Folksongs and Instrumentals With Guitar

Elizabeth Cotten's debut, 'Folksongs and Instrumentals With Guitar', is a foundational document of American folk music captured with spare authenticity by Mike Seeger. The album introduces Cotten's unique, self-taught guitar method—playing a right-handed instrument upside-down and left-handed, with her thumb playing the melody and fingers playing the bass—a technique now known as "Cotten picking". This collection of traditional songs and personal compositions, most notably the first recording of her iconic "Freight Train," became a cornerstone of the folk revival and was inducted into the National Recording Registry for its cultural significance.