Alice Gerrard
Alice Gerrard
Saturday, Oct. 19 | 5 to 7 p.m.
Indoor theater
$25
Join us for an intimate concert with folk legend Alice Gerrard and her band: Reed Stutz, Rebecca Branson Jones, Andy Cahan (her collaborator in documenting so many musicians in Southwest Virginia and Northwest North Carolina) and special guest Tom Carter, who was one of the early collectors in the area..
Alice is a talent of legendary status. With a career spanning more than 60 years, she has collaborated with many old-time and bluegrass greats and has earned worldwide respect for her important contributions to folk music.
Alice recorded and toured widely with Tom Sauber and Brad Leftwich in the band Tom, Brad & Alice. Known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and 70s, she influenced scores of young women singers, including Emmylou Harris, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, and Alison Krauss.
She spent several years in Galax, where she and Andy Cahan documented and recorded several local musicians from Southwest Virginia and Northwest North Carolina, including Luther Davis, Matokie Slaughter, Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Bertie Mae Dickens, and many others. They also played with many of the local musicians: Andy was the banjo player with Ernest East’s Pine Ridge Boys & Patsy and Alice played with James Lindsey, Otis Burris, Eldridge Montgomery and Wendell Cockerham in Otis Burris & Fortune.
Alice founded The Old-Time Herald, a magazine dedicated to old-time music, in 1987. She served as editor-in-chief of the magazine until 2003. She has won numerous honors including a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the Tommy Jarrell Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society, and an Indy Award. You Gave Me a Song, a film about her life and music, premiered in 2019 and has shown at numerous film festivals. Gerrard and Dickens were inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame in 2017.
Gerrard released her latest album Sun to Sun in 2023. The album features new songs, many of which she wrote during the pandemic. She collaborated on the arrangements with accompanying musicians Tatiana Hargreaves (fiddle, harmony vocals), Hasee Ciaccio (standup bass, electric bass), Reed Stutz (harmony vocals, mandolin, banjo), DaShawn Hickman (pedal steel), Marcy Marxer (lead guitar, banjo, cello), Gail Gillespie (banjo), Phil Cook (Rhodes piano, synth), Nicholas Falk (drums).
ADDITIONAL CONCERT DETAILS
• Seating is limited. Advance tickets recommended.
• Ticket purchases are nonrefundable.
• Season passes not accepted for concerts in the indoor theater.
• Assistive listening devices are available for use during concerts. If you would like to borrow a free device, email info@blueridgemusiccenter.org in advance of your visit.
