# Hedy West

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American folk singer, song adapter and banjoist (1938–2005)

Hedy West West performing at Newport Folk Festival, 1964 Background information Born Hedwig Grace West (1938-04-06)April 6, 1938 Cartersville, Georgia, U.S. Origin Cartersville, Georgia[1] Died July 3, 2005(2005-07-03) (aged 67) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Genres Folk music Occupations Singer, songwriter Instruments Vocals, banjo Years active 1961–2005

Musical artist

**Hedwig Grace "Hedy" West** (April 6, 1938 – July 3, 2005) was an American [folksinger](/source/Folk_music), songwriter and song catcher. She belonged to the same generation of [folk revivalists](/source/American_folk_music_revival) as [Joan Baez](/source/Joan_Baez), [Judy Collins](/source/Judy_Collins) and [Carolyn Hester](/source/Carolyn_Hester). Her most famous song "[500 Miles](/source/500_Miles)" is one of America's most popular folk songs. English folk musician [A. L. Lloyd](/source/A._L._Lloyd) declared West to be "far and away the best of [the] American girl singers in the [folk] revival."[1][2]

Hedy West played the guitar and the [banjo](/source/Banjo). On banjo, she played both [clawhammer](/source/Clawhammer) style and a unique type of three-finger picking that showed influences beyond old-time and bluegrass such as blues and jazz. She is a 2022 inductee to the [Georgia Women of Achievement](/source/Georgia_Women_of_Achievement).[3]

## Early life and family influences

West was born in [Cartersville](/source/Cartersville%2C_Georgia) in the mountains of northern [Georgia](/source/Georgia_(U.S._state)) in 1938.[1] Her father, [Don West](/source/Don_West_(educator)), was a [Southern](/source/Southern_United_States) poet and coal mine labor organizer in the 1930s; his bitter experiences included a friend killed.[4] He co-founded the [Highlander Folk School](/source/Highlander_Research_and_Education_Center) in [New Market, Tennessee](/source/New_Market%2C_Tennessee), and later ran the [Appalachian](/source/Appalachian_Mountains) South Folklife Center in Pipestem, [West Virginia](/source/West_Virginia).

West's great-uncle Augustus Mulkey played the fiddle. Her paternal grandmother [Lillie Mulkey West](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lillie_Mulkey_West&action=edit&redlink=1) played the banjo. By her teens, West was singing at folk festivals, both locally and in neighboring states. In the mid-50s, she won a prize for ballad-singing in [Nashville, TN](/source/Nashville%2C_TN).[5] Many of her songs, including the raw materials for "500 Miles", came from Lillie West, who passed on the songs *she* had learned as a child.[6] She used her father's poetry in several songs, such as "Anger in the Land".[1]

Her family's politics were also a lifelong influence. West's liner notes for 1967's *Old Times and Hard Times*, written from self-imposed exile in London, are a personal statement on the corrosive effect of the [Vietnam War](/source/Vietnam_War), claiming, "We'll be controlled by manipulated fear". (See [Folk-Legacy Records](/source/Folk-Legacy_Records).) While living in [Stony Brook, New York](/source/Stony_Brook%2C_New_York), in the late 1970s, she donated her time and talents to numerous benefit concerts for unfashionable causes[*[which?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words)*] — as did her fellow Appalachian-on-Long-Island, [Jean Ritchie](/source/Jean_Ritchie).[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

West's songs were rarely overt, topical protests. Her working-class mountain roots were in her voice, however, and ran through everything she sang, highlighting the lives of marginalized blue-collar workers including factory girls, servants, struggling farmers, coal miners, and single mothers.[7]

## Education, career and later life

Hedy West graduated from [Murphy High School](/source/Murphy_High_School_(North_Carolina)) in 1955 and attended [Western Carolina College](/source/Western_Carolina_University).[8][9] In 1959, she moved to New York City to study music at [Mannes College](/source/Mannes_College_The_New_School_for_Music) and drama at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University). When she arrived and saw the folk revival taking place, she realized that the music the Northerners were playing was in fact music she had heard every day growing up. She embraced her folk side and started performing it around New York City. She later attributed some of her ability to get 'inside' her songs to her early training as an actress. She was embraced by the [Greenwich Village](/source/Greenwich_Village) folk scene (most likely in no small part due to the fact that she actually came from the tradition they were reviving), and was invited by [Pete Seeger](/source/Pete_Seeger) to sing alongside him at a [Carnegie Hall](/source/Carnegie_Hall) concert. [Manny Solomon](/source/Maynard_Solomon) signed her to [Vanguard Records](/source/Vanguard_Records) after an appearance at the May 6, 1961, Indian Neck Folk Festival.[5][10] After being included on the 1961 compilation album *New Folks* for Vanguard, she soon made two eponymous solo records for the company, enjoying critical praise.[11]

West moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where she continued singing and married her first husband, aerospace engineer Karl Ludloff. The marriage did not last. While living in California she appeared at the 1962 Stanford Folk Festival.[12] West performed at the [Newport Folk Festival](/source/Newport_Folk_Festival) in 1964.[13] In 1966, she appeared on Pete Seeger's [Public Television](/source/Public_Television) series *[Rainbow Quest](/source/Rainbow_Quest)*, in an episode headlined by [Mississippi John Hurt](/source/Mississippi_John_Hurt). By this time, she was making regular visits to England. She then lived in London for several years, making tours of the country's folk clubs, and appearing at the Cambridge festival and the first Keele folk festival as well as regular visits to Europe, especially Germany.[14] She recorded three albums for [Bill Leader](/source/Bill_Leader) and [A.L. Lloyd](/source/A.L._Lloyd) at [Topic Records](/source/Topic_Records) – *Old Times and Hard Times* (1965), *Pretty Saro* (1966) and *Ballads* (1967) – together with another for [Fontana](/source/Fontana_Records), entitled *Serves 'em Fine* (1967).

For a few months in 1962 she had been engaged to [Roger Zelazny](/source/Roger_Zelazny), who became a well-known science fiction writer.[15] In 1968, in London, she married broadcaster [Pete Myers](/source/Pete_Myers_(radio_broadcaster)), one of the founding presenters of [BBC Radio 1](/source/BBC_Radio_1)'s *Late Night Extra*. It was a [marriage of convenience](/source/Marriage_of_convenience), as Myers was gay, while the marriage allowed West to spend as much time as she liked on either side of the Atlantic. West and Myers later divorced.[7]

West developed a close working relationship at the time with the painter [Gertrude Degenhardt](/source/Gertrude_Degenhardt), who illustrated a German-published collection of West's songs.[16] In the autumn of 1970, West moved from Great Britain to West Germany, where she learned German and made two further recordings. The first, *Getting Folk Out of the Country* (1974), was recorded in London with fellow American [Bill Clifton](/source/Bill_Clifton) and released by FV Schallplatten.[17] The second, *Love, Hell and Biscuits* (also entitled *Whores, Hell and Biscuits*), was released by [Bear Family Records](/source/Bear_Family_Records) in 1976.[18] In Germany, she met philosophy and psychology professor Joseph Katz (1920–88)[19] who became her third husband in 1980 when they moved to Stony Brook, New York.[20] West picked her elderly grandparents' brains for scraps of musical memory. She studied composition with [David Lewin](/source/David_Lewin) at [Stony Brook University](/source/Stony_Brook_University), living nearby with her husband, with whom she had a daughter, Talitha (b. 1980).[21] She was an adjunct professor at Stony Brook, teaching two courses in folk music. One of her students, singer-songwriter Robin Greenstein, worked with West cataloging her record and tape collection. From Long Island, she moved with her husband and daughter to [Princeton, NJ](/source/Princeton%2C_NJ). Then in the early 1990s, following Katz's 1988 death, she moved to [Lower Merion Township](/source/Lower_Merion_Township) in the [Philadelphia](/source/Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, suburbs, where she spent most of her final years. One of her last performances was at the Eisteddfod Festival, sponsored by the [Folk Music Society of New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Folk_Music_Society_of_New_York&action=edit&redlink=1) at [Polytechnic University](/source/Polytechnic_Institute_of_New_York_University) in 2004.[22]

West's most famous song was *[500 Miles](/source/500_Miles),* put together from fragments of a melody she had heard her uncle sing to her back in Georgia. She copyrighted the resulting song. *500 Miles* has been recorded by [Bobby Bare](/source/Bobby_Bare) (a Billboard Top 10 hit in 1963), [The Highwaymen](/source/The_Highwaymen_(folk_band)), [The Kingston Trio](/source/The_Kingston_Trio), [Peter, Paul and Mary](/source/Peter%2C_Paul_and_Mary), [Peter & Gordon](/source/Peter_%26_Gordon), [Rosanne Cash](/source/Rosanne_Cash), and many others. Another well-known song that she wrote and copyrighted (but which borrows heavily from existing traditional folk material) is "Cotton Mill Girl".[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

Cancer ruined her voice in her last years. A fine musical legacy is in unreleased recordings, such as a live concert from the 1978 [University of Chicago Folk Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Chicago_Folk_Festival&action=edit&redlink=1), broadcast in her memory by *[The Midnight Special](/source/The_Midnight_Special_(radio))* program of local radio station [WFMT](/source/WFMT).[23]

Hedy West died of cancer on July 3, 2005, at a hospital in Philadelphia.[7]

## Discography

- *New Folks*, Vanguard VRS 9096 (1961) [Hedy has 5 tracks on this LP, 3 of which were reissued on *The Original New Folks* Vanguard CD, VCD-143/144 (1993)]

- *Hedy West accompanying herself on the 5-string banjo*, Vanguard VRS-9124 (1963)

- *Hedy West, Volume 2*, Vanguard VRS-9162 /VSD 79162 (1964)

[Note: The two eponymous recordings on Vanguard were combined into a single CD (with 2 bonus tracks) and reissued by Ace Records as Vanguard Masters VCD 79124 (2012).]

- *Old Times & Hard Times: Ballads and Songs from the Appalachians*, Topic 12T117 (London, 1965); Folk-Legacy FSA-32 (1967), reissued Folk-Legacy CD-32 (2004)

- *Pretty Saro and other Appalachian Ballads*, Topic 12T146 (1966)

- *Ballads*, Topic 12T163 (1967)

- *Serves 'em Fine*, Fontana U.K. STL 5432 (London, 1967) (accompanied by [Martin Carthy](/source/Martin_Carthy))

- with Bill Clifton, *Getting Folk Out of the Country*, Folk Variety FV12008 / Bear Family BF15008 (1974), reissued on CD – Bear Family BCD 16754 (2010)

- *Love, Hell and Biscuits*, Bear Family BF15003 (1976) (accompanied by [Tracy Schwarz](/source/Tracy_Schwarz)), also released under the title *Whores, Hell and Biscuits*

- *[Three Score and Ten](/source/Three_Score_and_Ten)*, [Topic Records](/source/Topic_Records) 70-year anniversary boxed set included *[Little Sadie](/source/Little_Sadie)* from *Ballads* as track twenty on the seventh CD. (2009)

- *Ballads And Songs From The Appalachians*, [Fellside](/source/Fellside_Recordings) FECD 241 (2011) – double CD, a reissue comprising the three Topic albums

- *From Granmaw And Me*, Fledg’ling Records FLED 3106 (April 2018) (disk labeled "With Granmaw and Me")

- *Untitled*, Fledg'ling Records FLED 3110 (April 2019) (previously unreleased material recorded in Germany in 1979 with Eloise and [Tracy Schwarz](/source/Tracy_Schwarz) (misspelled on CD package as "Tracey" "Schwartz")

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-g-ds091105_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-g-ds091105_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-g-ds091105_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-g-ds091105_1-3) Schofield, Derek (September 11, 2005). ["Hedy West"](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/sep/12/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1). *The Guardian*. Retrieved October 22, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Similarly, Lloyd's liner notes for West's 1967 "Old Times" album on [Folk-Legacy](/source/Folk-Legacy_Records) (West, Hedy. ["Old Times & Hard Times"](https://folkways.si.edu/hedy-west/old-times-and-hard-times). *Smithsonian Folkways Recordings*. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved January 17, 2021.), called her "by far the best" of the "women singers of the American folksong revival."

1. **[^](#cite_ref-GaWomenHWest_3-0)** ["Hedwig "Hedy" Grace West"](https://www.georgiawomen.org/west-hedwig-grace). Georgia Women of Achievement. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20220213220029/https://www.georgiawomen.org/west-hedwig-grace) from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** In this interview, Don West states he was the preacher at Barney Graham's funeral: Oral History Interview with Don West, January 22, 1975. Interview E-0016. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ["Oral Histories of the American South"](http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/E-0016/excerpts/excerpt_7866.html).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-amrdl_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-amrdl_5-1) Lankford, Jr., Ronnie D. ["Hedy West"](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hedy-west-p137221/biography). AllMusic. Retrieved October 22, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Hunt, Ken (August 3, 2005). ["Obituary: Hedy West, Nitty-gritty singer of the folk revival"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hedy-west-303245.html). *The Independent*. [Archived](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hedy-west-303245.html) from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2020.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-odnb13nov2020_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-odnb13nov2020_7-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-odnb13nov2020_7-2) Hunt, Ken (2020). ["West, Grace Hedwig (Hedy, earlier Hedie) (1938–2005), banjoist, singer, and composer"](https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000369169). *Oxford Dictionary of National Biography*. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000369169](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fodnb%2F9780198614128.013.90000369169). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-19-861412-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-861412-8). Retrieved November 14, 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Bayless, Louise (October 3, 1963). ["Album recorded by Murphy Lass"](https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn95072291/1963-10-03/ed-1/seq-9/#words=Hedy+West+West%27s). *Cherokee Scout*. Murphy, NC. p. 9.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Carden, Gary, "Hedy West in Cullowhee, NC circa 1957," *Holler Notes* (June 15, 2009) ["Holler Notes"](https://hollernotes.blogspot.com/2009/06/hedy-west-in-cullowhee-n-c-circa-1957.html). June 15, 2009.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["Hedy West"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120406171220/http://www.lazyka.com/linernotes/personel/WestHedy.htm). December 13, 2006. Archived from [the original](http://www.lazyka.com/linernotes/personel/WestHedy.htm) on April 6, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Bayless, Louise (October 3, 1963). ["Album recorded by Murphy Lass"](https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn95072291/1963-10-03/ed-1/seq-9/#words=Hedy+West+West%27s). *Cherokee Scout*. Murphy, NC. p. 9.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** [Ken Hunt](/source/Ken_Hunt_(music_journalist)), liner notes for *Untitled* (Fledg'ling Records 2018), p.4

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Hedy West at Newport FF"](https://newportfolkfest.tumblr.com/post/39574478107/hedy-west-newport-folk-festival-1964). *Tumblr*. newportfolkfest. Retrieved July 27, 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** [Ken Hunt](/source/Ken_Hunt_(music_journalist)), liner notes for *Untitled* (Fledg'ling Records 2018), p.5

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Kovacs, Christopher S. (2009). *"...And Call Me Roger": The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 1*. In: *The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume 1: Threshold*: NESFA Press.{{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: CS1 maint: location ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_location))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** *Songbook*. December 24, 1968. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [690468329](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/690468329).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Stern, Thomas (June 7, 2010). ["Hedy West / Bill Clifton CD is ready \[West discography\]"](https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129984). Retrieved February 4, 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** ["Volume 4 No. 3-4 | Appalachian Journal | Appalachian State University"](https://appjournal.appstate.edu/issues/volume-4-no-3-4). *appjournal.appstate.edu*. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** ["Guide to the Joseph Katz Papers"](https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt858038r6/entire_text/). *Online Archive of California*. California Digital Library. Retrieved November 27, 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** [Ken Hunt](/source/Ken_Hunt_(music_journalist)), liner notes for *Untitled* (Fledg'ling Records 2018), p.8

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Rockwell, John (May 15, 1981). ["Hedy West Renewing Folk Traditions"](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/15/arts/hedy-west-renewing-folk-traditions.html). *The New York Times*. Retrieved April 7, 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** *Eisteddfod-NY* ["Eisteddfod-NY"](https://www.folkmusicny.org/eisteddfod/index_2004.html). April 16, 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** ["FOLKSTAGE AUGUST 6, 2005"](http://www.midnightspecial.org/folkstage/f20050806.html). August 6, 2005. Retrieved February 4, 2017.

v t e Georgia Women of Achievement 1990s 1992 Martha Berry Lucy Craft Laney Juliette Gordon Low Flannery O'Connor 1993 Dicksie Bradley Bandy Mary Musgrove Cassandra Pickett Durham Viola Ross Napier Ma Rainey 1994 Julia Flisch Carson McCullers Margaret Mitchell Ruth Hartley Mosley Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman 1995 Selena Sloan Butler Anna Colquitt Hunter Hazel Jane Raines 1996 Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson Nellie Peters Black Ellen Craft Corra Harris Lugenia Burns Hope 1997 Rebecca Latimer Felton Mary Ann Harris Gay Nancy Hart Lucy Barrow McIntire 1998 Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Julia Collier Harris Rhoda Kaufman Carrie Steele Logan 1999 Moina Michael Lillian Smith 2000s 2000 Sallie Ellis Davis Laura Askew Haygood Ellen Axson Wilson 2001 Julia L. Coleman Catherine Evans Whitener 2002 Wessie Gertrude Connell Lula Dobbs McEachern Alice Harrell Strickland 2003 Madeleine Kiker Anthony Helena Maud Brown Cobb Julia Lester Dillon Leila Ross Wilburn 2004 Mathilda Beasley Louise Frederick Hays Helen Dortch Longstreet Sarah McLendon Murphy Emily Barnelia Woodward 2005 Alice Woodby McKane Nina Anderson Pape Jeannette Rankin 2006 Eliza Frances Andrews Grace Towns Hamilton Sarah Porter Hillhouse 2007 Margaret O. Bynum Edith Lenora Foster Helen Douglas Mankin Sara Branham Matthews 2008 Elfrida De Renne Barrow Amilee Chastain Graves Susan Dowdell Myrick 2009 Caroline Pafford Miller Jane Hurt Yarn Harriet Powers 2010s 2010 Mary Ann Lipscomb Celestine Sibley Madrid Williams 2011 Lillian Gordy Carter Mary Francis Hill Coley May duBignon Stiles Howard 2012 Sarah Randolph Bailey Beulah Rucker Oliver Ethel Harpst 2013 Lollie Belle Wylie Mary Gregory Jewett Henrietta Stanley Dull 2014 Rebecca Stiles Taylor Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas Bazoline Estelle Usher 2015 Allie Carroll Hart Frances Freeborn Pauley Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff 2016 Sarah Harper Heard Ellamae Ellis League Katie Hall Underwood 2017 Carolyn Mackenzie Carter Clermont Huger Lee Lucile Nix 2018 Ludie Clay Andrews Susie Baker King Taylor Mamie George S. Williams 2019 Leila Denmark Mary Dorothy Lyndon 2020s 2020 Clarice Cross Bagwell Katharine DuPre Lumpkin Juanita Marsh Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright 2021 Ruby M. Anderson Mary G. Bryan Laura Pope Forester Allie Murray Smith 2022 Lizzie Lurline Collier Josephine Fields Sanders Hedy West Josephine Wilkins 2023 Phyllis Jenkins Barrow Alice Coachman Luck Flanders Gambrell Dorothy Rogers Tilly 2024 Beatrice Hirsch Haas Adella Hunt Logan Valerie Murphey Elizabeth "Bessie" Tift 2025 Jessye Norman Alma Thomas

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hedy West](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_West) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_West?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.