Alice Gerrard
Best known for
Guitar
Alice Gerrard is one of the foundational figures of postwar old-time and bluegrass music — half of the genre-shifting Hazel Dickens / Alice Gerrard duo of the 1960s and 70s, founder of the Old-Time Herald magazine, and an active solo and collaborative artist still recording in her ninth decade.
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- Born July 8, 1934 in Seattle, Washington; came east via Antioch College in Ohio and settled in Washington, D.C. in the late 1950s, where she joined the Baltimore-D.C. bluegrass-and-folk scene.
- Performed and recorded as half of the Hazel Dickens / Alice Gerrard duo from 1965 to 1976 (see A0017); also a member of the Strange Creek Singers with Hazel Dickens, Mike Seeger, Tracy Schwarz, and Lamar Grier.
- Married second husband Mike Seeger in 1970 and recorded two albums with him before they divorced; Mike died in 2009.
- Founded the Old-Time Herald magazine in 1987 and served as editor-in-chief through 2000 — the central scholarly and journalistic publication of the old-time music revival.
- Released the solo records Bittersweet (Spruce and Maple, 2014, produced by Laurie Lewis) and Follow the Music (Tompkins Square, 2014), the latter nominated for the Grammy for Best Folk Album.
- Released Sun to Sun on Sleepy Cat Records in October 2023 at age 89.
- Inducted into the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017 as an individual.
- Subject of the 2019 documentary You Gave Me a Song, directed by Kenny Dalsheimer.
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Hazel Dickens and Alice GerrardPlayed on recordings with Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
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Anna and ElizabethPlayed on recordings with Anna and Elizabeth
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Alice GerrardPlayed on recording with Alice Gerrard
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Alice Gerrard and Mike SeegerPlayed on recording with Alice Gerrard and Mike Seeger