The amazing Kate Wolf

After getting married and having two kids, Kate Wolf only decided to become a musician in her 30s when she realised that life as a housewife wasn't for her: she was far too talented and had too many songs to share with the world. In order to pursue this goal she worked as a disc jockey and organised music festivals.
A self-taught guitarist, she wrote her own songs, produced her own records and formed her own record company to release them and eventually she went on to have the likes of Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffith cover her songs. Basically Kate Wolf did it her way and if she was still around today she would be celebrated as a feminist icon and a hugely influential folk artist who did things on her own terms and never sold out. Sadly though she died too soon in 1986, aged just 44, of leukaemia, just as she appeared to be breaking through. Although an annual music festival celebrating her music is held each year at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, California, she remains fairly unknown. It took the likes of Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle to help keep the names of Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt alive and turn them into cult legends. Although Alela Diane and Mariee Sioux have been namedropping her as an influence recently, I hope they or someone else, decide to champion Kate Wolf the same way Emmylou and Steve championed Gram and Townes. She deserves it.

Here's a very cool article about Kate: An Unfinished Life