Hedy West
Musician · 1938–2005 · Cartersville, Georgia
Best known for
Songwriter
Hedy West was a North Georgia-born folk singer, banjo player, and songwriter whose “500 Miles” became one of the most-recorded American folk songs of the 1960s through versions by Peter, Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four, Bobby Bare (a 1963 country and pop Top 10), and the Hi-Lo’s. English folksinger A. L. Lloyd called her “far and away the best of the American girl singers in the folk revival.”
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- Born Hedwig Grace West on April 6, 1938, in Cartersville, Georgia, the daughter of poet and coal-mine labor organizer Don West.
- Won a ballad-singing prize at twelve; was performing at folk festivals in Asheville and Nashville by her late teens.
- Played clawhammer and a distinctive three-finger banjo style that incorporated blues and jazz inflections unusual in the old-time and bluegrass mainstream.
- Wrote “500 Miles” (sometimes printed as “500 Miles Away From Home”), drawing on Appalachian railroad-leaving traditions; Peter, Paul and Mary cut their version in 1961, and Bobby Bare’s 1963 country recording reached the country Top 10 and pop Top 10.
- Wrote “Cotton Mill Girls,” which has been recorded by Peggy Seeger, Susan Reed, and many others.
- Toured Europe extensively from the late 1960s onward.
- Inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2022.
- Died of cancer at a Philadelphia hospital on July 3, 2005, at age 67.
