Hazel Dickens w/ Dudley Connell plus Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Jody Stecher, Kate Brislin, Kathy Kallick, Eric Thompson, Suzy Thompson, Bill Evans, and the Bluegrass Intentios. In this rare stage appearance, national treasure Hazel Dickens brings her spare, deep-delving songs and goosebump-raising high and lonesome mountain singing to show Berkeley a thing or two about the ageless roots of American music. Fierce, uncompromising, and full of passion, this living legend of southern mountain music sings barb-tipped, soul-stirring songs of heartbreak and struggle, hymns to the grace in enduring through hardship and sadness. Born the eighth of 11 children, Hazel spent her childhood in the mining town of Montcalm, West Virginia, before going to work in the factories of Baltimore in her teens, experiences which she has transformed into the inspiration and material for her songs. She first gained widespread attention in the late sixties, when she and her then-singing partner, Alice Gerrard, rocked the foundations of the male-dominated national bluegrass scene with their stellar musicianship. Now, three decades of performing and eight critically acclaimed albums later (most recently the 1998 album Heart of a Singer on the Rounder label), Hazel continues to produce starkly beautiful songs like Just A Few Memories, Clay County Miner, and Mama's Hand. Last fall she received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for her work as keeper of the mountain music tradition. Joining Hazel is her favoritie accompaniest, guitarist and singer, Dudley Connell. Dudley, as a co-founder of the Johnson Mountain Boys, was a one of the leading players in the bluegrass revival of the last quarter of the twentieth century, and now performs with the progressive bluegrass band The Seldom Scene. Hazel and Dudley share the bill with an impressive lineup of bluegrass and old-time musicians, Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher, Kathy Kallick, Eric & Suzy Thompson, Bill Evans, and the Bluegrass Intentions. (Please note that a documentary film about Hazel1s music, Hazel Dickens: It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song, will be screened at the Pacific Film Archive Theater on Thursday March 21.)