Sadly, I was not fortunate enough to have seen Kate Wolf perform in concert. I was in a different place, at a different time, and, up until now, her music has largely passed me by.
However, there seems to be one thing that holds the people who did see her, together. Kate was a performer whose songs were so touching that she somehow managed to connect to each member of the audience in a powerful and memorable way. It was as if she was singing personally for each and every one of them.
Now, twenty-three years after her tragically early death at the age of 44 from leukemia, five of her albums have been lovingly re-released by Collectors Music Choice.
Last week Blogcritics own David Bowling reviewed the last in the set, The Wind Blows Wild, a posthumous collection of studio recordings alongside live performances. It is the first in the series, Back Roads, originally released in 1976 on Kate’s own Owl Records label, that I now turn to.
Kate’s life, which began in San Francisco in 1942, is detailed on her official website. It is a fascinating read. For example, in 1971 she amicably left her husband and children for Sonoma County to finally pursue her musical calling. For six months she lived in her ’57 Chevy and in the evenings would perform at local bars.
Many of these early songs are included on Back Roads. Despite the obvious indications on the album few, especially perhaps Kate herself, would have realized what those songs would lead to. Subsequently her name is often quoted as being hugely influential among songwriters and her memory is celebrated every year since 1996 at the Kate Wolf Memorial Festival.
This has attracted many well known folk artists such as Donovan, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Arlo Guthrie, Richard Thompson, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, amongst many others.
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