Kate Wolf
Today we return with Lyrics as Poetry Friday, as we consider the song “Across the Great Divide” by Kate Wolf (January 27, 1942 – December 10, 1986), American folk singer and songwriter. Though her career was relatively short, she had a significant impact on the folk music scene.
Wolf’s best-known compositions include "Here in California", "Love Still Remains", "Across the Great Divide", "Unfinished Life", “Green Eyes” and "Give Yourself to Love". She recorded six albums as a solo artist and was elected to the NAIRD Independent Music Hall of Fame in 1987.
The appeal of Wolf's music is the plainspoken but powerful natural imagery, woven into poignant portrayals of the longings, joys and sorrows of the heart that transcend romantic stereotypes.
The song “Across the Great Divide” was written by Wolf for Robbie Osman’s radio show of the same name on KPFA radio in Northern California. Like most Wolf compositions, the song speaks to universal truths. But it was written especially for Osman's show in 1980.
As Osman noted in an interview: "The show was called 'Across The Great Divide' a long time before Kate decided to write the song," Osman explains. "I took the name from the song by The Band, without naming the show after the song, then Kate came to me one day and said, 'Let's take a walk.' We went up to Skyline Gate in the Oakland hills. She didn't tell me what she was up to. As we walked along she had a lot of questions about why I had named the program 'Across The Great Divide' -- what meaning it held for me, and what I wanted to do with the program.
We passed the place where I once saw an owl and had been thrilled by it. That ended up in the song, and a lot of the other imagery in the song comes from what had been happening in both our lives at the time. We were both living out of suitcases in friends' houses, both feeling very much as if our foundations had been shaken in some way. I think Kate wanted to write a song not so much for me, but for the show and how it involved people.”
Wolf died in December 1986, at age 44, after a long bout with leukemia.
Click on the following link to hear Kate Wolf sing “Across the Great Divide”
https://youtu.be/4fXV5hMhQ20
Across the Great Divide
I've been walkin' in my sleep
Countin' troubles 'stead of countin' sheep
Where the years went I can't say;
I just turned around and they've gone away
I've been siftin' through the layers
Of dusty books and faded papers
They tell a story I used to know
And it was one that happened so long ago
It's gone away in yesterday
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
Across the Great Divide
Now, I heard the owl callin'
Softly as the night was fallin'
With a question, and I replied
But he's gone across the borderline
He's gone away in yesterday
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
Across the Great Divide
The finest hour that I have seen
Is the one that comes between
The edge of night and the break of day
It's when the darkness rolls away
It's gone away in yesterday
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
Across the Great Divide
It's gone away in yesterday
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
Across the Great Divide
Where the rivers change direction
Across the great divide
--Kate Wolf