Guitar Fingerpicking

I discovered some amazing coincidences about two songs I was taught when I was first learning how to play the guitar (and learning finger picking). Those two songs are Freight Train and Railroad Bill. Come to find out, both songs were written by legendary female folk/blues musicians. These two women are such an inspiration to me – and they have some amazing things in common: I hope you enjoy my information about Guitar Fingerpicking and these blues legends!

Who are these two women pioneers of blues music?

Etta Baker and Elizabeth Cotten are the two women I never heard of (before today) even though I have been playing their songs for years. Both are guitar players and songwriters that have influenced my guitar playing and guitar fingerpicking style.

The writers of some of my most cherished folk songs seem to have some amazing things in common:

• Both were born in North Carolina (in rural towns about 160 miles apart)
• Both began playing guitar and banjo as children
• Both grew up hearing the nearby trains and wrote songs about trains
• Both started their public music careers late in life
• Both have had their songs played by many greats in the folk and blues music world
• Both played and performed up until very close to the time of their death
• They each lived into their 90s!

Etta Baker, born Etta Lucille Reid on March 31, 1913 of African American, Native American, and European American heritage. She is an amazing example of little known musical pioneers. Some of her songs: Railroad Bill, One Dime Blues, and Never Let Your Deal Go Down.She is considered a "Piedmont Blues" gutiarist.

Baker received the Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1991, and the North Carolina Award in 2003. Along with her sister, Cora Phillips, Baker received the North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Folklore Award in 1982. Her sister, Cora and she recorded music together on banjo and guitar.

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was born on January 5, 1895. She was one of several children in the musical Nevills (or Nevilles) family. She taught herself to play the banjo and when she was able to scrounge up the money, bought a guitar. Since she also taught herself to play guitar, and since she is left-handed (and had a right-handed guitar) she just flipped the guitar over and tuned it in her own way to be able to make her music. She actually plays the guitar backwards or upside down! And she named her guitar "Stella."

One of her most widely known songs is Freight Train written because of the train tracks she listened to near the home in Carrboro, North Carolina (not far from Chapel Hill) that she grew up in.

These two women are legends are among my music heros!

I think it is cool that I have a few things in common with these two important women. I learned to play guitar and banjo as a child and I live in the Southeastern US (though I was not born here in the South). I can hear a train from my house, too!

The fingerpicking style I use often is one that mimics the chug-a-chug rhythm of a train coming down the tracks. That could be part of the reason I tend to love songs that have anything to do with trains.