Inspired by the Train thread...
Elizabeth Cotten playing upside down (as always). Being lefthanded and sneaking her brother's instrument off to teach herself while he wasn't home (about 1904), she made up ways to play the righthanded guitar upside down, plucking the melody with her thumb while doing the bass with her first two fingers, rather than the other way around as a righthanded guitarist would. She also didn't play for some forty years after getting married at 17 (in 1910) and raising a family but was "discovered" and brought to the stage by Mike Seeger in the 1950s. Oh and she won a Grammy. At the age of 93.
Here she's in her 70s. You can see the fingerwork pretty well.
It was a blessing to watch her perform on stage while she was still with us. I think she was 92 at the time..
Elizabeth Cotten 1893-1987
Elizabeth Cotten playing upside down (as always). Being lefthanded and sneaking her brother's instrument off to teach herself while he wasn't home (about 1904), she made up ways to play the righthanded guitar upside down, plucking the melody with her thumb while doing the bass with her first two fingers, rather than the other way around as a righthanded guitarist would. She also didn't play for some forty years after getting married at 17 (in 1910) and raising a family but was "discovered" and brought to the stage by Mike Seeger in the 1950s. Oh and she won a Grammy. At the age of 93.
Here she's in her 70s. You can see the fingerwork pretty well.
It was a blessing to watch her perform on stage while she was still with us. I think she was 92 at the time..
Elizabeth Cotten 1893-1987
