The annual Kate Wolf Music Festival took place last weekend, and Patch was on hand for two of its three days. Never having been, I assumed it would lean heavily toward the folk, with dashes of feminism and wisps of cannabis.
That was all true, but it was as much fun as I've had at a music festival in some time. Blues-oriented acts like Soul Queen Irma Thomas and headliner Taj Mahal, plus the New Orleans rhythms of the Rebirth Brass Band, and the Afrop-pop energy of Angelique Kidjo, got the crowd dancing and more (especially on Friday night, when the dance area was a dozen rows bigger in front of the stage).Â
It always takes place at Black Oak Ranch, less than 100 miles north of Healdsburg, the Mendocino home of  the Hog Farm and Camp Winnarainbow. Naturally counter-culture icon Wavy Gravy was on hand to wax philosophic, with Prankster tales from an era on the verge of parody.Â
Gotta admit, though, it was hot. Temperatures were in the highest 90s and the open, parking camping area where most set up camp was Bake City, and not in the right way either. Â In fact we listened to Madeleine Peyroux on a battery-powered radio back at camp, broadcast from the stage by hyper-local Sunset Radio (89.9, range 5 miles), too hot and tired to trek back to the main stage on Saturday afternoon.
But we had fun, and we'll be back - maybe we'll catch Greg Brown next year and John Prine after that, and God only knows who-all else. Keep up at katewolfmusicfestival.com
