"Freight Train".........Played On Tyros 2!

My arrangement of "Freight Train," written in 1906 by Elizabeth Cotten. I hope that you enjoy my version of this great old song!!! As always...please feel free to comment, and to "PLEASE RATE" the video..."THANKS!"

Dedicated to my good friend Bernie, (btrabmos333), from France!

Photo source: The Internet.

Some history on the compose:

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1895 June 29, 1987) was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.

Self-taught and having no knowledge of conventional guitar tunings (e.g. standard 'EADGBE' tuning or any established open tunings), Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach to left-handed guitar playing involved keeping the guitar in standard tuning but holding it upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature, alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".


Early life:

Elizabeth Nevills was born in Carrboro, North Carolina, at the border of Chapel Hill, to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevills and Louise Price Nevills. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At 11, after scraping together some money, she bought her own guitar. She became very good at playing the instrument, which she named "Stella." By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, Freight Train, would go on to be one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote Freight Train when she saw a train pass by her house on Lloyd Street in Carrboro, North Carolina. Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. Soon after at age 15, she was married to Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around eastern United States for a number of years between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.

Re-discovery:

Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. It wasn't until she reached her 60s that she began recording and performing publicly. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.

While working for a brief stint in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was Ruth Crawford Seeger of the Charles Seeger Family. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for the Seegers' children Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to start from scratch.

Later career and recordings:

During the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel to reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. The culmination of these recordings would later go on the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records. Since its release, her songs, especially her signature track, "Freight Train", written when she was 11, have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive and Taj Mahal. Shortly afterwards, she began playing selected joint shows with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College. One of her songs, "Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now", was in fact recorded by Blind Boy Fuller under the title "Lost Lover Blues" in 1940.

Using profits from her touring and record releases, as well as from the many awards given to her for contribution to the folk arts, Elizabeth moved with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington and bought a house in Syracuse, New York. She continued touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984 she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for her album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all". In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women chosen to be included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.

Elizabeth Cotten died in Syracuse, New York at the age of 92.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Yamaha
• Tyros2
• Keyboards
• Instrumental
• Folk
• Music
• Steam
• Trains

[ArkRed1]

What's a Tyros 2?

[ilovetrains63]

Hi @ ArkRed1,

The Yamaha Tyros 2 keyboard is an electronic musical instrument.

It's played much like a piano, but has 61 keys instead of the piano's 88

keys. It has lots of different voices like the guitar sounds that I played

with this arrangement of "Freight Train."  Try doing a search here on "YouTube" for a "Tyros Keyboard," and you'll see what the instrument looks like! I hope that I've answered your question!!!

Best Regards From California,

Dwayne

[sodjs]

1006 ac WoW !

Niced Edit !

ALLSTARS !

[ilovetrains63]

Hi Sato,

Thanks a lot for the kind words my friend!!!

I'm glad you enjoyed my arrangement of this

old American Folk song!!!

Best Regards From California Always,

Dwayne

[gjhgjh]

Wonderful composition. Thanks for sharing.

[ilovetrains63]

Hi John,

Thanks a lot my friend!!! I'm glad you enjoyed my arrangement of this great old American folk song! 104 years old, and still a great melody!!!

Best Regards Always John,

Dwayne

[minesapint58]

made my day, love it so much



[TheFreightrain]

This... What is it that entrances me so? But I've heard it all through my life, somehow. It touches me, soothing the heart. Since when have I ever deserved such a nice feeling?

[channexpilot]

hey dear friend that is just great

how about playing the orange blossom special

im sure  you will do something special with your arrangment of that one

[OnerailfanDK]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy  .. I've been an enginedriver for nearly 15 years, and I just love "railway-songs" and from now on this will be my favorite worksong.

You do an exellent job, Dwayne.

Kind regard from Egon in Denmark.