Biography

June 1, 1935 · Montcalm, West Virginia, USA

April 22, 2011 · Washington, District of Columbia, USA (pneumonia)

Hazel Jane Dickens

Traditional Appalachian singer-songwriter.

Winner of a 2001 NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) National Heritage Fellowship Award.

She was the first woman awarded the International Bluegrass Music Association's Merit Award in 1994.

She moved to Baltimore, Maryland in the 1950s and worked in factories there. She began playing music and singing with Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard.

She was one of eleven children in Mercer County, West Virginia. Daughter of a Primitive Baptist preacher and singer who hauled timber to support the family. Her brothers were miners and one of her sisters cleaned the house for the mine supervisor.

On her collaboration with Alice Gerrard: I'm not sure if they looked at us as a novelty, or if they took us seriously. They were a lot of them, especially down through the years, that gave us respect.

On her song, "Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Here There:" I can remember the first time I sang 'Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Here There.' I was at a party standing in the middle of all these men. It was here in Washington. Bob Siggins was playing banjo, and when I got done, everybody just looked at each other, and Bob said 'That's a nice song, but I won't be able to sing it.' And I said 'Of course you can. We were writing about our own experience. They were things needed to say.