Mother Hips' Tim Bluhm Takes Kate Wolf 'Crash Course' for Memorial Festival

Posted on Jun 27th 2011 8:44PM by Benjy Eisen
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John Taber, JT Productions

In the summer of 1996, a concert was held to celebrate the late Kate Wolf and to honor the singer-songwriter's memory by keeping her music alive -- even introducing it to new audiences. It quickly transformed into an annual festival that has drawn repeat appearances from artists ranging from Ani DiFranco to Steve Earle. This past weekend's edition featured a lineup that strayed far from the Wolf tree, with crowd-pleasing sets by Los Lobos, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, and Todd Snider with Great American Taxi among many others. Hippie icon and ice cream flavor Wavy Gravy gave color commentary throughout. Not all of the bands mentioned Kate Wolf by name, though, and even fewer may have actually been influenced by her music.

But the spirit of the festival proved itself and its mission when Mother Hips frontman Tim Bluhm and his wife Nicki (of Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers) showed up, unannounced. They were there to have fun but, of course, they also came ready to jam. And, unlike the majority of the festival's performers, they actually performed Kate Wolf songs; four of them, in fact, as guests of Poor Man's Whiskey, who dedicated an entire set to Wolf's catalog. One of the highlights of the entire three-day event came when Nicki Bluhm took over vocal duties for a moving cover of Wolf's 'Give Yourself to Love.'

"I had heard of this festival before and I had heard of Kate Wolf before too, but I had never actually heard her music," Tim Bluhm admits to Spinner. "And so ... I took a crash course in Kate Wolf and what a pleasure -- her songs are so good. They're beautiful."

Kate Wolf tragically passed away in 1986 at the age of 44, after losing a battle with leukemia. The Kate Wolf Memorial Festival takes place every June at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, Calif. -- home to Wavy Gravy's famous Hog Farm hippie commune, as well as his Camp Winnarainbow for children. And, no, that's not for "children of all ages," although, perhaps, you could say that about the festival itself.

Kate Wolf would be proud.

Watch Kate Wolf Perform 'Redtail Hawk' in 1980