ELOISA IN PRAISE OF SIMPLE FOLK
That’s a deliberate pun in my title: simple folk, meaning simple lives and simple folk music. I grew up in small town Minnesota, which at that point was served by one radio station playing country and another playing rock. And that was it. My father listened to a lot of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, so I knew that folk existed. But I didn’t discover it for myself until I went away to college. These were the days of used record stores, when you could spend a rainy Saturday afternoon going through stacks and stacks of vinyl. There wasn’t an instant-play option, so instead I would read the lyrics and stare at the grainy black-and-white photos in the back of the song booklet, and try to imagine them playing music.
I found out that the kind of folk I loved had a very simple line—not too many banjos—and an articulate song. A beautiful voice helped too. Somewhere in there I picked up an old record by Kate Wolf called CLOSE TO YOU. Since then I’ve bought more of her work, and loved it even more, but this was my first by her and so it’s special. I must have played this a million times in my life (now I own a CD).
I think it’s a very naive album. She wrote all the songs and the music. Her voice is gorgeous, like a calmer version of Joan Baez’s—with less range but more sweetness, and none of the political urgency. She writes sentimental music—mood music. It’s not going to change the world or revolutionize America, the way Peter, Paul & Mary did. But it frequently offers a beautiful way of thinking about life, especially life between men and women.
One of my favorite songs called “Across the Great Divide”:
“I’ve been walking in my sleep,
counting troubles, ‘stead of counting sheep.
Where the years went, I can’t say:
I just turned around and they’ve gone away.
Looking at the lyrics for the first time in years (rather than just listening), I realize that most of them are about love lost, or time lost. “The years go by / in spite of what you do,” she sings. “Love grows weak and then / it starts to fade.” Soothed by her beautiful voice I never really realized how melancholy this album is.
CLOSE TO YOU is for a rainy day, a day when you need someone to sing—and cry—along with you.