Culled from a warped acetate cut at Variety Recording Service in 1962, Songs Of Leaving is the complete songbook of New York folkie Niela Miller. Something of a Bleeker & MacDougal scenester, Miller picked up the guitar after an encounter with Eric Weissberg, lent her Martin to Pete Seeger, and even had Dave Van Ronk cover “Mean World Blues.” Her real claim to fame, however, is in writing “Baby Don’t Go To Town,” a song that boyfriend Billy Roberts would steal and “rewrite” as “Hey Joe.” You’ve heard Hendrix, Love, the Byrds, the Creation, Wilson Pickett, and a hundred others do it....Now hear the original, for the very first time.
