Biography
Traditional folk music shaped Hedy West's childhood from the outset. Unlike many contemporaries who first encountered rural traditions in cities amid the late-'50s folk revival, West absorbed Georgia's longstanding heritage directly. Her father, Don West, a trade union organizer, exposed her to mining songs, while her grandmother, Lillie Mulkey West, and uncle, Augustus Mulkey, passed along traditional British American ballads. "Grandma specialized in sober or tragic songs, perhaps conditioned by her hard life," West noted, "but Gus preferred humorous songs; indeed, he was not likely to sing unless he could extract a bit of fun out of the song." Piano lessons began at age four, and she taught herself banjo during high school.
Mid-'50s appearances at the Asheville Annual Folk Festival and Mountain Youth Jamboree led to a first-prize win in a Nashville ballad contest. West relocated to New York City in 1959 for music studies at Mannes College and drama classes at Columbia University, yet the city's expanding scene soon pulled her focus away. "When I arrived in New York, the folk song revival was on," West wrote, "but I found something insulting in the way people looked at the South, and in the way northern youngsters sang songs born in the South. So I took to singing the songs whenever I could, partly to clear up misunderstandings, and partly, I suppose, to compete with the other singers of the folk song revival."
A 1961 Sing Out! hoot at Carnegie Hall and a slot at the Indian Neck Festival prompted Manny Solomon to sign her to Vanguard Records. New Folks appeared that year, followed by Hedy West Accompanying Herself on the 5-String Banjo and Hedy West, Vol. 2. Coffeehouse dates included sought-after engagements at Gerde's Folk City and Caffe Lena in the early '60s. Irwin Stambler observed that "By the mid-'60s, West had sung at most major festivals in the United States and given recitals across the country."
She advanced her work in Los Angeles, married, and later settled in England, recording Pretty Saro, and Other Songs From My Family and Ballads for Topic Records. After seven years abroad she moved to Germany for Getting Folk Out of the Country with Bill Clifton. In 1970 West returned to the United States to study composition with David Lewin. Several albums received reissues during the 1980s and 1990s.
~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Mid-'50s appearances at the Asheville Annual Folk Festival and Mountain Youth Jamboree led to a first-prize win in a Nashville ballad contest. West relocated to New York City in 1959 for music studies at Mannes College and drama classes at Columbia University, yet the city's expanding scene soon pulled her focus away. "When I arrived in New York, the folk song revival was on," West wrote, "but I found something insulting in the way people looked at the South, and in the way northern youngsters sang songs born in the South. So I took to singing the songs whenever I could, partly to clear up misunderstandings, and partly, I suppose, to compete with the other singers of the folk song revival."
A 1961 Sing Out! hoot at Carnegie Hall and a slot at the Indian Neck Festival prompted Manny Solomon to sign her to Vanguard Records. New Folks appeared that year, followed by Hedy West Accompanying Herself on the 5-String Banjo and Hedy West, Vol. 2. Coffeehouse dates included sought-after engagements at Gerde's Folk City and Caffe Lena in the early '60s. Irwin Stambler observed that "By the mid-'60s, West had sung at most major festivals in the United States and given recitals across the country."
She advanced her work in Los Angeles, married, and later settled in England, recording Pretty Saro, and Other Songs From My Family and Ballads for Topic Records. After seven years abroad she moved to Germany for Getting Folk Out of the Country with Bill Clifton. In 1970 West returned to the United States to study composition with David Lewin. Several albums received reissues during the 1980s and 1990s.
~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Albums
