A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2025
A Garden & Gun Favorite Book of 2025
“Open [Custom Made Woman’s] busy, bright cover collaged with pictures of Gerrard playing her banjo and interacting with other musicians, friends and family members, and you’ll find a whole world. . . . As Gerrard tells her personal story, intertwined with all kinds of musicians and makers, with the ease of a longtime raconteur, the book’s rich illustrations and sidebars offer pocket views into the diversity and vibrancy of the folk world.”—Ann Powers, NPR Music
“As inviting, unassuming and unconventional in form — part photo book, part autobiography, part collection of profiles of the musicians [Alice Gerrard] studied with — as it is illuminating.”—Rolling Stone, Best Music Books of 2025
“Remarkable. . . . It’s both a cool memoir and a cultural document.”—Garden & Gun
“A wonderful exploration of the last seventy years of American traditional music as told by one of the people who lived at the center of the scene. . . . Alice’s telling of her life in music is captivating, and her stories about the heroes of the music that she knew provides wonderful new insight into their personalities and their lives.”—Bluegrass Unlimited
“This new memoir from one of our national treasures, Alice Gerrard, features over 100 of her personal photographs along with stories from pivotal times and an exceptional life in traditional music. . . . Recent rereleases of Gerrard’s trailblazing collaboration albums with Hazel Dickens have been put out by Rounder Records and Smithsonian Folkways, and they can be listened to in an entirely new context thanks to this book.”—The Bluegrass Situation
“The word ‘legend’ is overused in the world of music writing. . . . In the case of Alice Gerrard, however, it’s entirely appropriate. . . . Custom Made Woman is a book that’s hard to put down. It also leaves the reader immersed in many places and times with many people, which is a tribute to the power of Gerrard’s writing.”—Americana UK
“Fascinating. . . . Heartfelt, open, and honest like Gerrard’s music, this is a delightful memoir whose stories are told with laughter and love and are a treasure.”—Library Journal
“A casual, conversational memoir of someone who worked largely behind the scenes and on her own to practice and to promote the culture that she loved.”—Open Letters Review
“As a 'pioneering woman of bluegrass,' the founder of The Old-Time Herald, and musical collaborator with the likes of Hazel Dickens, Mike Seeger, Tommy Jarrell, and Elizabeth Cotten, Alice Gerrard has played a defining role in the evolution and transmission of American traditional music. Through stories of the many musicians who nurtured her, plucky personal reflections, and stunning photographs, Gerrard offers us a generous and intimate view of her remarkable life at the forefront of the old-time music revival.”—Emily Hilliard, author of Making Our Future
