Having been enthralled by Dave Van Ronk's version of Mean World Blues, I started doing some research on the song, which lead me to Niela Horn (now Miller). I made contact with Niela by email only to find that she not only wrote Mean World Blues, but also the song that became Hey Joe - recorded by hundreds over the years - an incredible story in itself.

For those of you who were part of that Village scene, I received this info from Niela:

"My associations with folkies were from Washington Square Park, the Catskill Folk Festivals (Camp Woodland), Pinewoods where I taught guitar and worked with Jean Ritchie, Cynthia Gooding,all the Warners, Jack Langstaff, many others, Antioch College (I hosted Odetta and Pete Seeger there),some of the Greenwich Village places like Gerdes Folk City, the Commons (where I sang with Dave and with
Tom Paxton), and other places but the place names don't stay with me like the people do. I knew many of the people mentioned in both Dick Weissman's and Dave's books where I am mentioned myself."

The only recording of Niela was released by Numerophon and can be sampled, purchased, or downloaded here: Songs for Leaving Highly recommended!

dw