All posts tagged: Shawn Colvin

Redwoods and Coastlines…The Main Course

Wednesday’s visit to see California’s redwoods and coastline turned out to be the appetizer.  Beautiful as it was, it couldn’t hold a candle to today’s visits to forests, coasts, and wine country. Thursday – the 14th day of our cross-country tour – was the main course. As is the case with much of the best cuisine of California, it did not disappoint. Claire and I left Eureka around 9 a.m. and headed south on Highway 101.  About 45 minutes into the drive we stopped for gas, and as fate would have it the manager had come out to fix the printer on our gas pump. When he saw our license plates he struck up a conversation, and finding out we were traveling cross-country, he immediately said, “You have to drive the Avenue of the Giants route.  This is the old road that criss-crosses 101, and in slightly more than 30 miles it has many of the huge redwoods in the region.” Oh my…was he ever right. And are we ever glad we took his advice. …

Kate Wolf albums to be reissued

California singer-songerwriter Kate Wolf died of leukemia at the age of 44 in 1986, but her songs continue to live on today. Dirty Linen, the folk music website, had a recent post reporting that Wolf’s catalog of folk albums will be reissued this July.  Here’s how Dirty Linen describes Wolf’s work and influence: Her blend of folk, country and pop helped pave the way for artists like Nanci Griffith and Mary-Chapin Carpenter. Wolf never had a hit single, and in fact the All Music Guide points out that “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 flows of adult life, in terms that are neither overly sentimental not mundane.” As late singer-songwriter Utah Phillips once introduced her, “I’d like you to meet Kate Wolf. She owns herself.” For those of you in California, check out the 2009 Kate Wolf Memorial Festival on June 26-28.  There’s a strong line-up headlined by Emmylou Harris, …