Alice Gerrard
Alice Gerrard is an American bluegrass and old-time music performer, writer, editor and teacher. As a singer who plays guitar, fiddle and banjo, she performed and recorded solo and in ensembles, notably in a duo with Hazel Dickens.
In the 2020s, she has continued to perform and record, was the subject of a documentary film by Kenny Dalsheimer, You Gave Me a Song, and has been a frequent staff member at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia, the Port Townsend, Washington Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and other summer music camps and festivals across the United States.
Gerrard was born in Seattle, Washington. Her mother was from Yakima, Washington, and her father from Wigan in England. Gerrard attended Antioch College, where she was exposed to folk music. After college, she moved to Washington, D.C., and became part of the thriving bluegrass scene there. Gerrard was married to Jeremy Foster who died in a car accident in 1964. She had four children with him. She was later married to Mike Seeger and recorded two albums with him. They recorded two albums except the Strange Creek Singers album. The other Strange Creek Singers members were Hazel Dickens, Tracy Schwarz, and Lamar Grier. Alice Gerrard and Virgie Worrell Richardson were in Matokie Slaughter’s group, the Back Creek Buddies.
Gerrard was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Alice Gerrard Collection is located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She founded and was editor-in-chief of The Old Time Herald magazine from 1987 to 2000.
Discography
Alice Gerrard
- 1994 – Pieces of My Heart
- 2002 – Calling Me Home: Songs of Love and Loss
- 2013 – Bittersweet
- 2014 – Follow the Music
- 2023 - ''Sun to Sun''
With Hazel Dickens
- 1965 – Who's That Knocking
- 1973 – Hazel & Alice
- 1973 – Won't You Come & Sing for Me
- 1976 – Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
- 1996 – Pioneering Women of Bluegrass
- 2018 – ''Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1965-1969''
With Mike Seeger
- 1970 – Mike and Alice Seeger Live in Japan
- 1980 – Alice Gerrard & Mike Seeger
Strange Creek Singers
- 1970 - ''Strange Creek Singers''
With Matokie Slaughter and the Back Creek Buddies
- 1990 - ''Saro''
Tom, Brad & Alice
- 1998 – Been There Still
- 2000 – Holly Ding
- 2001 – We'll Die in the Pig Pen Fighting
- 2005 – ''Carve That Possum''
With Gail Gillespie and Sharon Sandomirsky
- 2007 – ''The Road to Agate Hill: Music from Southwest Virginia and Beyond''
With Andy Cahan
- 2025 - ''Galax Years 1981-1987''
Compilations
- 1979 – Elizabeth Cotten, Volume 3: When I'm Gone
- 1997 – Close to Home: Old Time Music from Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952–967
- 2001 – There is No Eye: Music for Photographs
- 2002 – Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways
- 2002 – Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways
- 2005 – ''Classic Bluegrass Vol. 2 from Smithsonian Folkways''
Books
- Gerrard, Alice. Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music.
Films
- Homemade American Music Directed by Yasha Aginsky, Carrie Aginsky. Copyright: 1980.
- Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song. Directed by Mimi Pickering. Whitesburg, Kentucky: Appalshop.
- You Gave Me a Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard. Directed by Kenny Dalsheimer. Durham, North Carolina: The Groove Productions.
Other