the “Cotten-picking” guitar-playing style — she played left-handed and upside-down — this master’s impact on roots

story is amazing: While working in a department store in 1940s Washington D

a crying, lost, little girl and returned her to her mother

mom: singer-songwriter Peggy Seeger, sister of legendary Mike Seeger, who promptly hired Cotten as a

Seeger discovered her long-dormant talent with a six-string, he recorded and released the 62-year-old’s

became a fixture on the 1960s folk circuit, performing at the Newport Folk Festival, and

playing live until her death in 1987 — a year after she won her first Grammy at 90

later, folk artist and historian Rhiannon Giddens told me she’d intentionally walked in Cotten’

started getting into music, I learned [Cotten’s ‘Shakee Sugar’], and I also sung and

a part of the fabric of my music [since] I started listening to [folk]