Etta Baker

Etta Baker (March 31, 1913 – September 23, 2006) was an American blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States. She played in the Piedmont blues style.

Baker was born Etta Lucille Reid in Caldwell County, North Carolina of African American, Native American, and European American origin. Since the age of three she played 6- and 12-string guitar and Banjo. She was thought by her father, who was also a Piedmont blues musician. She did her first recording in 1956, when folk singer Paul Clayton was asked by her father to listen to his daughter. She played "One Dime Blues" and Clayton was very impressed. Next day he did some recordings with his taperecorder in Etta Bakers home.

Over the years she played with different musicians like Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Etta Baker had nine children, one of them died in the Vietnam War. She died at the age of 93 in Fairfax, Virginia, while visiting a daughter who had suffered a stroke.
Honours
North Carolina Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council (1989)
National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship (1991)
North Carolina Award (2003)
North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Folklore Award (1982 - together with her sister Cora Philips)

Discography
 1956 : Instrumental Music From the Southern Appalachians (1956, Tradition Records; reissued 1997)
 1990 : One Dime Blues
 1998 : The North Carolina Banjo Collection (various artists) (1998, Rounder)
 1999 : Railroad Bill
 2004 : Etta Baker with Taj Mahal (Music Maker 50)
 2005 : Carolina Breakdown  with Cora Phillips (Music Maker 56)
 2006 : Knoxville Rag with Kenny Wayne Shepherd (CD Title: "10 Days Out- Blues From The Backroads", it also includes a DVD that shows Kenny & Etta playing guitar in her kitchen), Reprise Records, 2006

Category:Singers from North Carolina
Category:Musicians from North Carolina
Category:American guitarists
Category:Blues guitarists
Category:1913 births
Category:2006 deaths
Category:Piedmont blues
Category:20th-century American guitarists