Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten

Libba Cotten’s life begins in rural North Carolina early in the twentieth century, where she hears music all around her. Left-handed, she secretly borrows her brother’s guitar and plays it upside down and backward. At about eleven, train sounds inspire her song “Freight Train.” She later stops playing to work and raise her daughter. As a grandmother working in a Washington, D.C., department store, she meets Ruth Crawford Seeger, returns to the guitar, and impresses the Seegers and their musician friends.