Note: For the African American civil rights activist, see Ella Baker. Etta Baker (born Etta Lucille Reid in Caldwell County, North Carolina, March 31, 1913, died September 23, 2006 in Fairfax, Virginia) was a Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States. Biography She was of African American, Native American, and European American heritage. She played both the 6-string and 12-string forms of the acoustic guitar, as well as the five-string banjo. Baker played the Piedmont Blues for ninety years, starting at the age of three when she could not even hold the guitar properly. She was taught by her father, Boone Reid, who was also a long time player of the Piedmont Blues on several instruments. Etta Baker was first recorded in the summer of 1956 when she and her father happened across folk singer Paul Clayton while visiting Cone Mansion, near their home of Morganton, NC. Baker