It is a privilege to have Alice Gerrard join us in her 90’s! She will perform at the Bijou this same evening (3/6 at 7PM) as part of the exhibit: Women in Old Time Music, now on display at the Museum of East Tennessee History, presented by the Knox County Public Library.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Alice has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats and has in turn earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music.

Known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s, the duo produced four classic Hazel and Alice LPs on Rounder and Smithsonian Folkways that  influenced scores of young women singers.

Down through the years Alice has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including projects with many traditional musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis and Matokie Slaughter; with Tom Sauber and Brad Leftwich as Tom, Brad & Alice, with the Harmony Sisters,  The Piedmont Melody Makers, The Herald Angels, Beverly Smith,  Kay Justice, and with Anna R-g and Elizabeth LaPrelle.

In 1983, she co-produced and appeared in the Les Blank documentary film Sprout Wings & Fly about Tommy Jarrell. In 1987 Alice founded The Old-Time Herald and the Old-Time Music Group, a non-profit organization that oversees publication of The Old-Time Herald. Alice served as editor-in-chief of The Old-Time Herald from 1987 till 2003.

A tireless advocate of traditional music, Alice has won numerous honors, including an International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Distinguished Achievement Award, a Virginia Arts Commission Award, the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Tommy Jarrell Award, and an Indy Award. In 2017 Alice was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame along with Hazel Dickens. A film by Durham filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer about her life and music You Gave Me a Song, was shown at the Full Frame Festival in Durham, NC, at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and several others.

In 2023 Alice finished her latest recording project, Sun to Sun, on the local Durham label, Sleepy Cat Records. It features all original songs by Alice and one original instrumental by Reed Stutz, who also plays on the recording, along with Tatiana Hargreaves,  Hasee Ciaccio, DaShawn Hickman, Gail Gillsepie, Marcy Marxer, Phil Cook, Nick Falk, and Joseph Dejarnette.

Now 90,  Alice is touring less but still performs and teaches in workshops. As she noted on the back cover of her latest recording: “In the dark of the night I think sometimes about how this might be my final recording, my final mattress, my final car, my final dog—but then you never know….”