Personnel: Kate Wolf (vocals, 6- & 12-string guitar, piano); Bill Griffin (6- & 12-string guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, piano, background vocals); Daniel Jones, Peter Siegel (pedal steel guitar); Ford James (electric bass, background vocals); Bill Amatneek, Tom Lee (acoustic bass), Tom Lackner (drums, percussion).
Recorded at 1750 Arch Studio and Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California from January to July 1981. Includes liner notes by Bill Griffin and Bob Young.
Possibly Kate Wolf's most popular album, 1981's CLOSE TO YOU is somewhat idiosyncratic in that the Northern California singer/songwriter is backed by a far larger cast of collaborators than usual. Although none of these 10 tracks feature all of the 12 musicians who play on this disc--guitarist/mandolinist Nina Gerber and bassist Ford James, Wolf's primary collaborators through much of her career, are the only mainstays--the extra violins, drums, guitars, and pedal steel, along with some surprisingly lush string arrangements, give Wolf's solid and satisfying songs a more substantial feel than some of her more spartan albums.
However, the arrangements are so low-key, and the production, by Bill Griffin and Tom Diament, is so transparent that CLOSE TO YOU never sounds slick or artificial. A deeply satisfying singer/songwriter album, this is probably the best Kate Wolf album for the curious newbie.
