Guitarist Etta Baker has died in North Carolina at the age of 93, whilst visiting a daughter who had suffered a stroke. No cause of death has been reported, but in the past she was forced to give up touring because of heart problems.
A practitioner of the Piedmont Blues school, Baker played standard six string as well as twelve string guitars. In the course of her career, she worked with the likes of Taj Mahal, and received several awards, amongst them the North Carolina Award and the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship.
Daughter Darlene Davis, one of Baker's nine children, said: "She was a great mother and a tower of strength for the family. We always looked up to her."