About

Alice Gerrard is a talent of legendary status. In a career spanning more than 60 years, she has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats, and has, in turn, earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music. Known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s, the duo produced four classic LPs on Rounder and Folkways that influenced scores of young women singers. “Their sound electrified the folk world, and women, in particular, were inspired by their example. Their sound even created ripples in mainstream country music. Emmylou Harris picked up their arrangement of ‘Hello Stranger’…Naomi Judd was inspired by their version of ‘The Sweetest Gift a Mother’s Smile’ to begin harmonizing with her daughter Wynonna…. [Hazel and Alice] were an overwhelming influence on many of the young women who were pouring into old-time and bluegrass music during this era. [1967-1975]…. [They] left a legacy of spine-tingling backwoods harmony; sturdy old-time revivals; and resonant pro-woman original songs….” (From Finding Her Voice by Mary A Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann, Crown Pub. 1993)

Down through the years, Alice has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including projects with many traditional musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis, and Matokie Slaughter; with Tom Sauber and Brad Leftwich as Tom, Brad & Alice, with the Harmony Sisters, The Piedmont Melody Makers, The Herald Angels, Beverly Smith, Kay Justice, and with Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle.

She co-produced and appeared in the Les Blank documentary film Sprout Wings & Fly about Tommy Jarrell. In 1987, Alice founded The Old-Time Herald and the Old-Time Music Group, a non-profit organization that oversees the publication of The Old-Time Herald. Alice served as editor-in-chief of The Old-Time Herald from 1987 till 2003. It is still being published under the auspices of Sarah Bryan.

A tireless advocate of traditional music, Alice has won numerous honors, including an International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Distinguished Achievement Award, a Virginia Arts Commission Award, the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Tommy Jarrell Award, and an Indy Award. In 2017, Alice was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame along with Hazel Dickens. A film by Durham filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer about her life and music (You Gave Me a Song) was shown at the Full Frame Festival in Durham, NC, at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and several others. Here is a link to the website for You Gave Me a Song.

In 2023, Alice finished her latest recording project, Sun to Sun, on the local Durham label, Sleepy Cat Records. It features all original songs by Alice and one original instrumental by Reed Stutz, who also plays on the recording along with Tatiana Hargreaves, Hasee Ciaccio, DaShawn Hickman, Gail Gillespie, Marcy Marxer, Phil Cook, Nick Falk, and Joseph Dejarnette.

These days, at 90, Alice is touring less but still performs and teaches in workshops occasionally. You can find her schedule on the calendar. As she noted on the back cover of her new recording: “In the dark of the night I think sometimes about how this might be my final recording, my final mattress, my final car, my final dog—but then you never know….”