Custom Made Woman

Name: Custom Made Woman
Price: 80.99 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781469690360

A Life in Traditional Music

Alice Gerrard

$80.99

Hardback

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English

The University of North Carolina Press
06 January 2026

Theory of music & musicology; Folk & traditional music; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; Biography: arts & entertainment

Series: American Music: New Roots

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.

By: Alice Gerrard
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 25mm, Width: 254mm, Spine: 178mm
ISBN: 9781469690360
ISBN 10: 1469690365
Series: American Music: New Roots
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 06 January 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

Reviews for Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music

""The word ‘legend’ is overused in the world of music writing. . . . In the case of Alice Gerrard, however, it’s entirely appropriate. . . . Custom Made Woman is a book that’s hard to put down. It also leaves the reader immersed in many places and times with many people, which is a tribute to the power of Gerrard’s writing.” –Americana UK