Famous for “Freight Train,” and “Shake Sugaree,” and “Babe It Ain’t No Lie,” and for playing guitar upside down and for being a domestic in the home that produced Mike, Peggy, and Pete Seeger. Her picking style was an adaptation of what’s termed “Piedmont,” indigenous to the Southeastern region. She’s reputed to have written “Freight Train when she was 12. That song has a lot to answer for, in terms of motivating tons of people to pick up the guitar themselves. Mother Maybelle Carter’s “Wildwood Flower” is another such song.

DQ