Kate Wolf

Weaver of Visions Anthology


Kate Wolf - Weaver of Visions: The Kate Wolf Anthology, 2 CD (2000)
Folk, singer-songwriters | @320kbp | 2 h 34 min |

Californian singer-songwriter Kate Wolf (1942-1986) has a collection to represent all her craft, wisdom, and radiance. Produced and compiled by Wolf's son Max, the selection is impeccable, focusing on what Wolf's guitarist Nina Gerber has called "Kateness" -- the delicate soulfulness of her songs. -- Roy Kasten


Kate Wolf
by Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Kate Wolf was a significant presence on the folk scene between the late '70s and mid-'80s. Although she largely employed acoustic instrumentation, she really owed more to the contemporary singer-songwriting movement than folk-based traditions. Her music also had a strong country flavor, though not of the Nashville variety. Her fusion of country, folk, and singer-songwriter influences helped point the way for later country-folk-pop performers such as Nanci Griffith and Mary-Chapin Carpenter.

The appeal of Wolf's music is broad -- folk, pop, and rootsy country fans can all find something to like -- yet elusive. Her songs are not necessarily immediately striking upon first listen, and her body of work, if taken more than an album at a time, can justifiably be described as rather heterogenous. Her style is one that tends to grow on listeners over time, as Wolf is not about flash. Her songs, characterized by a strong narrative thread, are about the ebbs and flow of adult life, in terms that are neither overly sentimental nor mundane. She describes family, romance, and the rural life of her native Northern California with fine detail, projecting a sort of reserved sensitivity with her lower-than-average vocals. Hers is a voice of wisdom, comfort, and independence. If those aren't the most exciting things around, there are few other performers who convey such consistent warmth and dignity, making listeners she never met personally feel as if they were hearing letters from a friend.

Wolf didn't get her recording career going until the mid-'70s, by which time she was well into her 30s. Prior to emerging as a solo artist, she had headed the band Wildwood Flower (who backed her on her first two albums), and organized folk concerts and festivals in Northern California. Very much a self-starter, her first two albums were released on her own Owl label; thereafter, her catalog was handled by Kaleidoscope.

Over the next few years, Wolf built a strong following on the folk circuit with a series of fairly similar but remarkably consistent albums. Her recordings always benefited from first-rate instrumental support from various small bands; guitarist Nina Gerber was her most important associate in this regard. She was still at her peak when her life was tragically cut short by leukemia in 1986.

Biography
from the official web site

Kate Wolf was born Kathryn Louise Allen in San Francisco on January 27, 1942. As a child, Kate was always thinking of music, and she began her musical training at the age of four with piano lessons from her grandmother. She played until she was sixteen, but stopped in high school because she felt shy and self-conscious. Even though she no longer played, Kate was strongly influenced by the music she had heard.


As her popularity grew, so did critical recognition, and twice she was nominated for best folk singer at the San Francisco Bay Area Music Awards (Bammies). Kate's favorite medium was the stage, and in 1982 and 1983 she realized her desire to record a live album, a two record set entitled Give Yourself to Love. The title song, written for a friend's wedding, became Kate's most popular work, and the record received the "Best Folk Album of 1983" award from NAIRD, The National Association of Independent Record Distributors and Manufacturers.

In April 1986, Kate was diagnosed with acute leukemia and underwent chemotherapy at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. After recovery and full remission, she returned home and compiled a retrospective of her recordings. As the news of her illness spread, she received support from fans and friends all over the country. Remembering how much Kate had given of herself to the causes and people she believed in, her friends and fellow musicians organized numerous concerts to benefit Kate in her time of need.

In September, Kate reentered the hospital for a bone marrow transplant. She was feeling strong and confident, but complications from the operation destroyed her immune system and she never recovered. The 10-year retrospective album Gold in California was released in January 1987. The following spring, Kate Wolf became the first musician inducted into the NAIRD Independent Music Hall of Fame.

"I live for a sense of a feeling of purposefulness in this world, you know, that I could stop my life at any point and feel that my life has been worthwhile; that the people I've loved and my children have all reached a point where their lives are now going to come to fruit. And as far as something I live by, it's to try to be as alive as possible and feel free to make my mistakes and try to be as honest as I can with myself."

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Produced and compiled by Kate Wolf's son Max, the 35 songs on Weaver of Visions include every track from the previous anthology, Gold in California (less only "Full Time Woman" and the antinuke ballad "The Sun Is Burning"), and adds 10 live performances and two previously unavailable songs.


Track Listings

Disc 1

01. Although I've Gone Away
02. Green Eyes (Live)
03. Emma Rose
04. Like a River (Live)
05. Old Jerome
06. These Times We're Living in (Live)
07. Sweet Love
08. Across the Great Divide
09. Brother Warrior
10. Unfinished Life
11. Eyes of a Painter (Live)
12. Safe at Anchor
13. Give Yourself to Love (Live)
14. The Trumpet Vine
15. Slender Thread
16. Muddy Roads
17. Early Morning Melody
18. Telluride


Disc 2

01. Here in California
02. Looking Back at You (Live)
03. The Minstrel
04. Picture Puzzle (Live)
05. Cornflower Blue (Live)
06. The Wind Blows Wild
07. You're Not Standing Like You Used to
08. Carolina Pines
09. Medicine Wheel
10. Two-Way Waltz
11. The Lilac & the Apple
12. Shadow of a Life (Live)
13. She Rises Like the Dolphin
14. Poet's Heart
15. Friend of Mine (Live)
16. Pacheco / The Redtail Hawk (Live)
17. Back Roads






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