Overview

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.

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9781469690360

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Reviews

""Custom Made Woman is a deeply engaging, humorous, and heartfelt tale told in Gerrard's inimitable voice. Telling her life's story--from motherhood to her and Hazel Dickens breaking the bluegrass 'glass ceiling' and more--we get to learn the incredible impact Gerrard has had on old-time music; she is a tradition bearer, collector, activist, and a promoter of one of America's original sounds. This is a one-of-a-kind literary and musical experience.""--Trevor McKenzie, author of Otto Wood, the Bandit

Author Information

Alice Gerrard is a Grammy-nominated old-time and bluegrass musician whose career has spanned nearly six decades.

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