The Fallen Branch Ranch

Come out and enjoy a stroll through the woods. Booth #22

Making some guitar necks for the fall shows. Mark your calendars to come see us at Art in the Park in Kent on September 6+7, and Old Fashioned Christmas in the Woods in Colombiana on October 11,12,18+19.

Her name was Elizabeth Cotten. She was left-handed, poor, and entirely self-taught. No teacher, no lessons, no fancy equipment. Just a $3.75 Stella guitar she ordered from a Sears catalog in 1904.
Because it was a right-handed guitar—and no one told her otherwise—Elizabeth simply flipped it upside down and taught herself to play. Her thumb danced on the melody while her fingers held the bass. It was backwards to the world. But it became her signature.
At just 11 years old, she wrote “Freight Train,” a song that would one day echo across generations. But life pulled her away from music. She set the guitar aside for decades, working as a domestic servant to support her family.
Then one day, in the home of the Seeger family—yes, those Seegers—someone overheard her quietly playing.
And everything changed.
In the 1960s, Folkways Records began recording her songs. Her unique style—now known as “Cotten picking”—inspired artists like Joan Baez, Doc Watson, and even Jerry Garcia.
Elizabeth Cotten didn’t come from fame. She didn’t have a recording contract at 20 or a hit single on the radio.
But she had heart. She had rhythm.
And a $3.75 guitar turned upside down.

~Weird Wonders and Facts