This video was produced by Alan Gragg and Bryan Weyers for educational purposes at Syracuse University. It is a brief look at the life and musical style of Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten.
As noted in the documentary, Cotten was an integral part of folk music, Peter Paul and Mary surely utilized her style to make her well known as did the whole Seeger family. Glad to see she has a statue and.a Grove to her honor, and that she is honored by the Grammy community.
I just picked up a remaindered children's book for my step-granddaughter, "Elizabeth's Song" about this wonderful woman. Your video and the book confirm one another on almost every point--every important point. Just proves that if you have music (or art or writing or athletics or any other interest) in your soul, it'll come pouring out. In first grade, our music teacher Mrs. Helmick taught us this song alongside the Seegers, Woodie Guthrie, and other other folk greats. Great video, thank you.
As a filmmaker, fingerstyle guitarist and someone who knew the Seeger family personally, I find this impersonation of Mike Seeger and accompanying mispronunciations very offensive and insulting to the legacy of a great artist.
@Evan Estern It's absurd... Right away I'm like, how can this kid be Mike Seeger? Yes, it is offensive to the memory of a giant folklorist who passed away in 2009 at age 75. Ridiculous, there was no need for someone who probably never saw or heard him at all to sit there playing his part as a millennial whatever... Awful. And the video doesn't share one note of the beautiful recordings made 30 years earlier, when in her 60's she sang like a young girl, only the late, cracked-voice performance of "Freight Train", which is of course beautiful, but there are so many more exemplary recordings & movies of her performance artistry. **Wasn't her nickname pronounced just as written, "Libba", not "Leeba" as here?
Why don't they explain that it is certainly NOT Mike Seeger on camera......and although they are probably his words (so I've heard)... it is dishonest and misleading to intimate that it is he on camera.....kind of ruins a great project... sad.....
Yeah, I thought it strange that they didn't say that it's not really Mike Seeger. The whole time I was watching it I was trying to figure it out. It certainly took away from the story. Otherwise I guess it was a good documentary. It's better to read about her or watch actual interviews with her.
She relocated to Syracuse NY with her grandchildren. She died in Syracuse, she actually was a resident there, I believe that's why they have a statute in her honor.
I love Elizabeth Cotton, and I have known the Seeger connection, for so long, but this isn’t a documentary and how dare they have an actor as Mike Seeger?????? WTH
Is this a joke? Mike Seeger sadly passed away in 2009. And Elizabeth was known as Elizabeth, not Libba, as far as I remember. What kind of nonsense is this?
@@IndianOutlaw1870--I've heard the real Mike Seeger (not this guy, whoever he is) and his brother Pete pronounce her nickname "Libba" with the short "I" as in "river", not as "Leeeba."
I am so confused as to who this Mike Seeger is. He says he started recording Libba in 1952. He'd have to at least 70 years old now. This looks like a modern video and he looks to be under 40 years old. So tell me more about the time line on this documentary.
@@larryhoffmanmusic9285 Yes, Libba was her nickname, but I think it was pronounced Libba, with the "i" sound as in Elizabeth, not Leeba, as this guy pretending to be Mike Seeger pronounced it.
@@larryhoffmanmusic9285 Cool that you got to meet Mike Seeger. What did you talk about with him? Did you happen to speak with him about Elizabeth Cotten?
Playing a right hand guitar left handed isn't that of a big of a deal here. The big deal, is that she didn't flip her strings when playing the right handed guitar, meaning her playing style was unique.
Yes! she plucked the alternating bass lines with her fingers, not her thumb, as the bass strings were closest to the ground. Being a fingerpicker myself it was amazing to note that the first time!@@MidnightStorm4990
