Big news today as bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis picked up a Grammy Nomination for her tribute album to the great bluegrass pioneers Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.
THE HAZEL AND ALICE SESSIONS was released on January 21, 2016 and gathered critical acclaim from Acoustic Guitar, The Telegraph, The Bluegrass Situation, Saving Country Music, and more.
The album features songs from Hazel and Alice's heyday together as well as their separate careers. The album also features Alice Gerrard herself, plus Linda Ronstadt, Aoife O'Donovan, and young fiddle prodigy Tatiana Hargreaves.
Laurie’s thoughts on the nomination:
"The Right Hands and I are so gratified that we are able to point the spotlight at two of the founding mothers of bluegrass: Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. I have been a fan since I first heard their music some forty years ago. I only wish that Hazel were still with us to enjoy the recognition, and am so happy that Alice is still going strong at age 82."
| MORE INFO: In the mid-1960s, two women from very different origins (Alice Gerrard from the West Coast, Hazel Dickens from West Virginia) blew apart the male-dominated bluegrass world. With singing that was closer to the hard-edged style of early Monroe and Stanley Brothers bluegrass, Hazel and Alice challenged the expectations of women in bluegrass, and blazed a trail still followed not only by the many great women of bluegrass who came after, but by stars of Americana and country as well. Now, over forty years later and with a career as a pioneering trailblazer in bluegrass and roots music herself, Laurie Lewis returns to her roots with an album-length tribute to Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard that joyfully re-introduces us to two of the genre’s most important artists. THE HAZEL AND ALICE SESSIONS brings together Laurie Lewis and her band The Right Hands (Tom Rozum on vocals, mandolin, guitar, Patrick Sauber on vocals, banjo, guitar, and Andrew Conklin on string bass) for a fresh look at Hazel and Alice’s classic and lesser-known songs. Recorded at Lewis’ own studios in Berkeley, California, The Hazel and Alice Sessions became an opportunity to bring in some of Lewis’ best musical friends for collaborations, like Americana star Aoife O’Donovan, or the great Linda Ronstadt, who joins Lewis for an a cappella duet to close out the album. Other guests include young old-time fiddle prodigy Tatiana Hargreaves and Alice Gerrard herself, who guests on “Working Girl Blues,” bringing the project full circle. |
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