California Coverfolk, Vol 2: Kate Wolf
(Covers of and from Kate, Greg Brown, Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith & more!)
August 6th, 2010 — 11:59 pm
As noted previously, we’re headed up the West Coast for the next two weeks and then some, blogging merrily along the way. On Wednesday, we marked the first steps of our journey with a sweet set of songs about the great state of California; today, in the first of two weekend single-artist feature posts, our California Coverfolk series continues with a look at the songs and songbook of one of the region’s most beloved singer-songwriters.
Born in San Francisco, educated at Berkeley, and long known as a native daughter of her adopted Sonoma County, singer-songwriter Kate Wolf was a shining star in the American second-wave folk revival, “repopularizing” folk music in Northern California in the late seventies, and going on to national acclaim before her untimely passing in 1986. With a dozen albums to her name – half of which were released posthumously – she made her claim aptly as a writer and song interpreter particularly influenced by “honest songs and honest singers”, with shades of The Weavers, A.P. Carter, Dylan, Merle Haggard, Lefty Frizell, and other early influences resonating throughout her catalog.
Kate’s clear, pure voice is unmistakably intimate, and in her best recordings, she treats it gently, letting the cadence carry her from soft and low into a soaring legato that slides like light over subtle fingerpicked strings. But there’s more to these songs than just prettiness. Her love of the folkways – of song, and of her natural setting – is evident in her songcraft and her delivery: like the best folksongs, her timeless lyrics of love and longing are deceptively simple, grounded in the flora and fauna of human experience, but they contain depths that resonate long past song’s end.
Though she succumbed to Leukemia at the young age of 44, twenty five years later, Kate’s legacy remains strong. Her life is celebrated each year at the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival in Laytonville, CA, which traditionally closes with her song Give Yourself To Love, and this year attracted such folk luminaries as Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Greg Brown, The Waifs, Carrie Rodriguez, and more. And several excellent tribute albums have floated to the surface over the years, including both Laurie McClain’s 2003 cd The Trumpet Vine, and 1998 Red House Records release Treasures Left Behind: Remembering Kate Wolf. Below, some favorites from a well-deserved eternity in coverage.
- Greg Brown: Tequila & Me
(from In The Hills of California, 2004)
- Laurie McClain: Across The Great Divide
- Laurie McClain: We’ve Loved Away The Night
- Laurie McClain: The Wind Blows Wild
(from The Trumpet Vine: A Tribute to Kate Wolf, 2003)
- Bunny Sings Wolf: Eyes Of A Painter
(from Buffalo Tales, 2001)
- Emmylou Harris: Love Still Remains
- Lucinda Williams: Here In California
(from Treasures Left Behind: Remembering Kate Wolf, 1998)
- Dave Alvin: Here In California
(from West of the West, 2006)
- Caroline Herring: Midnight On The Water (trad; arr. Kate Wolf)
(from Lantana, 2007)
Kate was as accomplished a singer and picker as she was a songwriter, and her love of song carried over into the tunes of others; indeed, many of the covers she chose to take on in her short lifetime carry the poignancy and prescience of her life and death. Though beautiful Joni Mitchell and Woody Guthrie covers on her earliest albums remain undigitized, her masterful take on These Days, taken from posthumous mostly-covers compilation Looking Back At You, is utterly gorgeous, a perfect soundtrack for the next leg of our journey.
- Kate Wolf: These Days (orig. Nico / Jackson Browne)
- Kate Wolf: Bird On A Wire (orig. Leonard Cohen)
- Kate Wolf w/ Dino Valente: Let’s Get Together (orig. Kingston Trio; pop. The Youngbloods)
- Kate Wolf: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (orig. Sandy Denny)
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Previously on Star Maker Machine:
- Kate Wolf and others cover I Had A Real Good Mother And Father