A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
Elizabeth Nevills was born in Carrboro, North Carolina, at the border of Chapel Hill, to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevills and Louise Price Nevills. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At the age of 11, after scraping together some money as a domestic helper, she bought her own guitar. Although self-taught, she became very good at playing the instrument. By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, Freight Train, became one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote Freight Train when she saw a train pass by her house on Lloyd Street in Carrboro, North Carolina.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. Soon after the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She didn't begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger's children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.
In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel to reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. These recordings later became the album, Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records. Since that album, her songs, especially her signature track, Freight Train—which she wrote when she was 11—have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, and Taj Mahal. Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.
In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the big names in the burgeoning folk revival. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The new found interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play and in 1967, she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, Shake Sugaree.
Using profits from her touring, record releases, and from the many awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Elizabeth was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and was able to buy a house in Syracuse, New York. Furthermore she was able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for the album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was, "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all." In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.
Elizabeth Cotten died in June 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94.
Elizabeth Cotten began writing music while toying around with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed so she played the banjo in reverse position. Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, she formed a unique style, since on the banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, but a short high pitched string called a drone string. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar. She first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo. Later, she evolved into a unique style of finger picking. Her signature, alternating bass style is now known as Cotten picking. Her finger picking techniques influenced many other musicians.
Going down the Road feeling bad
Elizabeth Cotten Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
honey babe Lord
Going down the road feeling bad
honey babe Lord
Going down the road feeling bad
I don't want to be treated this way
Girl I love done turned her back on me
Girl I love done turned her back on me
honey babe Lord
Girl I love done turned her back on me
I don't want to be treated this way
Thought I heard a whistle blow
honey babe Lord
Thought I heard a whistle blow
Thought I heard a whistle blow
Lord it blowed like it ain't gonna blow no more
The lyrics of Elizabeth Cotten's song "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" convey a deep sense of sadness and disappointment. The singer is clearly in a troubled state of mind, as she reflects on how she is feeling bad about her current circumstances.
The first verse sets the tone for the rest of the song, as the singer repeats the phrase "Going down the road feeling bad" multiple times. This repetition emphasizes the ongoing nature of the singer's unhappiness, and underscores the sense of inevitability with which she sees her life playing out. The second verse gives us a clue as to why the singer might be feeling so down: the girl she loves has turned her back on her. This sense of heartbreak is palpable in the lyrics, and we can feel the singer's pain as she tries to come to terms with this loss.
The final verse takes a more mysterious turn, as the singer talks about hearing a whistle blow. This could be a signal that something important is about to happen or that her journey is coming to an end. The idea that the whistle "blowed like it ain't gonna blow no more" is particularly poignant, suggesting that this moment marks the end of an important chapter in the singer's life.
Overall, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" is a powerful meditation on the ups and downs of life. By painting a picture of someone who is struggling to come to terms with their own feelings of sadness and disappointment, Elizabeth Cotten creates a song that speaks to the universal experience of human suffering.
Line by Line Meaning
Going down the road feeling bad
I'm traveling on this path with a heavy heart
honey babe Lord
Exclamation of sadness or regret
I don't want to be treated this way
I don't deserve to be treated poorly
Girl I love done turned her back on me
The person I loved has abandoned me
Thought I heard a whistle blow
I thought I heard a sign to change my situation
Lord it blowed like it ain't gonna blow no more
The sign was strong and unlikely to happen again
Contributed by Ava L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@nkasar988
Going down the road feeling bad
Honey babe Lord
Going down the road feeling bad
Honey babe Lord
Going down the road feeling bad
I don't want to be treated this way
Girl I love done turned her back on me
Honey babe Lord
Girl I love done turned her back on me
Honey babe Lord
Girl I love done turned her back on me
I don't want to be treated this way
Thought I heard a whistle blow
Honey babe Lord
Thought I heard a whistle blow
Thought I heard a whistle blow
Lord it blowed like it ain't gonna blow no more
@45067daddymac
This is one of the most wonderful things about modern technology, specifically YouTube. The ability to hear and discover musicians from an era that you would otherwise have never known. Love it!
@theesweetscience2084
That is so true. It's berserk how many trolls exist in this tube, the swirling negativity. Because it really does give all the opportunities to find, cherish, and hold onto things like never before.
@pebystroll
Couldn't agree more, I'm 24 and from Ireland, absolutely never would have found Cotton with out it
@williammurath9740
Seems Ms Cotten was a much greater influence for Jerry Garcia than I ever realized.
Her music is incredible
@hfpitman2
5 stars arent enough for this master piece.
@theesweetscience2084
Maaan. Her voice tweaks to hit the high notes hit me different than anyone else. She is the realest. Absolute gem.
@ray8up
This is absolutely amazing God bless this sweet woman and thank u for posting this :)
@fastfeat
Absolutely stunning. I've heard dozens of great Greatful Dead and other versions, but this is something else altogether. Thanks.
@michaelleeannspringer3247
Such a beautiful lady with pure and innocent talent!
@raskinblog
Much needed. Her guitar sings along with her vocals.