ELIZABETH COTTEN
The enduring influence of an American original
n the early 1900s in a small town called Carrboro in North Carolina, an 11-year-old girl, known to her family as Lil Sis, listened from her bedroom window to the cargo trains pulling in and out of a nearby station. Borrowing her brother’s banjo and turning it upside down to accommodate her left-handedness, she stayed up late and composed a song called, with the bittersweet lyric “Please don’t tell what would become one of the most important songs in a revolutionary musical movement, helping to launch the careers of artists like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and many more. Its composer, who came to be known as Elizabeth Cotten, will be honoured with an Early Influence Award this year by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
