Alice Gerrard

Alice Gerrard (born July 8, 1934) is an American bluegrass singer, banjoist, and guitar player. She performed in a duo with Hazel Dickens and as part of The Back Creek Buddies with Matokie Slaughter.

Gerrard was born 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. She had four children by him. She was later married to Mike Seeger and recorded two albums with him until they divorced.

The Alice Gerrard Collection (1954–2000) is located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was an eclectic songwriter. She used hard vocals. Her work with the instruments was remarkable. These instruments included banjo, guitar and fiddle. She knows her way around mountain music. A number of honors have been dedicated to this amazing folk singer. She was also an editor-in-chief of The Old Time Herald 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

With Hazel Dickens

• 1965 - Who's That Knocking
• 1973 - Hazel & Alice (Rounder LP)
• 1973 - Won't You Come & Sing for Me
• 1976 - Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (Rounder LP)
• 1996 - Pioneering Women of Bluegrass (Smithsonian Folkways)

With Mike Seeger

• 1980 - Alice Gerrard & Mike Seeger [reissued in its entirety on Bowling Green CD, 2008]

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

Compilations

• 1979 - Elizabeth Cotten, Volume 3: When I'm Gone (Folkways Records)
• 1997 - Close to Home: Old Time Music from Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952-1967 (Smithsonian Folkways)
• 2001 - There is No Eye: Music for Photographs (Smithsonian Folkways)
• 2002 - Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways)
• 2002 - Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways)
• 2005 - Classic Bluegrass Vol. 2 from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways)

Films

• Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song (2001). Directed by Mimi Pickering. Whitesburg, Kentucky: Appalshop.
• Homemade American Music Directed by Yasha Aginsky, Carrie Aginsky. Copyright: 1980.