Kate Wolf
A San Francisco-born folk singer-songwriter based in Sonoma County, who recorded for Owl and Kaleidoscope, toured with Nina Gerber, and wrote "Across the Great Divide" for a radio show in 1976.
Sonoma County and the first records
Kate Wolf was born Kathryn Louise Allen in San Francisco on January 27, 1942, and her name went from Katie Lou to Kathy to Kate. She took piano lessons from her grandmother from the age of four until sixteen. Around the age of 27 she met musicians in Big Sur and began writing songs. She moved to Sonoma County in 1971, and in the mid-1970s hosted radio shows including KVRE's Uncommon Country and KSRO's Sonoma County Singers Circle.
Her first records were on her own Owl label: Back Roads (1976), recorded in five days in July in a living room on the north coast by Dan Dugan, and Lines on the Paper (1977). National touring began in 1977, including the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and she organized the Santa Rosa Folk Festival. Her band the Wildwood Flower folded in 1979, the year the guitarist Nina Gerber joined her, staying as her accompanist for the rest of her career, with Ford James on bass. Utah Phillips was a mentor and touring companion.
Close to You and after
Safe at Anchor (1979, Kaleidoscope) and Close to You (1981) followed, and the double live album Give Yourself to Love (1983), recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, the Veteran's Memorial Building in Davis and the American Victorian Museum in Nevada City, was named best folk album of 1983 by NAIRD. She took a sabbatical in late 1983, returned in 1984, and appeared on Austin City Limits in the fall of 1985, her greatest national exposure. Poet's Heart (January 1986, best folk album of 1986 from NAIRD) was her last studio album. She died in San Francisco on December 10, 1986, aged 44.
A retrospective, Gold in California, appeared in 1986 or early 1987, and the Kate Wolf Award of the World Folk Music Association began in 1987. She entered the NAIRD Independent Music Hall of Fame in 1987 or spring 1988, depending on source. The Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival ran from 1996, at Black Oak Ranch from 2001, until a 25th and final festival in June 2022, traditionally closing with "Give Yourself to Love". Later releases include Live in Mendocino (2018) and Sing Out! (2024), a Berkeley Community Theater recording of April 25, 1981 on Bear's Sonic Journals. The tribute album Treasures Left Behind (1998, produced by Gerber) gathered Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith, John Gorka and Kathy Mattea, and Greg Brown and Eric Bogle each wrote a song about her.
Albums
- Close to You 1981 · Kaleidoscope
Her 1981 album for Kaleidoscope, with Tony Rice, Darol Anger and Norton Buffalo among the players.
Songs
- Across the Great Divide Close to You · 1981
Written in 1976 for Robbie Osman's radio show of the same name on KPFA in Berkeley.
Sources
- Kate Wolf biography, katewolf.com
- Kate Wolf albums, katewolf.com
- Kate Wolf, Wikipedia
- Kate Wolf tributes, katewolf.com