Elizabeth Nevills Cotten (1893-1987) was a Black folk singer and composer who wrote the award-winning song “Freight Train” at twelve years old. Born in the area now known as Carrboro, Cotten worked from a young age as a domestic servant in the homes of local white families. She was always a musical child, creating her own “upside down” style of picking on her brother’s banjo. She married Frank Cotten at age fifteen and their small family moved between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, DC. Marriage and religion caused Cotten to stop playing and composing music for almost fifty years.
When Cotten, then in her sixties, worked in the Seeger household in Washington, DC, she was encouraged to use their string instruments. The family soon became her first sponsor, getting her a Folkways recording contract. This recording, Elizabeth Cotten: Negro Folk Songs and Tunes made Cotten and her song “Freight Train” into recognized names of the 1960s folk revival. Cotten drew upon the traditions of 19th and 20th century African American string instruments to develop her unique style of upside-down, single-string melody picking on the banjo and guitar. Prominent institutions like the Oxford American and the Smithosnian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage have categorized her music as part of the epicenter for the genres of folk, blues, ragtime, early jazz, swing, and country.
Cotten received many recognitions for her music, including the National Folk Burl Ives Award in 1972; a National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 1984; a Grammy that same year; and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Cotten died in 1987.