Elizabeth (Libba) Cotten, who won a Grammy Award in 1985 for a collection of her blues and folk songs, died today at a Syracuse hospital. She wrote “Freight Train” at age 11. I Ain't Gonna Love You Any More. I got the freight train blues Lawdy Lawdy Got them in the bottom of my rambling shoes And when the whistle blows I gotta Oh Lawdy Guess I’m never gonna lose the freight train blues. Quite an incredible woman, I urge you to seek out some recordings of this American original. In her early teens she bought her own guitar and started writing own songs. C G7 One more place I'd like to be, G C one more place I'd like to see E7 F To watch them old Blue Ridge Mountains climb, C G7 C when I ride old Number Nine. Won't You Sometimes Think Of Me. Starting out as a song-and-dance man in the last years of vaudeville, Rudy Toombs was a prolific composer and lyricist of doo-wop and rhythm and blues standards during the '50's and '60s; his widow estimated that he either composed the music or wrote the lyrics for over five hundred songs. CHORUS: I got the freight train blues, Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy, Got them in the bottom of my ramblin' shoes, And when the whistle blows, I gotta go. Steel Guitar Blues: 13. Indeed, another song by Acuff on the same record, "Freight Train Blues," offers an example of this genre: I got the freight train blues. And a freight train whistle taught me how to cry. And a freight train whistle taught me how to cry. Fishing (Blues) (Chris Smith/Sweetie May) Framed (Robins/Leiber & Stoller/racism) Frankie and Johnny (John Held, Moe Asch) Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) From Four Until Late (Robert Johnson) Frozen Logger (James Stevens) Future Blues (Willie Brown/Son House) Gary Davis Medley. At the age of 15 she worked as maid along with her mother. Her early biography reads much like those of most of the people around her: hard work punctuated by frolics, music, marriage, church and family. "Song to Woody," is another original by Bob Dylan, dedicated to one of his greatest inspirations, and written much in the musical language of his idol. This arrangement strays slightly from the original, we’ve used a few ‘Lenny Breau’ inspired chord and melody substitutions. It was a country hit in the ... 'Mule Train' (clippety clop) and 'Lovesick Blues' (very Hank that) with some success. Freight Train Boogie is much easier to locate in the U.S. than When They Let the Hammer Fall. Jole Blon: 8. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. Sunday Morning Blues Glen Wright 'Freight Train' adapted & arranged (Elizabeth Cotten) One of the first songs I learned to fingerpick on a guitar with a Folkways vinyl (from Dobell's Record shop in London) & a chord book. The Arrangement. It has the same chord progression as Parker’s “Blues For Alice”. It's kind of a toss-up as to whether this or the German When They Let the Hammer Fall is the best compilation of the Delmore Brothers work from the late '40s and early '50s. I Watched My Dream World Crumble Like Clay. Lawdy! The Precious Jewel: 15. Lyrics to "White Freightliner Blues" by TOWNES VAN ZANDT: I'm going out on the highway / And listen to them big trucks wind / I'm going out on the highway / And listen to them big trucks wind / Oh, white freightliner, won't you steal away my mind / Well, New Mexico ain't bad, Lord / … Tennessee Waltz: 14. Lordy, lordy, lordy! My daddy was a fireman and my … GARCIA-NAVARRO: All right, next on the list, let's listen to Elizabeth Cotten and her song "Freight Train." ‘Freight Train’ Elizabeth Cotten’s Essential Fingerstyle Blues Song From the July 2017 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY ADAM PERLMUTTERElizabeth Cotten was only 11 years old when she wrote “Freight Train… I am so impressed that both were written by women - and both women were African Americans born in North Carolina. Freight train freight train going so fast freight train freight train going so fast ... @vine.org (Linda F. Cauthen) wrote: >>Does anyone know who sings the this song. Just to Ease My Worried Mind: 9. I Told A Lie To My Heart. Soon after her 15th birthday she married Frank Cotten. Following the rock ‘n’ roll to the max of Like a Rolling Stone and Tombstone Blues, Dylan slows things down a bit with the slow, bluesy It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry. An okay album if you are just into train songs but was not the Freight Train Blues I was expecting to hear. Great Speckle Bird: 6. Not a Word From Home: 12. […] Commentary. REYNA: Exactly. “Freight Train, Freight Train,” by Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten. An incredible story, Cotton, a black woman, was a left-handed, self-taught guitarist who played bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. It was recorded on the 1958 record “Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane”. In My Dreams You Still Belong To Me. The image of a loved one leaving on a train is a powerful one, and as African American migration out of the South picked up during World War I, these narratives proliferated. E lizabeth Cotten was only 11 years old when she wrote “Freight Train,” around 1904. C G7 Freight train, freight train, goin' round the bend, G C freight train, freight train, comin' back again E7 F One of these days turn that train around, C G7 C and go back to my home town. She wrote this song in North Carolina in 1904, when she was eleven. Thomas A. Dorsey covered You Can't Get That Stuff No More, Old Ship of Zion, Corrine Corrina, Sittin' on Top of the World and other songs. You could call him country if you wanted This tune is what jazz musicians call a “be-bop blues” or a “Bird Blues”(Charlie Parker). Lonesome Old River Blues: 10. Gaslight Rag (Dave Van Ronk) Georgia on My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael) Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for The French Song - Lucille Starr on AllMusic - 1965 Her early married life entailed moving among North Carolina, New York,, and Washington, D.C., caring for her mechanic husband Frank and her daughter Lillie. Night Train to Memphis: 11. “Freight Trane” was written by the great pianist Tommy Flanagan for John Coltrane, as the title suggests. But it wasn’t until the 1960s—after Cotten was discovered by the Seeger family and subsequently began her performing and recording career—that the song became a staple of the folk and fingerstyle repertoire. I'll Forgive You, but I Can't Forget You: 7. My daddy was a fireman and my mammy dear Was the only daughter of an engineer. The Prodigal Son: 16. Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American musician, actor, and activist. At the age of eleven she wrote a song called "Freight train", which was later her signature song. And the second was Freight Train (both of which sound very similar). (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FREIGHT TRAIN") ELIZABETH COTTEN: (Singing) Freight train, freight train, run so fast. Highlights include 'Calling My Name', 'Rock N' Roll Is My Life', the rattlesnake rocker 'Freight Train', 'Fly On High', 'Rolling Down The Highway', and the fun closer '79 Cent Blues', dedicated by Onesko to Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records for the 79 cent royalty check he sent him after 24 years (he recorded with Shrapnel many years ago). I'm Not Coming Home Any More. I never knew who wrote these songs, so I did some research on them today. Her most recognized song, “Freight Train,” was written in 1904 when she was just 11 years old. Thomas A. Dorsey originally did It's Tight Like That, You Can't Get That Stuff No More, Old Ship of Zion, Corrine Corrina and other songs. Helpful Freight Train Blues: 5. Let's read a bit of what Albert E. Gibson, Promotion Manager at Radio Station WSM wrote in one of Roy's earliest Song Folios: Roy was born in Maynardsville, TN in 1907. When it makes you lonesome to hear that freight train blow Then you will know I’m riding, but I didn’t want to go It’s a lonesome feeling, Sand Mountain blues. Why Should I Cry. When They Let the Hammer Fall is more raucous and up-tempo; the 20-track Freight Train Boogie, though, has more variety. I was looking for the old 1930's-1940's version a classic country tune. 15. Trains appear in a lot of Bob Dylan songs, including the fantastic, vocals stretching, “Freight Train Blues”, on his legendary debut album – “Bob Dylan”. Mother Is Gone. The singer's version of "Freight Train Blues" was adapted from an old disk by Roy Acuff. Interestingly, the early versions of this song were raucous blues shouts. That song is the first blues song recorded by a woman. Oh! If you haven’t already, please read her biography here, and check out our Freight Train extravaganza here. Blues songs named after companies like the Illinois Central or L&N lament how these … 'Libba' wrote this at 11yrs old in the early 1900's & won a Grammy for it at age 90yrs. Freight train freight train goin' so fast Freight train freight train goin' so fast Please don't tell what train I'm on So they won't know where I've gone. Freight train, freight train, run so fast. Roy got a violin for 25 dollars that took him away from a baseball career it was said. Elizabeth Cotten was a self-taught left-handed blues and folk musician whose signature alternating bass style (playing the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumbs) came to be known as “Cotten picking” and continues to influence musicians today. Freight Train Blues. Freight train, freight train, comin' round the bend Freight train, freight train, gone again One of these days turn that train around Go back to my hometown. Guess I'm never gonna lose The freight train blues. 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