More Than A Tribute Band
One thing that fiddle player Betsy Heron, banjo player Gretchen Bowder, guitar player Whitney Roy and bass player Lindsay Lassonde have in common, is their love of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard’s music as well as a mutual respect for the women themselves. In March of 2020 when they began to enjoy casually getting together for an evening of jamming, they discovered their common admiration for the duo and that each one of them had their own favorites tunes. Their conversations about the groundbreaking duo led them to the learn more about Dickens’ and Gerrard’s tunes and in 2023 they decided to start the Hazel Project.
When we interviewed the Hazel Project this past summer at the final Thomas Point Bluegrass Festival, all four of them made crystal clear that The Hazel Project is more than a tribute band, and it is not a cover band. Guitarist and singer Roy explained, “Our goal is not to replicate Hazel and Alice’s specific musical styles or idiosyncratic phrasing. We do not try to sing with southern accents or mimic them.” Instead, the band plays the duo’s songs with their own authentic understanding and love of the music.
Before jumping into the Hazel Project’s beginnings and evolution, it seems fitting to offer a quick history of the two legendary and pioneering bluegrass musicians, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. In the early 1950’s both Dickens and Gerrard lived and played in the DC area with a growing number of folk and bluegrass musicians. It wasn’t until the early 60’s that they began working on their duet singing and recorded their first album, Who’s That Knocking, for Verve/Folkways. For the next decade the duo recorded four albums, all critically acclaimed in the world of bluegrass and folk music. They also became promoters for other musicians and Alice participated in the early development of a magazine with which we are all familiar, Bluegrass Unlimited.
While their history is full of musical connections amongst the bluegrass world, including David Grisman and Bill Monroe, it is their unique and powerful music that earned them the title of bluegrass pioneers and trailblazers who broke into a traditionally male genre of music. One of their trademarks as a duo was their “high lonesome sound” a term often reserved for Bill Monroe and Del McCoury. Their wailing vocals, the haunting depth of their original songs, and the lyrics themselves which often addressed hard truths about injustice set them apart from their contemporaries and gained them an appreciative bluegrass audience.
While Dickens and Gerrard’s music gained them a place in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017, it is a rarity to hear their music now. All-star tribute bands occasionally bring their music back in the limelight, but those tribute bands come and go. The Hazel Project band has set out to change that and to exclusively play Dickens’ and Gerrard’s music, rescuing it from the bluegrass archives.
Fiddle player/vocalist Heron, banjo player/vocalist Bowder, guitar player/vocalist Roy and bass player/vocalist Lassonde each discovered Dickens and Gerrards music at different times in their lives and they all remember the first song they heard.
Bowder’s first memory of the duo was hearing “West Virginia, My Home.” She says, I learned it immediately and I’ve been singing it ever since. Heron particularly loved “True Life Blues.” She remembers, “My sisters and I would imitate their voices, and I always loved the raw sound they had compared to more polished country music that we heard on the radio.” Roy’s early personal favorite was “Won’t You Come and Sing for Me.” The beautiful melody, lyrics and tenderness really hit her hard. She says, “They delivered so delicately and yet with such strength.” Lassonde’s first favorite was also “Won’t You Come and Sing for Me.” She explains that she quickly learned it on guitar and sang it along with Whitney. “I was captivated and still am by their powerful lyrics, raw harmonies and subject matter.”
Each member of the band finds Dickens’ and Gerrard’s crooked songs, lonesome harmonies, and idiosyncratic phrasing challenging to sing together. Bowder says, “We strive to find the right balance between Hazel’s raw emotion, tone and delivery which are beautifully balanced by Alice’s lower register and rounded tonal quality.” The Hazel Project does not want to simply imitate Dickens and Gerrard. Instead, they want to create a version of the song that is emotionally authentic. Their goal to stay true to Dickens and Gerrard but also true to themselves and their own musical interpretation of the songs.
When Shari Elder, Thomas Point Bluegrass Festival promoter first heard the Hazel Project in 2023 performing at Nippo Lake Bluegrass Series in Barrington, New Hampshire and then at Ossipee Music Festival, in Maine, she had no doubt that she wanted them to play on the TPB main stage. She remembers, “I knew of most of the members in various ways. Lassonde had played the Thomas Point Beach Festival with the New England Bluegrass Band and opened the festival with Cecil Abels singing the national anthem.” Elder knew of Heron for her fiddling, banjo playing and singing in Green Heron and Roy for her musicianship and vocals in her band Old Hat Stringband. Elder never regretted hiring them. “They were incredibly well received at the 2024 festival and were so professional and lovely to work with.”
Elder recalls, “After the festival, we had one festival goer post some pictures of the band with the caption “The Hazel Project, that one band at a festival you know nothing about but blows you away.”
In 2024, Candi Sawyer, promoter for Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival in Turnbridge Vermont, heard the band at Thomas Point and she immediately wanted to hire them to play for Jenny Brook’s 2025 Festival. Sawyer says that the first song she heard them sing was all it took. “As I walked into the stage area at Thomas Point Beach and heard “Just A Few Old Memories” by the Hazel Project, I was moved by their tribute to the late Hazel Dickens. Their dedication to preserving her legacy and passion for traditional bluegrass music continued throughout their set, making them an easy choice for Jenny Brook in 2025.”
In addition to Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival, you can see the Hazel Project at Ossipee Music Festival this summer as well as local gigs in New England. Whether you are new to Dickens and Gerrard, or long-time fans of the pioneering duo, the Hazel Project’s musicianship and harmonies are reason enough to check out this newly emerging bluegrass band.
