Elizabeth Cotton was this kick ass old timer who learned to play a mean guitar when she was a child. She was left handed and it’s almost impossible to play how she did.
As a left hander who used to play guitar, you have to switch the strings. Elizabeth, however didn’t, she played the guitar completely upside down. She also picked the guitar completely incorrectly. Using her thumb for the melody and her index for rhythm. Normally its the other way around.
She didn’t touch her guitar for decades before she started to work for Pete Seager and he found out she was AMAZING at guitar and recorded a lot of her songs.
She died in my hometown, Syracuse NY at the age of 92 in 1987
