A01=Alice Gerrard
Author_Alice Gerrard
Blackey KY
bluegrass
bluegrass music
Category=AVA
Category=AVLT
Category=AVN
Category=AVP
Category=DNBF
Documentaries
Documentary
Documenting music
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
folk
folk revival
Hazel Dickens
Music
music and parenting
Music and politics
musicians and culture
old-time
parenting
south
Southern
Southern History
Sprout Wings & Fly
starting a magazine
Traditional music
Women
Women in bluegrass music
Women in music
Women in traditional music
Product details
- ISBN 9781469690360
- Dimensions: 254 x 25mm
- Publication Date: 02 Dec 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Alice Gerrard, an award-winning and storied folk and bluegrass musician for over 50 years, is one of the notable few women in a heavily male genre. Custom Made Woman tells Gerrard’s story through the music, the folk festivals, the kids, and the relationships—both personal and professional—that defined her storied life and career. Her collaborations with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and 1970s were pivotal recordings during the decades after the American folk music boom of the midcentury; the duo produced four albums that have recently been rereleased by Rounder Records and Smithsonian Folkways. In addition to Dickens, Gerrard has worked with folks like Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis, and Matokie Slaughter, and founded The Old-Time Herald, based in Durham, North Carolina, serving as its editor-in-chief from 1987 until 2003.
She’s also a lifelong documentarian of the folkways scene, and this book features nearly 100 rare photos—many never before seen—of key musicians, including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, Elizabeth Cotten, Mike Seeger, and more. In telling the story of her time as a player of traditional music, Gerrard gives us a deeply personal way to understand and appreciate a quintessentially American genre that has a long history and thrives to this day.
She’s also a lifelong documentarian of the folkways scene, and this book features nearly 100 rare photos—many never before seen—of key musicians, including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, Elizabeth Cotten, Mike Seeger, and more. In telling the story of her time as a player of traditional music, Gerrard gives us a deeply personal way to understand and appreciate a quintessentially American genre that has a long history and thrives to this day.
Alice Gerrard is a Grammy-nominated old-time and bluegrass musician whose career has spanned nearly six decades.
