train," "Shake Sugaree," "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie,"
and other classic country blues, she played at clubs and festivals from New
York to Hawaii. She was an active performer well into her 90s, often appearing with her
singer/songwriter granddaughter, Johnine Rankin.
Cotton's wit and storytelling skills remained sharp, though
her hearing had faded and her voice had grown a bit thin.

"0l' Georgia bug, ol' Georgia bug, ol' Georgia bug
said so," Cotton sang, watching the crowd. "Sing, son," she
prodded as a little boy joined in.
She sang "Freight Train" with a little
wide-eyed, red-haired girl she called up out of the audience, then "I'm on
My Way to the Promised Land," "Do Lord Remember Me," and
"Tell It on the Mountain High."
She ignored the repeated requests for "Shake
Sugaree."
In her later years, she left the blues to granddaughter, who sang her own songs, her grandmother's songs, and traditional folk
and gospel songs in a rich, ringing voice.
"I don't sing the blues no more unless I have
to," Cotton said in her later years. "When I joined a church in Chapel Hill, the deacon
said I couldn't play those worldly songs and be a member of the Baptist Church
... so now I play church songs, and it's done me a world of good."

She learned to play the guitar by picking out a tune on
one string and then adding to the skill. She played left-handed, but with the
guitar strung for a right-handed player, so in effect she played upside
down. Her rhythmic "Cotton picking" guitar style influenced many
other blues and acoustic guitar players. She learned to play the banjo by
listening to her older brother and sneaking practice time on his banjo when he
was at work.
"He didn't have to show me nothin' 'cause I heard it
day and night,” she admitted. "I was always breakin' the strings. I'd play it
till the string said pwang, then I'd hang it hack up on the nail and hide under
the bed."
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Morristown Daily Record, June 30, 1987 |
After a move to Washington, she went to work for the
musical Seeger family. She had been working in a department store when she met
Ruth Crawford Seeger, and left to help with housework and care for the young
Pete and brother Mike (both became well-known folk singers). She also helped
raise her own five grandchildren.
It was with the Seegers in the early 1960s that Cotton
picked up her guitar and began performing again, eventually joining the Seegers
in concert.
Early in 1984, Cotton, who moved to Syracuse, was
named National Heritage Fellow along with 16 other traditional folk artists.
She claimed that her favorite song was "On My Way to the Promised Land," an old spiritual, “cause I'm on my way.” She ended her concerts with “God Be' With You Till We Meet Again.”
She claimed that her favorite song was "On My Way to the Promised Land," an old spiritual, “cause I'm on my way.” She ended her concerts with “God Be' With You Till We Meet Again.”
Her body was cremated after she passed in 1987.
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