"Hedy" West was an American folksinger and songwriter belonging to the same generation of revivalists as Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Her most famous song "500 Miles" is one of America's most popular folk songs. She was described by the English folk musician A. L. Lloyd as "far and away the best American girl singer of the revival." Hedy played the guitar and the banjo. On banjo, she played both clawhammer style and a unique type of three-finger picking that exhibited influences outside of bluegrass and old-time, such as blues and jazz.
Born in northern Georgia in 1938 she was singing at folk festivals, locally and in neighboring states by her teens winning a prize for ballad singing in Nashville. In 1959, she moved to New York to study music and drama. As the "Folk Revival" was taking place, she realized the music was in fact music she had heard every day growing up. She started performing it around New York, later attributeing some of her ability to get 'inside' her songs to her training as an actress. She was invited by Pete Seeger to sing alongside him at a Carnegie Hall concert, signed to Vanguard Records and performed at the newport Festival.
In the mid 60’s she moved to London, living there for several years, appearing at Cambridge and Keele festivals and touring the UK’s folk clubs, before in 1970 moving to Germany. She returned to New York in 1980 teaching folk music at Stony Brook University, later moving to New Jersey then Philadelphia where she spent her final years.
Cancer ruined her voice in her later years and Hedy died of the disease, in Philidelphia and 2005.

This recording of Hedy was made around 1968 at St Andrews Folk Club.
In this full concert upload, Hedy is supported by several non-professional artistes. As the audio recording was made over half a century ago, some uncertainty exists regarding identification of these support artistes. If you think you know who these musicians are please add a comment.

FOOTNOTE: The fiddler accompanying compere Nigel Hamill is believed to be Barbara Thompson.

свернуть