I knew Kate from afar. She lived in Forest Knolls where I grew up. Kate Wolf spent a very short time in the San Geronimo Valley, I remember her sleeping in the back of her white Ford Falcon station wagon in Forest Knolls. (Or was it a Rambler? More fitting a car for her.)
She, like so many other musicians landed in the Valley. But despite folk memory, Kate didn't live in Forest Knolls very long. She moved to Forest Knolls in the spring of 1982, but she left by September 1984, on the road. Gathering fame at last.
Then she moved to the Russian River, as did I, and I (cub reporter) took photos of her at the River Theater for a newspaper, The Paper...or was it the Sonoma County Stump?
I had a love-hate relationship with her music. I hated how she didn't have any energy when she performed. She was like a statue. She was flat. Not her notes. But there was no edge there. It made me feel lethargic, and a little depressed. I wanted to speed her up, to animate her. I chalked it up to depression. I wrote a less-than-flattering review of her performance at the Guerneville theater. It was before we found out about the leukemia.
She was living in Guerneville before she died. I wrote another story on her ca. 1985 when we were throwing benefits to help defray her huge hospital bills. The story is lost, in the flood. She died in December of 86. I have grainy photos of her somewhere. It was a long time ago.
When I went to the USSR in 1989, I taught the Soviets to sing her songs: Golden Rolling Hills of California....and the Redtail Hawk writes songs across the sky....
2007 rev (sort of) 2014. Still needs work. But it's a start.
No comments:
Post a Comment