In honor of Elizabeth Cotten's birthday, we want to share this rare clip of her playing "Washington Blues," a song she wrote in 1965. | Dust-to-Digital

At age 85, Elizabeth Cotten demonstrates how she taught herself to play guitar as a child and performs the first tune she ever learned, "Wilson Rag." Special thanks to Mike Seeger for everything he did to bring Elizabeth Cotten's music to the world including this footage filmed at Black Hawk College in 1978. | Dust-to-Digital

Elizabeth Cotten - Vestapol Elizabeth Cotten was among the most influential guitarists to surface during the roots music revival era, her wonderfully expressive and dexterous fingerpicking style a major inspiration to the generations of players who followed in her wake. Cotten was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the early weeks of 1893. After first picking up the banjo at the age of eight, she soon moved on to her brother’s guitar, laying it flat on her lap and over time developing her p

Remembering Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) She was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. She played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down, as she was left-handed. This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".