Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard - Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1965-1969
Beloved bluegrass trailblazers Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard are revered as pioneers of the form, who challenged the norm at a time when bluegrass remained largely in the purview of men. Nowhere is this more clear than on a set of newly unearthed recordings, Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1965-1969, from Free Dirt Records. Sourced from Alice's private archive and digitized with help from the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill, the recordings invite us to witness the creative process of these towering figures—just two voices and a handful of instruments working out arrangements at home. Across 19 tracks the duo sings the classic country of The Carter Family, The Louvin Brothers, and Jimmie Rodgers; contemporary hits of the 1960s penned by Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard; and barn-burning traditional standards that blur the line between old-time and early bluegrass. Sing Me Back Home is a raw, unfiltered listen to Hazel & Alice at the height of their collaborative energy.
Track Listing:
2. Tell Me That You Love Me (2:33)
3. Seven Year Blues (2:04)
4. Cannonball Blues (2:09)
5. This Little Light of Mine (1:57)
6. James Alley Blues (4:23)
7. Little Darling Pal of Mine (2:26)
8. Are You All Alone (2:08)
9. No One to Welcome Me Home (2:57)
10. Let Me Fall (2:03)
11. Will You Miss Me (3:11)
12. No Telephone in Heaven (2:39)
13. I'll Wash Your Love from My Heart (1:48)
14. Hard Time Blues (3:03)
15. Why Not Confess (2:02)
16. Bound to Ride (1:37)
17. Sing Me Back Home (3:25)
18. The First Whippoorwill (Bonus Track) (2:26)
19. In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (Bonus Track) (2:56)
Catalog Number: DIRT-CD-0087, DIRT-LP-0087
UPC: CD (877746008726), LP (877746008719)