GUS CANNON

Banjo supremo Gus lived near Clarksdale, a hot-bed of country Blues, and he is said to have made his own banjo from an old frying pan and a raccoon skin. He often held his banjo across his knees, using a knife on the strings like those early Bluesmen as he played on the streets of…

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ELIZABETH ‘LIBBA’ COTTEN

Not many Blues players have an instrumental style so unique that it carries their name. Libba Cotten’s phenomenally accurate, but ‘upside-down’ Piedmont style with its alternating bass strings became known as ‘Cotten-picking’. Not too many write a worldwide hit song at the age of 12 either, but this is only part of the extraordinary story…

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