Salut! Live

Qualified tank driver? For a short time, the young Wood was a junior Army officer and it was in that capacity that she acquired such a skill. "Not many people know that!' says Dave Eyre, a friend from her native Sheffield well known in folk circles. We're both fairly sure she never invaded anyone's country.

Singer? Utterly brilliant. Her powerful harmonies were an essential component of Young Tradition performances. I can still visualise and hear the three of them - Wood, no-relation Royston Wood and the trio’s leader Peter Bellamy - belting out Chicken on a Raft at the Richmond (N Yorks) folk club in about 1969.

Royston Wood died in a freakish accident involving a car in New York in 1990 and Bellamy, a clever, charismatic but troubled soul, committed suicide the following year.

Here, I need to hand over to people who knew Heather Wood

The American singer Debra Cowan posted this touching tribute:

I am absolutely gutted to hear the news that a true icon of the folk music world has left us. 

Heather Wood, the last survivor of The Young Tradition was a friend, teacher and mentor to many of us. Her knowledge and humor was always apparent every time we met and though she absolutely never suffered fools, she was always the first to lend a helping hand. 

Sing on Heather. You will be sorely be missed

For many of us, news of Heather Wood’s death came from the Facebook pages of the American Folklife Centre.

This is how its notice read:

[We are] sad to note the passing of A Heather Wood, a folksinger and folk music organiser who is featured in several AFC collections. Heather was always a friend of the AFC and of our staff members. Heather's website includes the statement "I am never ill," and her death occurred quite suddenly yesterday. 

Heather was born in England in 1945, and began her singing career with the trio The Young Tradition, which also featured Peter Bellamy and Royston Wood.

The Young Tradition was one of the first and most prominent revival groups to perform traditional English folksongs with a capella harmonies, taking traditional groups like The Copper Family as their model but employing innovative influences from both medieval and modern music. They performed at major folk festivals in the UK and the US, and recorded influential albums that are still treasured listening for many today.

After the Young Tradition stopped performing in 1969, Heather was part of several duos, including with Royston Wood (as "No Relation" since their shared surname was a coincidence) and with former AFC staff member Andy Wallace (as "Crossover"). She was also part of the group "Poor Old Horse." 

Heather moved to the US  in the 1970s and settled in New York, where she was important to the folk scene as a singer, but also as an organiser and catalyst. She worked with such organisations as the New York Folk Music Society, the Long Island Traditional Music Association, the Youth Traditional Song Weekend, and the TradMad Camp, held at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Heather's other interests included science fiction and the search for extraterrestrial life.)

As both a singer and an organiser, she attended such festivals as the Old Songs Festival, the Mystic Sea Music Festival, and Folk Alliance International, where she often met and encouraged AFC staff members.

Heather is an important part of several AFC collections. AFC folklorist Nancy Groce interviewed her for the Nancy Groce collection of interviews with culture brokers, and concerts by the Young Tradition are documented in the Izzy Young Collection and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington collection. 

Heather had no close relatives and considered the friends she made through folk music to be family. We will miss her wit and wisdom (and of course her songs) at future folk music family gatherings.

And from the Copper family:

 

Sad news... we have just learned of the death of Heather Wood. She seemed indestructible.

She was a good friend to the family from her days with Peter and Royston visiting as one third of The Young Tradition, to keeping a watchful eye on us when we first visited the USA. We last saw her when she made the trip over from New York to sing at Bob Copper's Centenary event, forever named 'Bobstock' by Ian Anderson. Always scrupulous in their acknowledgement of the sources of songs, her work both with the YT and subsequently contributed to the fact that The Copper Family were even known about on America's East Coast. We have lost a dear friend.

Salut! Live shares their sadness. It is happening far to often but RIP Heather Wood.Join the Salut! Live Facebook group. Visit this link now 

• My obituary on Peter Bellamy from The Daily Telegraph in 1991