The Magic of a Simple Encounter
There are moments in life that can only be described as magical.
Here is one such moment.
In the early 1950s, a little girl becomes separated from her mother in a department store. Frightened and lost, she is comforted by a middle-aged Black woman working in the toy department, who helps reunite them. Grateful, the mother offers the woman a job in her home.
The little girl is Peggy Seeger. Her parents are the renowned composer Ruth Crawford Seeger and the musicologist and folklorist Charles Seeger, one of the most influential families in American folk music and the family of Pete, Mike, and Peggy Seeger. The woman who accepts the job is Elizabeth Cotten, one of the most influential and beloved figures in American folk music.
The Seeger family called her “Libba.”
Another moment of magic.
By the time Libba meets the Seegers in Washington, D.C., she has left North Carolina and the South behind. She has also left behind the guitar she taught herself to play as a child, using a unique left-handed style on an upside-down instrument.
Surrounded by music in the Seeger household, Libba begins playing again. To the family's astonishment, they discover that the woman washing dishes and folding laundry is also the gifted songwriter who wrote Freight Train, one of the most enduring songs in American folk music.
One more moment.
My name is Brenda Evans, and I am Elizabeth Cotten's great-granddaughter.
When I was twelve years old, I traveled with my Granny and Mike Seeger to Princeton University to record a few songs. As Libba played the introduction to a new song, I stepped to the microphone and sang the verses my brother, cousins, and I had created together. The song was called Shake Sugaree.
Over the decades that followed, Shake Sugaree would be recorded and performed by many remarkable artists, including Taj Mahal, Rhiannon Giddens, and Bob Dylan. Yet to me, it will always be the song I sang beside my Granny.
And now for one final moment of magic.
More than sixty years later, I came across a video of the Grammy Award-winning Steep Canyon Rangers performing Shake Sugaree. Their interpretation immediately moved me. I reached out to the band with a simple message:
"Hello, my name is Brenda Evans, and I am the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth 'Libba' Cotten."
What began as that simple introduction soon became a friendship, a collaboration, and ultimately a shared vision.
That shared vision inspired Steep Canyon Rangers co-founder Graham Sharp to write Left-Handed Little Girl, an original song honoring Libba's extraordinary life, music, and enduring legacy. The song became the inspiration for both the album and its title.
Today, the Steep Canyon Rangers and I are preparing to create Left-Handed Little Girl, a tribute album honoring, preserving, and carrying forward the life, music, and cultural legacy of Elizabeth Cotten.
The project will feature the Steep Canyon Rangers alongside special guests, including Taj Mahal, Allison Russell, and will incorporate rare archival recordings of Libba herself, creating a bridge between generations of American roots music.
Most importantly, these efforts will allow us to create a definitive tribute worthy of one of the most influential voices in American folk music.
Your support would not only help bring this album to life, but it would also help preserve an important piece of American musical history and ensure that Elizabeth Cotten's music, story, and influence continue to inspire future generations.
We would be honored to partner with you in bringing this remarkable project to life. We hope you will consider joining us on this amazing and magical journey.