Now you all know I like the early blues players and keep finding artists like the wonderful Nat Myers, youngsters who are covering blues standards and making them their own. I thought we featured young Muireann Bradly before singing Libba Cotton ‘ Shake Sugaree’  so named checked her. Gonna follow her more closely after this great classic blues number 

Muireann Bradley - When The Levee Breaks

Follow Muireann here . . . . .

she’s 18!

Muireann has a single of Don’t Think Twice out check it!

We love Libba! Elizabeth Cotten LIVE in 1975 | FLOPPY BOOT STOMP

 

Elizabeth Cotten LIVE in Portland OR 1975

Elizabeth Cotten

Euphoria Tavern

Portland OR

1975-02-19

1st Set

01. Intro

02. Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie

03. When I Lay My Burdens Down

04. Washington Blues

05. Gaslight Blues

06. Seeger Story

07. Vastopol

08. Turkey Story

09. Traveler Story

10. Spanish Flang Dang

11. Wreck of the '97

12. Radio Announcements

13. Honey Babe Your Papa Cares for You

14. Jesus Lifted Me (Cut)

2nd Set

15. Oh How I Love Jesus (Cuts In)

16. Unknown Title

17. Banter

18. Freight Train

19. Happy New Year story

20. New Year's Eve

21. Guitar Story

22. Wilson Rag

23. Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad

24. Blues/Church Story

25. Ball the Jack

26. Banjo Intro 

27. Banjo Story

28. Here Old Rattler Here

29. Nearer My God to Thee

30. What a Friend We Have in Jesus (Instrumental)

31. What a Friend We Have in Jesus (Vocals)

32. Shake Sugaree

a special live recording from the base HQ and we love Elizabeth ‘Libba’ Cotten don’t we? Radio quality recording and love this . . . . . 

Muireann Bradley - "Shake Sugaree" - McNally Guitars Session |

 So I will bid you Good Night with this . . . I know we have posted two version of Elizabeth ‘Libba’ Cotton's Shake Sugaree and noted it has been covered by loads of folk (including the last version shared with her very own granddaughter, Brenda Evans) to Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead but here’s an absolute cracker of a version by this youngster which restores my faith in humanity  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . enjoy and Night all!

and yes I know its an advert for the guitars but hey . . . . . . let’s all go buy one would be my best advice!

"Shake Sugaree" by Muireann Bradley

playing her new custom McNally Guitars S model

Elizabeth Cotten ‎- Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs And Tunes (1958) | ZERO G SOUNDS

Mo’ Libba

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (1895-1987), best known for her timeless song "Freight Train," built her musical legacy on a firm foundation of late 19th- and early 20th-century African-American instrumental traditions. Through her songwriting, her quietly commanding personality, and her unique left-handed guitar and banjo styles, she inspired and influenced generations of younger artists. In 1984 Cotten was declared a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts and was later recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a "living treasure." She received a Grammy Award in 1985 when she was ninety, almost eighty years after she first began composing her own works.

Recorded in 1957 and early 1958 by Mike Seeger, "Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes" collects the influential debut sides cut by a then-62-year-old Elizabeth Cotten; even decades after their first release, they remain a veritable primer in the art of finger-picked style guitar playing. The quaint, homespun quality of the material - much of it recorded at Cotten's home with her grandchildren looking on in silence - adds immensely to its intimacy and warmth; the sound quality varies wildly from track to track, but the amazing instrumental work shines through regardless on tracks like the opening "Wilson Rag" and the now-standard "Freight Train.”                

Freight train, freight train . . . here


Tracklist:

1	Wilson Rag	1:35
2	Freight Train	2:42
3	Going Down The Road Feeling Bad	2:09
4	I Don't Love Nobody	1:10
5	Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now	0:53
6	Graduation March	2:29
7	Honey Babe Your Papa Cares For You	2:11
8	Vastopol	2:08
9	Here Old Rattler Here / Sent For My Fiddle Sent For My Bow / George Buck	3:45
10	Run…Run / Mama Your Son Done Gone	2:15
11	Sweet Bye And Bye / What A Friend We Have In Jesus	3:00
12	Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie	4:40
13	Spanish Flang Dang	2:49
14	When I Get Home	2:21

This is nice and great quality always enjoy more Elizabeth Cotten

Indelibly etched in the collective memory she does this wonderful old song proud . . that’s because she wrote it!

Aw heck, just checked and this is still commercially available so go get it

Buy it here:

if you wish me to remove it please get in touch before setting any web sherrifs on me. . . . . it should be in the public domain by now and heaven knows Libba won’t make anything from it!

indeed the whole album is available on the Internet Archive so I consider it in the public domain and players like YouTube can access the whole thing here

Elizabeth ‘Libba’ Cotten - Shake Sugaree | ZEROSOUNDS

 ‘LIBBA' COTTEN

Elizabeth Cotten - Shake Sugaree | Zero Sounds

ZeroG says:

Elizabeth Cotten was a national treasure. She didn't begin recording until she was 66 years old (in 1958), but a simple song she had written when she was 11, "Freight Train," became a staple of the folk revival in the 1960s, and her frequent concerts and appearances on the folk circuit were legendary for their unassuming grace and wisdom, not to mention her unique guitar skills. 

Left-handed, Cotten played her guitars and banjos upside down and backward, and her picking style gave the bass strings a clear sound while working muted harmonics on the treble strings, all of which resulted in an idiosyncratic guitar style that, coupled with her frequent open tunings, gave her playing a special singularity. Her vocals were often fragile-sounding and shaky, but so full of a natural clarity and joy that it's hard to imagine her singing any other way, and what might have been a weakness only added to her ability to connect with audiences. 

This collection from Smithsonian Folkways is a revised reissue of her second LP, which originally appeared in 1965, with ten previously unreleased tracks added. The title cut, "Shake Sugaree," has had almost as long a life as "Freight Train," and has been covered by the likes of the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan in concert. Cotten's version is sung in a lovely, seemingly effortless fashion by her great grandchild, Brenda Evans (then only 12 years old), with Cotten providing the guitar lines, and the song itself is a whimsical set of half-riddles intended as a lullaby. Many of these tracks are brief guitar instrumentals, what Mike Seeger calls "parlor ragtime" in his liner notes, and the pair of instrumental church pieces that close the disc, "Till We Meet Again" and "When the Train Comes Along," are particularly striking. Other highlights include "Untitled/Georgie Buck," which begins with an improvised bit of banjo-style guitar picking before morphing into "Georgie Buck," a well-known Appalachian banjo and fiddle tune. The goofy "Shoot That Buffalo," which Cotten plays on banjo, accelerates as it unwinds, and it is easy to imagine children being delighted by its kinetic energy and playful lyrics. The haunting banjo song "Reuben," here played on guitar in open D tuning, is another highlight. Libba Cotten's fans are loyal and enduring and will be delighted with this expanded edition of "Shake Sugaree". Listeners new to Cotten may want to start with her first Smithsonian Folkways album, "Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes", or even 1984's "Live!" (which earned Cotten a Grammy Award in 1985, when she was 90 years old), or better yet, pick up all three, making a sort of collected works. She's that special.   

This is lovely . . . the woman who wrote ‘Freight Train’ aged 11! I reckon a few more trad arr too!

Elizabeth 'Libba' Cotton

 Not much new so far around t'interwebbiewatchamacallit . . . . . .so

What do you notice about this picture? Maybe printed the wrong way round as she appears to be playing the guitar left handed? The strings are round the wrong way? !      Nope . . . . . . . . . 

Libba played it like that!

Legendary folk singer/songwriter, Elizabeth 'Libba' Cotten pictured at home playing her guitar. Unlike most left handed guitarists, Elizabeth didn’t restring the guitar and so she developed a unique playing style of picking the three bass strings with her fingers and the three treble strings with her thumb. This is the opposite of the typical way of playing and was later coined as Cotten Pickin’. She wrote 'Freight Train' you know that song dontcha?!

She is a delight . . . here she plays 'Vastapol' . . . . . 

I think I first came across her as Bobby did 'Oh babe it ain't no lie' and I thought 'Gosh I wonder who wrote that lovely song?'

It was Libba . . . . . 

I also think Bobby turned loads of folk onto 'Shake Sugarree' and certainly introduced the Grateful Dead to it . . . . 

Here she is with her 12 year old Granddaughter, Brenda Evans, singing it. Sweet as . . . . . . 

Cotton Picking style ' In The Sweet By n By'

Have a good week everybody!

 Elizabeth 'Libba' Cotton

Emily Barker and fine fine coffee . . . . . . 

The wonderful Emily Barker mentioned 'Libba' Cotton this morning on her Facebook page in relation to maybe having a daily post of things important to her and the album of Cotton gave me cause to remember the people who have covered her songs from The Grateful Dead to Bob Dylan and folk like Rhiannon Giddens. Emily also mentioned coffee and certain brands which of course we have both done on our respective facebook pages  . . . . . . . . . Cotton was a worker for the Seeger family a domestic and recalls doing the washing up and clearing dishes and also teaching Peggy and Michael some songs which she recounts on Pete Seeger's TV programme with no hint of irony or chagrin from Seeger (see below)

Here's a favourite 'Shake Sugaree' by someone we all know . . . . . . . . 



Rhiannon Giddons



Here's Libba with a song she wrote. . . . . .yup she wrote 'Freight Train'!