Alice Gerrard had no particular musical interests until she attended Antioch College in Ohio, where she discovered “The Anthology of American Folk Music” by Harry Smith. From that point onward, Alice devoted herself to helping revive interest in old time music, while also celebrating the importance of women in folk and bluegrass. She learned to play and perform. Consequently Alice and her husband, Jeremy Foster, moved to Washington D.C. and became involved with the folk music revival and social protests communities. After Jeremy died in an auto accident, leaving Alice a widow with four small children, her musical community embraced the family from baby-sitting to lending moral support.
Shortly after, Alice recorded her debut album with Hazel Dickens. This groundbreaking record, as well as their live performances, showcased for the first time women fronting a bluegrass band and broke the male-dominance in this genre. Alice brought a lasting high lonesome sound to the collaboration, a sound intrinsic to the music that suited her sense of loss. Both women were reluctant cult figures and it was only later in life during an interview that Alice is quoted saying “Hazel and I really did something.”
In addition to three more albums with Hazel, Alice recorded 4 solo albums. Also, Alice recorded collaborative albums, not only with her ex-husband Mike Seeger, but importantly with other women in bluegrass such as Matokie Slaughter & the Back Creek Buddies, Gail Gillespie, and Sharon Sandomirsky. In the 1990s Alice moved to Galax, Virginia, to connect with bluegrass and country music artists in this area. Alice wanted to capture not just the music, but also the lives out of which the music grew. She committed herself to documenting the songs and stories of artists in the rural South. Alice next moved to Durham, North Carolina, to teach music folklore at the University of North Carolina. The materials she gathered while interviewing artists lead to her founding the “Old Time Herald”, a magazine dedicated to old time music. These materials, entitled “Alice Gerrard Collection”, are in the Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.
Alice has received recognition for her legendary talent and over 50 years devotion to old time music and bluegrass. Her many awards include International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Distinguished Achievement Award, Virginia Arts Commission Award, North Carolina Folklore Society Tommy Jarrell Award, Indy Award, and in 2017 she and Hazel Dickens were inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame.
