Heard You Knockin'

Patti dreaming of Libba? I wouldn't put it beyond her.

Kevin Slick - The Night Patti Smith Dreamed Of Elizabeth Cotten
Patti Smith - Changing Of The Guards
Elizabeth Cotten - Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie

Secret Of This Place

If the quality of the cassette-only (ha!) debut of this Kansas City-born (ha! again) youngster is anything to go by, I guess we'll be hearing much more from Anna St. Louis in due time. Bluesy opener Wind-Up reminds me of the late great Libby Cotten somehow, and that's no mean feat indeed.

Anna St. Louis - Wind-Up

Up & Away

That time of year again, it is. Bid you adios for a while, For The Sake Of The Song must. The old rest & recuperation routine, you know. Hmmmm... Gotta get away, me. Beachbound, I am. Yessss... Be online I will not. Of weeks back in a couple, promise I do...

Elizabeth Cotten - I'm Going Away
Frank Stokes - I'm Going Away Blues
Jivin' Gene & The Jokers - Up, Up And Away
Mitty Collier - Gotta Get Away From It All
Clarence Carter - Slip Away
Flaming Ember - Gotta Get Away

I Know He Let You In

"I was sitting around the other day, tapping my feet,

A publication came to my door, said you´d died and gone to sleep...

But I couldn´t shed a tear I never knew you well..."

A moving elegy from Minutemen successors fIREHOSE on the death of blues singer extraordinaire Elizabeth Cotten. Haven´t a clue why Mike Watt & co spelled her name wrong btw. Anyone?

"...But I´m missing you just the same,

Libba please rest easy down on Chestnut Street..."

fIREHOSE - In Memory Of Elizabeth Cotton MP3

And then there´s the object of their admiration herself: Elizabeth ´Libba´ Cotten (1895-1987). Lefthanded and self-taught, she held her guitar upside down, playing the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb: the Cotten picking technique.

"When I die Lord bury me deep,

Way down on old Chestnut Street,

So I can hear old Number 9 as she comes rolling by..."

Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train MP3

Shake Sugaree

Shake Sugaree is a song I´ve always loved, especially in the original version as performed by the amazing Elizabeth Cotten. "I've a little secret, I ain't gonna tell... I'm goin' to heaven in a ground pea shell... Oh, Lordy me, didn't I shake sugaree, everything I got is down in pawn..." It´s Elizabeth ´Libba´ Cotten (1895-1987) on guitar here only by the way, as her great grandchild Brenda Evans is singing it. And what a voice she´s got... Brenda was only twelve (!) at the time, and contributed to the lyrics together with her brother Johnny and her two cousins Sue and Wendy, on gran Elizabeth´s melody. According to Cotten in the liner notes "the first verse, my eldest great grandson, he made that himself, and from that each child would say a word and add to it. To tell the truth, I don´t know what got it started, but it must have been something said or something done". Find this jewel on the cd Shake Sugaree (Smithsonian Folkways).

Shake Sugaree was covered by many, as were other Cotten classics as Freight Train - which she wrote when she was eleven btw, so it runs in the family - and Oh Babe, It Ain´t No Lie. Greenwich Village folky Fred Neil did a nice version with slightly altered lyrics as I´ve Got A Secret (Didn´t We Shake Sugaree) on his eponymous second album (Water ´67) for instance. The loving reading Taj Mahal gives to the song even comes with a spoken intro about Libba and with a children´s choir. Find it on his ´88 cd Shake Sugaree (Taj Mahal Sings And Plays For Children) on the Music For Little People label. Bob Dylan never recorded it in the studio alas, but played homage to it a couple of times in concert in ´96 and ´97. Another interpretation I really like comes from Mary Lou Lord´s Got No Shadow album (Work ´98). Short and sweet. Oh Lordy me indeed...

Elizabeth Cotten - Shake Sugaree MP3
Fred Neil - I´ve Got A Secret (Didn´t We Shake Sugaree) MP3

Taj Mahal - Shake Sugaree MP3
Bob Dylan - Shake Sugaree (live Atlanta 1-12-´97) MP3
Mary Lou Lord - Shake Sugaree MP3