Folk Heroes- Richard Arnold Beattie Presents Elizabeth Cotten Part 1

Live from The Denver Folklore Center in 1972, we are pleased to bring you Elizabeth Cotten - a wonderful live concert for the next generation. 

In cooperation with Sound Century Academy, the University of Colorado and The Harry Tuft Collection. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

In literature, folk heroes are legendary or historical figures such as Robin Hood, Paul Bunyan, or John Henry, whose lives and deeds are celebrations in stories, songs, and folklore. They are cultural symbols that bring out the spirit of lumberjacks and laborers and industrial pioneers. None of them are the folks that you will hear on my new show, Folk Heroes. My name is Richard Arnold Beattie, and these are the concerts and interviews of folk and blues heroes on guitar and in songs that were heard somewhere around here, found in storage units, attics, and basements, from Denver, on reels, from Harry Tuft and the Denver Folklore Center from 1962 through 1977, and sometimes before. Some are dead and some are living. So listen to this labor of love and learn to love them all.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

After dark, I play a part.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Hello. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Folklore Center tonight. We had a full house last night, and it looks like we have an even fuller one tonight, and we're uh really happy that we got this kind of response uh for this concert. Uh a couple things I wanted to mention before we start. First, if you don't receive our mail or our calendar of events, uh why we'd very much like to send it to you. And we have a uh register out in the lobby, and if you'd like to get it, please sign it. Uh don't forget your zip code. And then uh when this comes out, which is about every six weeks, why we'll just send it along to you. Um for those of you who don't know who's coming up, I just thought I would mention uh who's coming up in the next few weeks. Uh next weekend, the 25th and 26th, we have Don Crawford, uh really fine singer, uh, with several records on roulette. Um following that is uh Mary Flower and Katie Moffat. Um rumor has it that that is gonna be their last uh concert together. They're gonna be splitting up after that. But uh if you haven't ever seen them, I it's it's worth it. I think they're really excellent. Uh the week following that we have Grub's Day and then some of the things coming up that aren't on this present mailer. We've uh just got a letter from Willis Ramsey who's gonna be coming back. Um Steve Romholt is gonna come and do a weekend here. Um so keep your eyes open. There's gonna be a lot of good entertainment coming up. Let's have a very warm welcome for Elizabeth Cotton.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And you know where I didn't know? Right up on the bed. I never had the music lesson. I just taught my own self to play the way I played. There was five of us in the family. No one in the family would take up any time with me as showing me how to play a guitar or banger. They all played, but we all played different styles. And I said, show me something, you know, show me how to start. Change your string, you're playing it upside down. I can't show you. I want to show y'all a little tune, one of the little tunes I learned how to play on a banger when I was a kid. And I didn't love the bang and make some kind of noise. So I decided to go out and work. My mother didn't know it. I was a little girl. And I went to three houses at the house. And I worked for them. So one place I went to, and the lady says to me, I got a little girl like you did. I had a lot of stuff just laid out. At that time, people they used the wood stove. You had to burn wood. They didn't have a push a button now and get you heat up. But you didn't do it then. You had to put your wood in there and put kerosene in paper and light it. So I said, I can bring in your wood, I can pick up your chips, I can sweep the kitchen, I'd help check out the children, help you with your vegetables, and I said so much, so she says, Oh well. So I started working for her. After I worked for her a while, she told me it's gonna pay me more money. She was paying me 75 cents a month. Pay me 25 cents more. I saved the money. My mother let me buy a guitar. When she went to buy the guitar, she says to the man, Mr. Kate, my little girl wants a guitar. He says to her, Come back tomorrow night and I'll have a guitar for you. He says, I have a guitar up to the house. My wife plays all the time, and I bring it down to the shop. Next night my mother carried me to the store, and there was a guitar laid up on the counter. My little heart beat twice. I just said, Lord, I'm gonna get a guitar. So my mother says to him, says, uh, Mr. Case, the guitar might cost more than I'm able to pay. How much is your guitar? He says, Hey, Lou, I tell you what, you may have for your little girl for three dollars and seventy-five cents. That's because it was a used guitar. Call them a pattern guitar. Things you demonstrate on, I think you call them patterns, don't you? I reckon right, is that right? Right or wrong. But anyway, that's the way. So the my guitar was named Stella. It's like this is like this is a modern, it was a Stella. Stella guitar is a good guitar. I thought so anyway. Because mine was a Stella. I learned how to play Stella. And then I joined the church later. The deacons told me you cannot serve God and the devil at the same time. You cannot play those whirly songs. What they call worldly songs, there wasn't a church song. Anything but a church song was a whirly song. So I think I said, well, I'm trying to church for better. And if that's gonna help carry me to heaven, I'll stop playing them. So I did. Then it won't long, I got married. And I started housekeeping, and I was very happy. I put my guitar down and I didn't hardly miss it. Because I was so happy a housekeeping. And then when I left Chapel Hill, I left Stella behind. And I never didn't know what happened to Stella. And I'm gonna show y'all how I started playing Stella this way. I lay it in my lap, I play one string at a time, and I said to my brother, please show me a change of string. I can't show you anything. You're left-handed. Turn it around, I put the strings on right one. That's what I got. So I changed the strings on my guitar twice. I couldn't play it. Turn it this way, I couldn't play it. So then this way I started playing this way. I'm gonna play a little tune. One of the first little tune. Right along with Frey Train. And I started playing when I did, because I played a little better now than I did when I learned it. It's just a tune, no name. We all gonna sing together. No more good time here I crave. Place the stones at my head and feed and tell them all that I'm gonna sleep. Frey train, freight, rain, run so fast. Frey train, freight train run so fast. Don't tell what train I'm on. They won't know what round I'm gone when I died, Lord. Bury me deep way down on old Chelsea Street. I can hear old numbers she controlling by Frey train, freight train, Frey train, freight train so bad. Please don't tell what train I'm on. They won't know what route I'm gone when I die, Lord. Bury me deep way down on old Chelsea Street. Tell 'em all that I'm gone to sleep. Frey train, freight, train. Frey train, freight, train round. Please don't tell Hot Train, I'm on the mono Frey train, Frey train, run so fast. Frey train, Frey train, run so fast. Please don't tell Hortrain. My mother called me Babe. The family called me sis. And little sis. I had that name until I was old enough to start school. So when the teacher called Roll, when she got to me, she says, Little Sister Neville's. She says, by the way, don't you have a name? I says, Yes, teacher. She says, What? I said, Elizabeth.

unknown 24:21

Do you understand what they were doing?

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Oh, one of these days, honey. I'm going away. You take all of my money. You got no time for me. Oh yes, I'm going away, honey. And I'm gonna stay. You never give me no loving. That's why I'm going away. You call me your honey. You take all of my money. Then you think that is funny? That's why I'm going away. You know you are true, baby. I believed in you. I am brokenhearted. All the things you do. You said you love me, honey. No other one but me. You never gave me no loving. That's why I'm going away. You call me your honey. You take all of my money. Then you think that is funny. That's why I'm going away. Never be no sunshine, always be rain. Honey, you're going to want me come back to you again. Never be no sunshine, always be rain. You take all of my money. That's why I'm going away. You call me your honey, you take all of my money, then you think that is funny. That's why I'm going away. No. I want to tell you all how I started planning to get out doing concerts and traveling all around. My home's in Washington, DC. I've lived there about 30 years now. So when I first come to Washington, I applied for a job at Landsburg Department Store in Washington, one of the big department stores there. And uh they hired extra help for holidays like Christmas and New Year's. So they hired me. And they gave me a job to sell dolls. Just dogs. Nothing but dolls and little dogs and things like that. Little lamb. So one day a lady came in the store, this about two, three days before Christmas. So when she walked in the store, I saw this lady. I never did see her before. She'd never seen me either. We didn't know one another. And I says to myself, I wished I could, that's a nice looking lady. I wished I could work for her. I didn't tell anyone that. I just wished that within myself, just wished it deep down in my heart. I wished I could work for a lady who looked like her. She looked like such a fine lady. She came on to the county and I showed her dolls. She bought two dogs. Went to the county to get the dogs wrapped. Her oldest little girl got lost, got astray in the store. Everybody was looking for the little girl that's lost in the store. I'm the one that found her. I brought her to her mother and the child was just crying because she's still scared, I guess. Said, here's what the mother says to me. Have you worked here long? I says, no. She says, if you decide to stop working here, here's my telephone number. Give me a ring. That's just what I wanted, you see. My wish was coming, my wish was coming true right then. So after I stopped working at this store, I called the number she gave me. She says, Oh, you the girl I talked to in the store? And I says, Yes. She says, Well, come right on out. I went right on out. She lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland. That happened to be Mike Seeker's mother. I guess many of y'all know Mike, I'm sure you do, and Pete. But it wasn't Pete's mother, it was Mike's mother. Pete and Mike don't have the same mother. You see, they they father was married twice. So she put me to work, and here's this word she said to me, but make me love her today. She's dead. She says, now, I want you to take one room a day, and I want you to clean it. That meant the windows, the floors, the walls, the woodwork. But you only do one room a day. In other places I work, they'd want you to do all the rooms if you get around to them. Nobody hadn't ever told me that. And I've been working a long time. And she says, I want you to feel free to go in the kitchen, get yourself a glass of milk, tea, cookie, sandwich, or anything in there you feel like eating. Feel free that you can go in and do that. She said, you should rest for 15 to 20 or 25 minutes, 30 minutes. And she says, now feel free to do it, and just anytime you feel like eating, go in there and get you something. I think I said, well, that sure is a good lady. She nobody never said that to me. So I worked there about eight, about eight or nine years. And then I found myself, I stopped. I wasn't doing the cleaning, I was doing the cooking. Doing the cooking, washing and ironing, because she taught people in her home piano lessons and other kind of lessons too. They had instruments in that home I'd never seen before. I didn't know what they were. Well, Mr. Seeger, he went out and did his work. Children all in school. And when Mrs. Seeger would start her lessons in the mornings, I'd get Peggy's guitar. See, by me being around her playing the piano and the and the and the guitars, violins and everything, I think we said one day I can I used to play a guitar for God I could play. So I started taking Peggy's guitar in the room and playing a little bit. So I had been doing that I don't know how long before I got caught. I was in there just one day, Fred Train, Fred Train. And I think I was playing so loud I hardly know when anyone came in. And after a while the door just busted open. And who should it be but Michael and his sister Peggy? And they said, Elizabeth, we didn't know you could play a guitar. I didn't say one word. I didn't still. Because I was playing on her guitar and I hadn't asked permission to play it. But she didn't care, but I just felt like I should have asked her. She said, What were you playing? I said, freight train. She says, play it again. So I played it and sang it. And so after that, the company, those children would have Michael and Peggy and Barbara and all of them. I didn't have to clear the dining room table. I didn't have to wash dishes. The company would come in and get a chair and put in the kitchen and say, now you play and sing, and we're gonna clear the table and wash your dishes. And from that on, then I started going around playing the guitar. That's how I got started playing. I think I played this Washington Blue. I named it after the city I live in. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me, everybody. I'm so glad, Jesus lift me, sang and glory, hallelujah. Oh Satan had me down, Jesus lifted me. Satan had me down, Jesus lifted me. Satan had me down. Oh I'm so glad. Sang and glory, hallelujah! Jesus lifted me once more. I'm so glad Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad. Thank you. I want to tell y'all something. And when I was a girl going around looking for work, I go to a lady one day she got me to work for. I was had had a little experience, but not much. And the lady made me nervous because she told me one thing too many times. And it got me so nervous I couldn't couldn't do anything right. Yes, what she said. Can you pick a chicken? I said, Yes, I can. I never picked a chicken in my life by myself. I'd always helped my mother when she killed chicken. I was right there and she'd put them in the water and give them to me to pick. I told her, Yes, I can pick a chicken. She says, Well, we're gonna have a chicken for supper tonight. We had breakfast, dinner, and supper down home. So she says, and I want you to pick my chicken and don't skin it. She says, the girl she had before, every time she dressed a chicken for her, the skin was on, she wanted her chicken, she wanted to fry, and she wanted the skin on. And now you think you can do it? I told her, yes. And she told me that so many times. So after dinner, after lunch, well, dinner then, I was supposed to pick the chicken for get the chicken ready for supper. She goes in and lays down. Well, I didn't know how hot to make the water. Mama always did that, but then she scald the chicken and let me pull the feathers, see. So I put an old iron kettle. I put the kettle on, put the wood on the stove, and you know, before a kettle boils, it starts to seeping, you know, kind of. Well, when that kettle started doing that, the water wasn't hot enough. But I had always heard my mother say, if the water's too hot, you can't pull the feather, the skin will come on. And that's what I thought would happen if the water was too hot. So when the kettle started saying, I pulled the water on the chicken. And you said those features. I said that water must not be hard. And it's not seen again. I let it see a little bit long, but still it wasn't hard enough because the chicken was wet and cold. And the water should have born. Go back pulled on the children. Pull that on the chicken. And you know I could not get those cells out of that chicken. Without the skin. I skinned that chicken. I'm gonna tell you what I did. Cut that chicken up, fixed it just as nice, and put it away. Got my hat and walk home, and I never did see the lady no more. She done made me so nervous, I was scared to see her. Bad as I kill a turkey for a lady I worked for in Chapel Hill. She said to me, about three weeks before Thanksgiving, she says, Elizabeth, if I buy a turkey, will you draw him? I told her, yes, I would. So, just about two or three days before Thanksgiving, I decided to kill the turkey. My mother always killed them two or three days before she baked them, you know. So it was nobody there with me, everybody's gone. So I went out, I looked at the turkey, I said, Mr. Turkey, I'm gonna kill you today. So I caught the turkey. I said, now how's I gonna kill this turkey? I looked at and I said, I know my father used to put the head under a stick and put his feet on the stick and jerk his head off. I said, he can't do that. I put his head, it looked like he looked turned his head. I said, I can't do that. It's terrible jerking something's head off. So I said, well, I put on the chopping block, I'll chop his head off. Right? You see my daddy just laid it, just put his neck out, you know, and put it way out, and just take the axe and do like that, the head is off, throw them in the yard. I put the old turkey's head up and pull it up on the log. And just as I went to raise it up, he turned his head and looked up. I said, I can't kill that cut, that chicken cut off. I just can't do it. I ain't gonna do it. I said, I can't. And I guess I was five or ten minutes trying to decide how to kill a turkey. So I said, Oh, I know what I'll do. I'll wring his neck. That's where my that's where I see my mother do chicken. Just ring the head and throw the body out and let him die. Never heard nobody wringing a turkey's head in my life. You don't kill them that way, they're too heavy. You know, you can't ring them. I rang this one though. Y'all see little boys when they thumb on the rock, and my little hand, but that's the way I'm gonna do this turkey neck. And let me tell you, friends, this is true. That turkey liked to beat me to death. His wings were so big, you know. When I got the turkey's head off and put him down, I looked at him. He won't bleed one bit, and the blood just tingling down on me. He was dying and I was bleeding.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

So ladies, let me tell you all of y'all, don't never try to wring a turkey's neck. So we'll beat you to death.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

All right.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

All right, take a rest. Y'all want to drink a water? Soda, ice cream. We have everything good back then.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

Time for intermission. How fun. Elizabeth Cotton at the Denver Folk Wars Center circa 1972. Thanks to Harry Tuff for his collection. We get to experience time travel hearing a folk hero like Libby Cotton. I'm Richard Arnold Beattie, a singer and songwriter, and your neighbor, an artist in residence among this community. And this is our labor of love to share with you on podcast, broadcast, real cast, and the original cast of the Denver Folk Core Center. Stick around, grab some ice cream. Ice cream is our underwriter right here at the Denver Folk Core Center. On Folk Heroes, next time on Folk Heroes, part two with Libby Cotton. A fireside chat. Dear fellow comedy writers, it is time that we put aside our differences and begin to look at what we write, what we say, and what we sing. Maybe we should examine what we laugh at and who we laugh at. I am calling on a 12-week ceasefire of mean-spirited tear-down jokes, cheapcags, whoopie cushion embodily functions are more of personal, physical, and psychic comedy. It's time to put our proud noses down and to practice kind of comedy. Not necessarily. Gentlemen, we have nothing to fear but redundancy.com and sound century originals and gmail.com. That's so close to the fire.