More memorable moments from KateFest: Dave Alvin, Richard Thompson, Ramblin' Jack and more

The Kate Wolf fest was much more than just the 3 Girls and Buddy show. Great acts abounded, from always reliable Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin’s kicking cast of Guilty Women, a strong gospel contingent with Mavis Staples, Ruthie Foster and the Blind Boys of Alabama, plus classic old folkie Jack Elliott, jamband Railroad Earth, and lots more.

I spent only a day and a half at the festival, so I missed a lot, but here a few of my memorable moments.

• Over on the Arlo Hagler stage, when Alvin showed up for a songswap with Ramblin’ Jack and Chris Smither with Guilty Women dobro ace Cindy Cashdollar for accompaniment, emcee Bruce Hayden introduced the group as Cindy and her 3 brothers.

Smither kicked off the set with his rollicking “Can’t Help Me Now,” and then they took turns for a couple of rounds. Jack set off on a story about Jerry Jeff Walker and his version of “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” a funny old song with mosquiters and crawdads that was on one of Elliott’s old records. When he inevitably forgot some of the words, Smither came to the rescue with the missing lyrics.

• Alvin’s full set with The Guilty Women was outstanding. They’ve just put out a new record with the six-person backup band. Besides Cashdollar, who is electric on all types of slide guitar varieties, the band features Cindy McWilson as vocal counterpart to the gruff voiced Alvin, two different fiddle styles with Amy Farris and Laurie Lewis, plus Lisa Pankratz on bass and Sarah Brown on drums. For some reason I did not learn, Nina Gerber who generally plays with the band and is usually a regular at this festival (she use to play with Kate Wolf), was not around this year.

While the band delivered a number of Alvin’s standard repertoire”””King of California,” “Back to the Ashgrove,” and more””the most notable numbers were those from the group’s brand-new record. “Downey Girl” is about pop singer Karen Carpenter’s early life in Alvin’s home town. “Boss of the Blues” celebrates Southern California music culture. McWilson also takes the lead on several original new songs, like the hard-blues “Weight of the World.”

Overall impression is that this is a hot band that showcases its star in a way that is perfect for his style. As Alvin said himself, “This is the first time I can honestly say I’m the best looking guy in the band.
        

• I’ve been interested in seeing the tribute act Work of the Weavers, which has been performing primarily in the East for several years now with their interpretation of the great 1950s folk band The Weavers. So I took the opportunity to catch their full show on the festival new Utahpia Stage, its own tribute to another folk hero Utah Phillips.

The new stage area was sweet, but the festival may wish to reconsider the stage orientation since most of the audience for the set chose to sit in a shaded area off to the side of the stage, not ideal for the performers.

The show was plenty enjoyable, filling in for me many details of American folk music history that I didn’t know. The Pete Seeger role was split between two of the performers, while the Ronnie Gilbert and Lee Hayes roles were type cast pretty well. The real Ronnie Gilbert, now residing in nearby Mendocino CA, had been expected to appear, but had to cancel for health reasons.

All of the Weaver’s well known songs were played but also a few originals. Banjo player and tenor vocalist David Bernz said that Pete Seeger had urged them to come up with material of their own, and he contributes a lovely biographical tribute to Pete and his lost banjo. In this summer of celebration of Pete’s 90th birthday, still going strong, this provided a fine opportunity to reflect on the contribution he has made to American music and culture.

• Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is well-known for ramblin’ on stage, spinning extemporaneous yarns between songs on his well-worn guitar. So it was probably a natural to book him for a side-stage session about story-telling. Only it seemed to throw Jack for a loop, who said he felt lonely on stage without a guitar, and he couldn’t come up with a lot of stories to tell.

He reprised a few well known stories from his records, like how he learned “Don’t Think Twice” while snowed in and how Dylan later “relinquished” it to him, and his surreal New Orleans adventure at 912 Greens. After a while, he started taking questions, and he shared memories of Woody Guthrie, Jessie Fuller, Utah Phillips, Townes Van Zandt and more. Whether you call it story telling or something else, it is a fine thing to get musical elders like Elliott to share their history and pass along a piece of their wisdom to young festival fans.

• Richard Thompson’s shows are sometimes family affairs, as his son Teddy Thompson is a rising musical star who has been known to appear with his father on stage. At Kate Wolf, Thompson daughter Kamila was the one to appear, taking her mother Linda Thompson’s part on the classic “Wall of Death” and covering for another former Fairport Convention member Sandy Denny on “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” Nice, but it is Thompson’s Celtic-flavored stuff I enjoy the most, the modern sea shanty “Johnny’s Far Away” or his soundtrack song from the movie Driving Lessons, “One Door Opens,” which father and daughter did together to finish out the set.

• Wavy Gravy makes an appearance each year at the festival. His Camp Winnarainbow kids’ circus camp is on an adjacent property, and he is involved with charitable groups with connections to the festival. This year, he talked about “Saint Misbehavin’,” the new film about him currently playing film festivals. The funniest bit had to do with meeting Michael Moore at a high-end fat farm. Now that would make a good scene for a movie. Wavy and Me?