folkworks.org
Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard
In 1996, I attended a conference of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance in Washington, DC. In the basement of the conference hotel, there was a wonderful jam with Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard, Ginny Hawker, and Kay Justice, all singing, and Ginny’s husband, Tracy Schwarz on fiddle. There were probably about 40 people listening. On my left was Kate Long, the author of a great song called “Who Will Watch the Home Place.” On my right was Peter Siegel, who recorded Hazel and Alice’s first recordings on Folkways records. I remember that singer-songwriters would walk by the jam and obviously wonder who these women were that we were watching and listening to so raptly.