".....well something inside of me snapped. And I got to the microphone and I looked out over that multitude of faces and I said something to the effect of: 'You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource..... Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource... they're going to strip your mind.. your soul...they're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist. "Cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked. Hmmmm...."

-Utah Phillips at E Washington U

"the stories I tell don't just come out of my own life. many of them come to me from my elders. i strained to hear them through the roar of my own ego, my own needs and desires. but when i became quiet and open to the thoughts and feelings of my elders, i learned that my life-story deepens, grows richer, by taking in the stories of those who have led extraordinary lives, lives that can never be lived again. except in memory - through mine, through yours - as the fragments of our story - lives mix and blend into a common whole, the great river of our collective memory of which we are all a part and into which each one of us will, some day, dissolve."

-Utah Phillips, from "the past didn't go anywhere"

"The earth is a depot, where wingless angels pass the time waiting for the long ride home. Seeing a small boy smiling in the corner I said: 'You must be anxious to go home.'

'I am home' he replied, 'I just come here to play the games'."   -Oliver Makin 1903

"The bird that flies above the clouds knows only the sun and his storms are sunstorms."  -Oliver Makin

Hugh Shacklett recalls the first time he got to know Kate Wolf:

"We were playing in the same place, a little restaurant called The Painted House.... Someone said you gotta hear this lady and the music that she and her husband are making so I went to watch and just like every other person fell instantly and totally in love with Kate ... and remained that way ... still am."

Reflecting on Kate's passing, he said:

"There are just these special unique people that are in the world, and there aren't ever very many of them... and Katie was one of them and she could put joy in your heart ... and just somehow did that ... and she did it to everybody."

Hugh Shacklett's song "The Hobo" was recorded by Kate on her "Give Yourself to Love" live album.

The following quote is a small excerpt from the liner notes to the upcoming release "treasures left behind: remembering Kate Wolf" a very special tribute album featuring Kate's songs sung by Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, John Gorka, Eric Bogle and many more.

"It amazes me how one human being can touch the life of another, so profoundly, creating radical changes in that life.

Kate Wolf was that person who had an extraordinary impact on my life. In 1975, I first saw Kate perform with her band, "The Wildwood Flower" in Sebastopol, California. Her music, her voice, and her presence struck me deeply. Maybe that was the first time anything had found its way straight into my heart. It became clear to me that night, what I wanted to do more than anything was to be a musician, and more importantly, to be in Kate's band. I don't think I was ever so driven to do anything else but meet Kate Wolf - and play music with her." -Nina Gerber

In Novemeber 1986 in the Homecoming Celebrator John Stewart gave the following recommendation in his "Suggested Listening" column. I'd say the prediction was a good one....

HOMETOWN GIRL - Mary Chapin Carpenter -- Easily the best singer-songwriter I've heard in years. Soul/folk that reaches right down to where your spirit lives. She's going to be BIG. Do yourself a favor - get this and, in two years, tell your friends that "you knew it years ago." Best cuts: "Hometown Girl," "Family Hands," "Other Streets and Other Towns." There is some song about Granola that is really out of place on this collection of gems. Just leave it off the cassette you make.    - John Stewart, Fall 1986

"I always knew just what I wanted

I charted every path I'd take

Then one day I met you baby

And the earth began to shake"

- Randy Scruggs and Mary Chapin Carpenter from "It's Only Love" on Randy Scruggs new release, "Crown of Jewels"

John Stewart would tell you the same thing. John and I did that duet of his song "Sweet Dreams Will Come" on my Little Love Affairs album.... We were playing the Queen Victoria Theatre in London, and he was going to sit in with us. So I stayed up all night learning the song in standard tunung so I could play it and say, "Hey, John, look what I can do." And he came in and said, "Nanci, I play in drop D, and you play things in that tuning all the time! Why didn't you figure that out? You only have to move your fingers two or three times in that tuning, whereas if you play it in standard tuning you're all over the board!" I was so embarrassed."

-Nanci Griffith, from her new book "Nanci Griffith's Other Voices - A Personal History of Folk Music"

"If the contract with the record company fell through tomorrow, I know I would still write music. That's always going to be there, and it will always be a part of me, whether I sing songs for an audience of one thousand people or for two dogs and their water bowls"

-Mary Chapin Carpenter

"The problem with a lot of pop music is that it doesn't resonate emotionally. There's nothing particularly truthful or interesting there beyond the standard, pretty cliches. I'm not interested in that. I don't know what people are responding to, what moves them about that kind of music. It doesn't move me"

-Lucy Kaplansky, from the book "Solo Women Singer-Songwriters In Their Own Words"

Lucy is currently on tour as part of the new Trio Cry, Cry, Cry with Richard Shindell and Dar Williams. She also has a brand new album out.

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