Across the Great Divide

Wolf wrote "Across the Great Divide" in 1976 for Robbie Osman's radio show of that name on KPFA in Berkeley, a show that took its name from The Band's song. Osman recalls her saying let's take a walk, going to Skyline Gate in the Oakland hills and asking what the program meant to him; an owl he saw there ended up in the song, and the imagery reflects what both were going through, living out of suitcases in friends' houses with their foundations shaken. He believes she wanted a song not so much for him as for the show and how it involved people. The studio version opens Close to You (1981); the album does not publish per-track credits or times.

Nanci Griffith recorded it with Emmylou Harris to open Other Voices, Other Rooms (Elektra, March 2, 1993), 3:57, produced by Jim Rooney, with Pete Kennedy on lead acoustic guitar and Stuart Duncan on mandolin and violin; the album won the 1994 Grammy for best contemporary folk album and reached number 54 in the US and 18 in the UK. Kyle Carey recorded it on North Star (2014), and the family's page of live covers lists Iris DeMent in 2022, Blue Summit, The Kennedys, Frank Solivan, Alex de Grassi and others. It appears in the 1988 documentary Downwind, Downstream.

It is not Robbie Robertson's "Across the Great Divide", the opening track of The Band's 1969 album. We found no exact recording date, chart history, video or setlist.fm count, and our upload (4fXV5hMhQ20) could be the 1981 studio track or a live take.