When Alice Gerrard takes the stage at the Bijou Theatre on March 6, she won’t just be performing — she’ll be standing as one of the most enduring links between the earliest voices of old-time music and the generations who continue to shape it.

Now 91 years old, Gerrard remains a living archive of the traditions she has spent her life preserving and passing forward. Her appearance as the featured guest at the Celebration of Women in Old‑Time Music — a multi-day festival honoring the women who built and sustained the Appalachian sound — is both a tribute and a continuation of her remarkable journey.

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1934 to a mother from Yakima and a father from Wigan, England, Alice Gerrard did not grow up in the Appalachian Mountains whose music would later define her career. But while studying at Antioch College, she encountered folk and old-time music for the first time. After college, she moved to Washington, D.C., a city then alive with a thriving bluegrass scene, and found her place within it. There she began performing on guitar, banjo, and fiddle, developing the powerful singing style that would shape a generation of traditional musicians.

Her partnership with Hazel Dickens remains one of the most influential collaborations in American folk music. Together, Dickens & Gerrard broke barriers for women in bluegrass throughout the 1960s and ’70s, laying the groundwork for many who followed. Gerrard later recorded with Mike Seeger, raised four children, and performed with artists including Matokie Slaughter as part of the Back Creek Buddies. Across her life, she has been a writer, editor, teacher, and an unwavering steward of traditional music.

Her legacy has long been recognized: Gerrard was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017, and the Alice Gerrard Collection (1954–2000) now resides at the University of North Carolina’s Southern Folklife Collection.

This year’s Celebration of Women in Old-Time Music places Gerrard at its center. Running March 5–8, 2026, the festival includes concerts, screenings, lectures, and community events spotlighting the contributions of women whose names have too often been written in the margins of music history. Gerrard appears throughout the weekend in multiple signature programs.

The festival’s marquee event, held March 6 at the historic Bijou Theatre, pairs a screening of the acclaimed documentary You Gave Me a Song — a deeply intimate portrait of Gerrard’s later‑life creative journey — with a live performance by Gerrard herself alongside musicians Tatiana Hargreaves and Reed Stutz.

On March 7, Gerrard sits down for a public conversation with folklorist Emily Hilliard, marking the first stop on the launch of her newly released autobiography Custom Made Woman. The same afternoon, festivalgoers will view rare archival footage — including early performances by Hazel Dickens and other influential women in old-time music — presented from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound collections.

Her Knoxville appearances also include a live spot on WDVX’s Big Plate Special at noon on Friday, March 6, at Barley’s, giving audiences yet another opportunity to hear her unmistakable voice in an intimate setting.

At a festival devoted to honoring women who carried old-time music through eras that often overlooked them, Alice Gerrard stands as both icon and torchbearer. Her story reflects not only what women have accomplished in traditional music, but what they are still creating — boldly, brilliantly, and without pause.

This historic weekend is presented by the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound and was made possible in part by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission in partnership with the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville and the Friends of the Knox County Public Library.

Mary Pom Claiborne is assistant director for marketing, communications and development for Knox County Public Library.

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