The Handmade Music School Presents:
Handmade at Home - A Virtual Workshops Series

Women in Traditional Music: “Pretty Good For a Girl” with Alice Gerrard

Women have always sung and played traditional music: music that grew and flourished in traditional communities since the beginning of time. Although often unrecognized and often oppressed, these women played a vital part in preserving and in advancing musical traditions, and they insisted on being heard.

This presentation will show, in photos, audio, and video some of these women and the communities in which they lived and from which they drew their strength. Many of them had a profound influence on me.

Alice Gerrard: Biography

Simply put, Alice Gerrard is a talent of legendary status. In a career spanning some 50 years, she 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.

Alice is particularly known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s. The duo produced four classic LPs (recently reissued by Rounder on CD) and influenced scores of young women singers — even The Judds acknowledge Hazel and Alice as an important early inspiration.