If you’re a fan of old-time, bluegrass, or have just been around Durham for a long time, you probably know Alice Gerrard. A pioneer with songwriting partner Hazel Dickens in the sixties and seventies, Gerrard has dedicated her life to the music she loves, and she remains an active and important force.
Now she’s the subject of a forthcoming documentary, titled You Gave Me a Song, by Durham filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer. He began work on the project in 2015 and is working on finalizing the film for a release.
To that end, fellow Durhamites Phil Cook and Skylar Gudasz have both lent their voices to two new videos wherein each covers one of Gerrard’s songs. Both chose cuts from Gerrard’s 2014 LP, Follow the Music, which earned Gerrard a Grammy nomination. Cook turns the title track into a sparse, heartfelt piano ballad, while Gudasz’s solo version of “Strange Land” is as haunting as the original.
You can check out both videos below, and read up on the documentary here. The nonprofit project is still in process, so if you’d like to contribute money toward its completion via the Southern Documentary Fund, you can do that here.
