Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1895 - June 29, 1987) was an American musician. Her style was of the traditional blues and folk genre. However, Libba was quite original since she was self-taught and had no knowledge of conventional guitar tunings (eg. standard 'EADGBE' tuning or any standard, established open tunings). Her unique approach to left-handed guitar playing was to hold the guitar upside down strung as standard tuning. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers, and the melody with her thumb. Her signature, alternating bass style is known as "Cotten Picking". Biography Early life Cotten was born in Carrboro, North Carolina to a musical family; her parents were George Nevills and Louise Price Nevills. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age 7 Cotton began to play her older brother's banjo. By age 8 she was playing songs, and after scraping together some money she bought he

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