Hedy West/Volume 2

Liner Note Author: Ken Hunt.
Photographer: Jim Marshall .
Of the many musicians to make names for themselves and record on prominent labels during the folk revival, Hedy West remains one of the more secondary and less celebrated, despite issuing two LPs on Vanguard and writing one of the more well-known songs to come out of the movement, "500 Miles." This CD combines both of those Vanguard albums, 1963's Hedy West and 1964's unimaginatively titled Volume 2, onto one disc with the addition of a previously unreleased alternate version of "Cotton Mill Girls" and the Volume 2 outtake 'Who's Going to Shoe (Them Pretty Little Feet)." There's a reason, to be a little blunt, why West is one of the less remembered folk revivalists: her voice is plaintive and her interpretations reverent, but overall the performances are a bit on the bland side, and certainly not gritty. That even applies to "500 Miles" (included on her debut album), and considering the quality of that ramblin'-on-the-road song (perhaps most familiar via the version on Peter, Paul and Mary's first album, released before West's debut), it's odd that she wrote barely any of the other material she recorded for Vanguard. Most of the songs are traditional folk tunes, their origins explained, as they often were in the period, in the artist's own painstaking liner notes (reprinted in the booklet of this reissue, along with a more recent historical overview penned by Ken Hunt specifically for this compilation). Volume 2 likewise featured Hedy's voice and five-string banjo on mostly traditional folk songs, the exception being "Anger in the Land," with music by West and lyrics from a poem by her father. It's an improvement on the self-titled debut, however; her voice is more confident, and her banjo more resonant. That helps make this collection a borderline worthwhile relic of the folk revival as it reached the end of its peak. ~ Richie Unterberger