Guest,

I have to admit that Kate Wolf is among my least favorite folk musicians. I found about half her songs to be a lot of self introspective cosmic navel gazery. The other half I often found exceptional if not at least listenable. "Trumpet Vine", "Across the Great Divide," and "Riding Out The Storm" are among the later. "The Lilac and The Apple Tree" and some awful song about rising like a dolphin are among the former.

But I think it is greatly unfair and downright wrong to marginalize her as a simple regional voice(What does that mean anyway?) who never found her national voice. That sounds like a commercial indictment to me that states record sales are the only indicator of how influential and worthy an artist might be.

Much as I don't care for half of her stuff she clearly affected an awful lot of people with her singing. I'd go so far as to say she may have been the tap root that became what I call Cosmic Cowboy music and the inspiration to people like Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer and even Nancy Griffith.

Don