Aaron welcomed bluegrass legend Alice Gerrard to Live and Local this week, ahead of the upcoming release of her new album “Sun to Sun.”

Visit AliceGerrard.com to learn more.

Still going strong at 89, Alice Gerrard has been a force in bluegrass music for six decades. She’s best known for her collaborations with Hazel Dickens in the 1960s and 70s, groundbreaking in a male-dominated genre; Gerrard and Dickens were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

More recently Gerrard has been producing solo albums, beginning with 1994’s “Pieces of My Heart.” “Sun to Sun” is her fifth solo album and her first in nine years; her last album, 2014’s “Follow the Music,” was nominated for a Grammy Award.

“Sun to Sun” came about during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gerrard says it began when she was working on a photography project with fellow musician Tatiana Hargreaves: she started playing new songs, Hargreaves joined in, and the rest was history. In addition to Hargreaves, collaborators on the album include mandolinist Reed Stutz, steel guitarist DaShawn Hickman, and keyboardist Phil Cook – among others.

“In the dark of the night,” Gerrard says, “I think sometimes about how this might be my final recording, my final mattress, my final car, my final dog – but then you never know.”

Released by the Carrboro-based Sleepy Cat label, “Sun to Sun” will drop on October 20. Gerrard will be playing two local shows this fall: on Friday, September 8, at Magnetic Sound Studios in Durham, and then again at Sleepy Fest in Hillsborough on Saturday, October 28.

Alice Gerrard stopped by Live and Local to discuss the new album and play three songs: “Lonely Night,” “Old Jim Crow,” and “Sky Over Michigan.”

Listen:

 

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