Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich & Alice Gerrard

They may live at different corners of the country, but Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich and Alice Gerrard form a group that combines their legacies and long influences on old-time, folk and country music. Alice is best known for her collaboration with West Virginia singer Hazel Dickens in the 1960s and 70s. Those Hazel and Alice records helped fuel something of a second folk revival, one that focused more on traditional southern tunes and bluegrass. The Judds, Emmylou Harris, Tim and Mollie O'Brien, all have well-worn copies of those albums. Most recently, Alice is known for starting and editing the highly respected Old-Time Herald.

Back in the 70s, Tom Sauber produced an album by fiddler Earl Collins, an Ozark fiddler who had moved to southern California where Tom still lives. A lot of student fiddlers around the country learned a number of those tunes, and Tom's work with other older players like Ed Lowe and Mel Durham has induced fiddle camps and folk music schools seek him out as valuable instructor. Tom is at home with several instruments and traditional styles, and he plays with some of the best players in America.

Also in the 70s, Oklahoma-born Brad Leftwich was high on the list of those studying with legendary Appalachian fiddler Tommy Jarrell. Many people since have called Brad the best fiddler in that style in his generation. Brad's playing has all the energy and fun and quirks that fiddlers enjoy in old-time music, but his purity and precision in tone makes you sit up straight in your ladder-back chair and listen closely.

These three are some of the most devoted players of old-time American music, committed to an authentic sound and deeply knowledgeable enough to put their own creativity to the style.

Camsco records page about the trio.

Tom Sauber page on Fiddlers' Hall of Fame.

Brad Leftwich home page

Information about Alice Gerrard