Oneof the most versatile and most widely used acoustic guitar accompaniment stylesis ?Cotton Picking??a staple for any fingerstyle guitarist. This accompanimentstyle was so named after the woman who first popularized this technique in theearly part of the 20th Century, Elizabeth Cotton. Born Elizabeth Nevills on 5January 1893 near Chapel Hill in North Carolina, Elizabeth was a self-taughtmusician, singer, and songwriter who developed this unique accompaniment style.Also referred to as ?Travis Picking? and attributed to Merle Travis, thispattern-based fingerstyle guitar accompaniment should most certainly beattributed to Elizabeth Cotton and not Merle Travis. This arrangement of 'Freight Train' by Dennis McCorkle for solo fingerstyle guitar is an excellent representation of this style of playing. Includes standard sheet music notation and Tablature with fingeringsfor both the left and right hands.

The songs in this collection are intended to be musically engaging, many with a fresh sound, but easy enough to play that the singer can focus on vocalization and connecting with the audience. If the music goes up the guitar neck, it mostly does it at the dots on the fretboard. It does not go past the twelfth fret so that even a nylon string guitar can be used. If there is individual fingering instead of chords, the music can be played more slowly. In places where a finger picking pattern is indicated, strumming may often be substituted. The tuning is standard to avoid the distraction of retuning in a short set. But these are mostly not three chord songs. The pseudo key change in 'Dreamsieve' the second E minor chord in 'Washed Away,' or the open strings in 'Gold Star Eyes,' may allow the performer a chance to engage the audience through musical novelty. The songs are also meant to be short enough that the audience may want more rather than feel worn. 'Washed Away' and 'Unspoken' may be the most involved but both have choruses that can be used for a sing along to bring the audience further in. The songs also have a range of moods and subjects to be useful in balancing an open mic short set.