didn't grow up with bluegrass or folk music. Her earliest musical memories are of singing along with family members and friends around the living room piano.
, however, rank among the most influential recordings in folk music history.
Gerrard's first exposure to folk music came while she was attending Antioch College in Ohio. Inspired by the folk songs played by dorm-mates,
Gerrard abandoned the piano and became absorbed with the more rural sounds that she heard on such albums as
The Anthology of American Folk Music.
Moving to Washington, D.C., to complete her college co-op experience,
Gerrard encountered a thriving bluegrass scene. Hanging out in her spare time at the Famous Restaurant in Washington, D.C.,
Gerrard met numerous bluegrass and old-timey musicians, including
Mike Seeger of
the New Lost City Ramblers, who introduced her to
Dickens. With their mutual love of traditional American music,
Gerrard and
Dickens became close friends. Developing a unique harmony style that combined the alto-below-lead of
the Carter Family and the tenor-above-lead of
Bill Monroe, the two vocalists soon became frequent performers in the folk clubs and coffeehouses of the Capitol region. Their repertoire continued to expand as they studied sheet music at the Library of Congress and taped old-timey musicians at folk festivals.
Gerrard and
Dickens' debut album, Who's That Knocking, released in 1965, was recorded for 75 dollars at the First Unitarian Church in Washington and featured accompaniment by
David Grisman (mandolin),
Lamar Grier (banjo), and
Chubby Wise and
Billy Baker (fiddles). Although their second album, Won't You Come and Sing?, featuring the same musicians, was recorded the same year, it wasn't released until 1973.
Gerrard and
Dickens' first two albums were later combined and released as
Pioneering Women of Bluegrass in 1996. The 26 tunes on the reissued album include six
Carter Family songs, five
Monroe tunes, three original songs by
Dickens, and
Gerrard's hard-hitting satire of sexist attitudes towards women, "Custom Made Woman Blues."
Gerrard and
Dickens' Get Acquainted Waltz was released in 1975 and featured accompaniment by
Seeger, who was at the time
Gerrard's husband, and his
New Lost City Ramblers bandmate
Tracy Schwartz.
Gerrard subsequently recorded two albums with
Seeger -- Mike and Alice Seeger in Concert in 1970 and Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard in 1980 -- and one solo collection,
Pieces of My Heart in 1994. Since 1987,
Gerrard has published The Old Time Herald, a quarterly magazine devoted to the preservation of old-timey music.
–
Craig Harris, Rovi