Bertie Caudill Dickens (1902–1994) was an old-time banjo player from the community of Ennice in Alleghany County, North Carolina. Dickens was born in

Grayson County, Virginia Grayson County is a county located in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,333. Its county seat is Independence. Mount Rogers, the state's highest peak at , is in Grayson County. ...

, but lived most of her life in Ennice. Dickens was raised in a musical family. Her father, Sid Caudill, was a banjo player and her brothers, Huston, Joe, and Clell were fiddle and banjo players. Together, Sid and his sons operated a sawmill in what is now Felts Park, Galax, Virginia. Bertie learned to play the fiddle and banjo as a young child, and played both the old-time

clawhammer Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direct ...

style as well as a two-finger, up-picking technique. Her style was described by fellow musician and friend

Alice Gerrard Alice Gerrard (born July 8, 1934) is an American bluegrass singer, banjoist, fiddler, and guitar player. She performed in a duo with Hazel Dickens, and as part of The Strange Creek Singers (with Dickens, Mike Seeger, Tracy Schwarz, and Lamar ...

as "sparse and beautiful, like Bert herself, with a classic dignity and sound." She was married to Marvin Dickens (1899-1997). Together they had ten children, Helen, Harold, Howard, Ruth, Dean, Glen, Gelene, Don, George, and stillborn. There are a number of audio recordings of Dickens performing, including field tapes within the

Southern Folklife Collection The Southern Folklife Collection is an archival resource at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating traditional and vernacular music, art, and culture related to the American South. ...

's Alice Gerrard Collection. Dickens is also featured in the ''North Carolina Banjo Collection'' compilation, released by Rounder Records in 1998. The Rounder compilation includes one track by Dickens titled "Cleveland's Marching To The White House," which was recorded by Wayne Martin in Alleghany County on August 9, 1988. Dickens also appears alongside Dan Williams and her brother, Joe Caudill, on the compilation, ''Alleghany County musicians: Past and Present'', released by Alleghany County Sesquicentennial Committee in 2009. In 1992 Dickens received the

North Carolina Heritage Award The North Carolina Heritage Award is an annual award given out by the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, in recognition of traditional artists from the U.S. state of North Caro ...

, an annual award given out by the

North Carolina Arts Council The North Carolina Arts Council is an organization in the U.S. state of North Carolina that provides grants to artists, musicians and arts organizations. The group's mission is "arts for all people." It was founded by executive order in 1964 by Gov ...

, an agency of the

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is a cabinet-level department within the state government of North Carolina dedicated to overseeing projects in the arts, culture, and history within the borders of the state. The cur ...

, in recognition of traditional artists from the U.S. state of North Carolina.

References

Old-time musicians 1902 births 1994 deaths American banjoists People from Alleghany County, North Carolina 20th-century American women musicians {{US-musician-stub