Cotton is an artist of a singular nature. Born in the small town of Wiener Arkansas to a family of sharecroppers his future looked to be a life of hardship and simplicity. Raised in a devout, fundamentalist Baptist family, Cotton was not exposed to music until much later in his life. The particular sect of the faith banned music in the services and looked down upon it in any secular activity. His family was particularly strict and Cotton spent more than half his lifetime without hearing so much as one note. Around the age of 12, Cotton and one of his buddies discovered an old radio behind the local drug store. Cotton and his friend became fascinated with the machine and would sneak off everyday after school to listen to the radio for a short amount of time before their absences would become noticeable. It’s fascinating to think that in this modern age an individual is able to go this long until their first exposure to music. Yet, due to this late exposure, Cotton became transfixed by music, even somewhat mystified by it. Cotton continued to listen to the radio in secret, and often, due to the poor programming of the region, he would just tune into the white noise between stations, fascinated by the musical qualities of the hiss and hum and the mystery of phantom signals. Eventually his family caught onto his secret and disapproved, Cotton has described the event as a deep seething quiet tension that while never directly stating what needed to be done, hinted with cold stares and silence the need for him to deny his passion for music or depart. Cotton chose to depart, he worked various seasonal farming jobs across the state until he had saved enough money to purchase a guitar and make his way to Little Rock. Once there, he taught himself to play guitar roughly and tried his hands in various bands in the city. This proved disastrous as Cotton learned that he had a debilitating fear of the public. Unable to go into clubs, let alone play at them, Cotton became somewhat of a recluse, playing music only for himself. With the urging of a few friends he had made in Little Rock, Cotton decided to try his hand at recording. Armed only with his guitar, his voice, and the sheer desire to create, Cotton sporadically will gain access to a computer and record directly through the built in microphones. This page has a sample of a few tracks he has managed to lay down. Everything he records, he records on the spot, usually doing each track in one take. He has an innate production skill and manages to invoke haunting, delicate sounds that embrace the hiss and hum of the cheap recording equipment, perhaps this is a result from his musical education. Enjoy.-Dwight Jennings
