Libba Cotten, 95; Folk Song Writer, Singer

Elizabeth (Libba) Cotten, who because she was left-handed learned to play the guitar upside down and despite that apparent handicap managed to compose the epic folk song “Freight Train,” died Monday in a Syracuse, N.Y., hospital. She was 95 and won a Grammy Award in 1985 for a collection of her blues and folk songs.

Miss Cotten, who wrote “Freight Train” when she was 11, had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks at Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital and had surgery last weekend after suffering brain seizures.

Miss Cotten, who did not publicly perform her unique three-finger picking style (with her thumb playing the high-note melodies and her fingers plucking the bass pattern) until she was 60 and already a grandmother, had continued to do live shows until last month when she began weakening, her grandson, Larry Ellis, told the Associated Press.

In her last Los Angeles appearance, in 1983, Miss Cotten said that she was a very young girl when she decided to play the guitar. “I asked my brother (who played) to help me, but he wasn’t no help at all.”

Because she was left-handed she simply wanted to turn the guitar upside down and play it but her brother insisted that she reverse the strings as most left-handers do. She ignored his advice and effected the three-finger style that became her signature.

She first learned to play songs she made up herself, including “Freight Train,” made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary. The song was an outgrowth of her childhood in Chapel Hill, N.C.

“Where I lived the freight train would keep me awake at night. The track would get stalled and the train would be there sometimes for hours, just making a noise. I started writing a song about what it was doing there.”

Her talent lay dormant for decades until she went to work as a cook in Washington, D.C., for the musical family of Charles Seeger, father of folk artists Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger. After Mike Seeger formed his New Lost City Ramblers he convinced Miss Cotten to perform with the group.

She won her Grammy Award for the top recording in the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Music category for her album “Elizabeth Cotten Live.”

Among her other famous songs are “Shake, Sugaree” and “Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie.” Taj Mahal and the Grateful Dead have also recorded her work.

She had moved to Syracuse in 1978, where she was proclaimed the city’s first “Living Treasure.”