Alice Gerrard & Sophie Moeckel

Southern-Style Singing Traditions

On a gray February afternoon, two voices rose in harmony in a modest living room in Durham, North Carolina. One belonged to Alice Gerrard, folk music icon and decades-deep cultural worker. The other was Sophie Moeckel, a young musician and educator from Southwest Virginia, whose voice is still shaping itself within the contours of Appalachian tradition.

This past year, through our Folklife Apprenticeship Program, Sophie has learned directly from Alice — not just melodies and lyrics, but how to listen, and carry a musical lineage with care and respect.

“I wanted to find my voice,” Sophie said, “Find the — as Alice says — ‘tone in the bone,’ that creates that ballad-y, powerful mountain voice.”

Alice Gerrard’s influence on American folk music is immeasurable. Raised in California, she came of age during the folk revival of the 1950s and ’60s, drawn into the world of traditional music through friends, record collections, and an early encounter with the now-iconic Anthology of American Folk Music compiled by Harry Smith.

“So many people who got hold of that and listened to it, their minds were blown,” she said. “It had everything… ballads, blues, Cajun music, string bands.”

Her move to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s placed her in the heart of a vibrant music scene fueled by Appalachian migrants. “When people move, their culture goes with them, as much of it as they can manage,” she said.

That’s where she met Hazel Dickens, who became her musical and creative partner. Hazel, a powerful singer and songwriter from West Virginia, brought the urgency of working-class struggle and southern experience to her songs. Alice brought a photographer’s eye, an archivist’s instinct, and a deep respect for the elders in the tradition. Together, they made history in 1965 as the first women to record an album of old-time music, titled Who’s That Knocking? (Read more about this from their first label, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.)

“Hazel was my biggest influence,” Alice said. “Because she was there. I wasn’t listening to her on a record… she was right there.” 

Today, Alice is passing that knowledge on to Sophie, who came into the apprenticeship with her own strong foundation in Appalachian music and teaching.

In their sessions, Sophie typically brings a song she has been listening to and singing on her own. Then they get to work. “So, she would sing,” Alice said, “and then I’d stop her, and I’d say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, try this.’ Or, you know, ‘Maybe don’t do that because it annoys me.’”

It was exactly the kind of hands-on mentorship Sophie had hoped for. “It’s such a privilege to be able to stop and be like, ‘Oh, wait. Can you do that again?’” she said. “Or ‘Can we try this?’”

They experimented with key changes, vowel placement, and phrasing. Sophie, who wanted to develop her voice, expand her repertoire, and explore how to preserve and share Southern Appalachian music traditions, kept a notebook full of the songs they were working on with her own system of markings to remember the nuances of the melody. 

Alice emphasized that listening is the foundation of it all. “You tell people you got to listen,” she said. “Say, listen to it. Listen. You know, it’s not a written tradition… you can’t notate that kind of stuff.”

Sophie especially gravitated toward “Old Virginia Hills,” a sentimental favorite of Leona Parish, whom Alice photographed and recorded in Galax. They also worked on “Wayfaring Worker,” a rewritten version of “Wayfaring Stranger,” penned by Elaine Purkey to honor the coal mining community she came from.

“[Elaine] was an activist in her community around Ranger, WV,” Alice said. “She wrote this song called ‘Wayfaring Worker,’ to the tune of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ — a common thing to do.”

They spent a lot of time with “Little Bessie,” a haunting deathbed ballad full of sacred imagery. Alice learned it from Hazel, who learned it from her father, a Primitive Baptist preacher. “People call it a ballad, and it is a ballad,” Alice said. “But it also has a home in the primitive Baptist hymnbook called ‘For All Lovers of Sacred Song’ that Hazel gave me.”

The heart of their apprenticeship is the stories behind the songs and tunes— and the people who kept them alive. 

In the 1980s, Alice moved to Galax to learn from,  photograph and record the elder musicians in the local communities. Sophie asked her about these folks and experiences, and about Hazel and the countless other well known and lesser known musicians that Alice has known over the years. “I asked lots of questions,” Sophie said. “About people’s lives, how their music fits in, and Alice’s experiences with them.”

For Sophie, this collaboration goes beyond performance. “As much as I’m learning tunes and songs from you, I’m also learning from you how to learn, preserve, and carry forward the music,” she said.

She planned to spend part of her spring visiting her musical elders, armed with a list Alice helped her compile. “There’s a lot of very old folks that are still holding these traditions that I think need to be learned and carried on,” she said. Sophie teaches music in after school programs, camps, and classrooms, and plans to continue sharing music and dance, especially with children.

For both women, traditional music offers a rare kind of connection across generations, politics, and identity. Moeckel saw it growing up in Floyd, Virginia — moments where people gathered to make music in public spaces even when they disagreed about everything else.

“You could still sit on the street and play music with the person in the MAGA hat,” she said. “You could still find these common grounds.”

Alice had experienced it, too. “Music does transcend many barriers,” she said. “But I think it is always better when you can put time into being with people.”

Their jam sessions weren’t just musical exercises — they were cross-generational conversations. “We’ve done quite a few jams with friends of Alice’sand getting to just sit for an afternoon with these wise older women has been priceless,” Moeckel said. “We can connect over the music.”

Together, the teacher and student created more than a songbook. They built trust, shared memory, and kept a tradition in motion.

“She’s really a natural musician,” Alice said. “She wants to learn to sound as traditional in her own voice as she can.”

“It has been amazing,” Sophie said.

Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music

Archival photos provided courtesy of Alice Gerrard’s forthcoming book, Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music, which 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. Hardcover copies will be available December 2025 through the University of North Carolina press; pre-order yours today.