Hally Wood

She was born Harriet Elizabeth Wood in Washington, D.C., in 1922. She was the daughter of a U.S. Army doctor who had worked in Hawaii and the Philippines before settling in Texas in 1935, when she was 13 years old.[1] Her father was a versatile musician, who taught Hally songs and how to play them on organ, piano and guitar.[1] She was a classically trained musician and singer and, while studying music at the University of Texas at Austin, she met John and Alan Lomax and became interested in folk music.[1]

After World War II, Wood moved to New York City to work with such folk musicians as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Pete Seeger. As a musicologist, she transcribed a number of Lomax field recordings (collecting words and notes down on paper). She later also researched and transcribed several books of songs: one by Lead Belly (1959), then the New Lost City Ramblers Songbook (1964, later renamed Old-Time Stringband Songbook), and also two books of songs by Woody Guthrie (1972 and 1977, respectively).[1]

As a singer, she had two solo albums in the early 1950s: Hally Wood Sings Texas Folksongs (Stinson Records label),[2] and Oh Lovely Appearance of Death (Elektra Records label).[3] She appeared on several concert/compilation albums, sang in concerts with Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Jean Ritchie, and others in the NYC area, including a concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, December 21, 1957, with Sonny Terry and Dave Sears.[1][4]

From the late 1950s into the early 1970s, Wood lived in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, where she helped produce concerts, among other activities.[1] On May 23, 1960, Alan Lomax visited her there and recorded 29 songs in a single day.[5]

She worked on a book with Joseph Lomax about songs written by Townes Van Zandt, published in 1977. In its preface, she is credited with musical proof-reading and lyrics corrections.[6]^:i In 1980, Wood brought out a self-produced album in Houston, Songs to Live By (Tannehill Records label),[7] and was beginning work on another in the mid-80s when she was diagnosed with cancer.[5]

Wood was married three times:[1]

• (1940 – 1947) John Henry Faulk (August 21, 1913 – April 9, 1990), a radio broadcaster, writer and activist with whom she had one daughter: Cynthia Tannehill Faulk Ryland (born in Austin, TX., November 28, 1943 - died in Elgin, TX., January 11, 2013)
• (1947 – 1954) Louis H. Gordon (born in New York, NY., November 15, 1915 – March 25, 2006), a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Abraham Lincoln Brigade and labor organizer.
• (1958 – 1978) Robert Clarence McLeod Stephenson (born in San Francisco, CA., May 6, 1893 – died Austin TX., July 7, 1978), a teacher and professor of English.

Solo

• Hally Wood Sings Texas Folksongs (195?)[2]
• Oh Lovely Appearance of Death (1953)[3]
• Rio Piedras 5/60 (1960)[8]
• Songs to Live By (1980)[7]

• Cohen, John; Seeger, Mike, eds. (1964). The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book. Musical transcriptions by Hally Wood. (first ed.). New York, NY: Oak Publications. ISBN 978-0-825-60046-3.

• Doerflinger, William M. (April 1, 1991) [First published 1951]. Bayard, Samuel P.; Wood, Hally; Wood, Joseph (eds.). Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman (2nd revised ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Meyerbooks Publishers. ISBN 978-0-916-63840-5.
• Guthrie, Woody (1972). Lampell, Millard (ed.). Tribute to Woody Guthrie as performed at Carnegie Hall 1968/Hollywood Bowl 1970. Music edited and transcribed by Hally Wood. (first ed.). New York, NY: TRO/Ludlow Music. ASIN B002H0VOSI.

• Guthrie, Woodrow Wilson (1977). Bell, Judy (ed.). 101 Woody Guthrie Songs including Bound for Glory. Lead sheet transcriptions: Hally Wood. (first ed.). New York, NY: Ludlow Music. ASIN B0000CWQU3.

• Lomax, John A.; Lomax, Alan; Wood, Hally, eds. (1959). Leadbelly : A Collection of World-Famous Songs By Huddie Ledbetter. Hally Wood, music editor; special note on Leadbelly's 12-string guitar by Pete Seeger. (first ed.). New York, NY: Folkways Music Publishers. ASIN B0010ZN7J0.

• Lomax, John A.; Lomax, Alan; Wood, Hally, eds. (1965) [First published 1959]. The Leadbelly Legend: A Collection of World-Famous Songs By Huddie Ledbetter. Hally Wood, music editor; special note on Leadbelly's 12-string guitar by Pete Seeger. (2nd revised and augmented ed.). New York, NY: TRO Folkways Music Publishers. ASIN B00H7JZH3C.

• Ritchie, Jean; Wood Gordon, Hally; Lomax, Alan, eds. (1953). A Garland of Mountain Song. Piano accompaniment by Hally Wood Gordon. (first ed.). New York, NY: Broadcast Music Inc. ASIN B000MYEMOO.

• Van Zandt, Townes (1977). Lomax, Joseph F.; Lomax, John M. (eds.). For the Sake of the Song. Musical proof-reading and lyrics corrections: Hally Wood. San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press. ISBN 978-0-930-32404-9.

• Weissman, Dick (2006) [First published 2005]. Which Side Are You On?: An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (2nd revised ed.). London and New York City: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 978-0-826-41914-9. Hally Wood.

• "Music Credits for Hally Wood". Artistdirect.com. Retrieved 1 November 2010.

• Eder, Bruce. "Hally Wood Biography". allmusic.com. Retrieved 1 November 2010.

• "A Guide to the Hally Wood Papers, 1918-1990". The University of Texas at Austin. Briscoe Center for American History. November 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2016.