One could say the spirit of a long-dead 1970s folk singer is responsible for the Sherry Austin Band playing the inaugural Concerts in the Barn this Saturday (August 15) at the Agricultural History Project. At the very least, the music of Kate Wolf brought Austin together with Allan Molho, creator of the new two-concert series.

Both Austin and Molho, a former board member for the farming museum, are fans of the Northern California singer credited with popularizing folk music in the region before her untimely death from leukemia in 1986. Austin’s third album, currently being recorded, is a combination of covers and Wolf-inspired tunes. The singer-songwriter played the annual Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival alongside such luminaries as Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin in June.

“I’ve listened to Kate Wolf for many years,” said Molho. “We heard there was a band playing Kate Wolf stuff, and we went to Aromas Grange [in Watsonville] to see them.”

After hearing Austin, he became an instant fan. “I call myself her grey-haired groupie.”

So when Molho decided to put on the first in what he hopes will be an ongoing series of shows at the Agricultural History Project’s rustic-looking barn, Austin was a natural choice.

“She’s highly underrated in Santa Cruz County,” Molho said. “It’s a great band.”

Austin said songs by Wolf will make it to the stage — she’s learning the Wolf song “Telluride” for Molho — along with her own songs and those of band member Sharon Allen, who sings harmony and plays guitar.The Sherry Austin Band also includes Lisa Burns on bass and Charlie Wallace on pedal steel, dobro and guitar.

It’s been almost a decade since the band’s leader picked up a guitar and began to play onstage.

“The music thing has been a wonderful, unexpected surprise in my life,” said Austin, who turns 60 this year.

Though she sang in college and played guitar in her early 20s, life’s twists and turns took her away from music. A post-divorce move to Santa Cruz combined with a grown daughter who left for college led Austin take up the guitar again.

“I played first in my bedroom, then in the living room, then in front of a couple of friends,” she remembers.

One of the friends invited her to come to an open mike show in San Jose. Success there led her to the Breakfast Club at the Strawberry Music Festival, which led to an invite to Sleepy John Sandidge’s live show on KPIG. That led to another invitation from Sandidge, who produces local alternative concerts under the Snazzy Productions label.

“John said, ‘Do you want to open one of my shows?’ I said ‘I know six songs, but sure I’ll learn more’ and the rest is history,” Austin said.

Austin describes her songs as more philosophical than story-oriented. She found herself touched when at a concert she looked out while singing the tune “All I Can Give” and saw tears in an audience member’s eyes.

“I could see them crying as I’m singing the song, and it was all I could do not to cry in the moment,” she said. “That was just amazing to me, to know that I could touch people in that way.

“All I Can Give” was inspired by her daughter Malia’s 17th birthday. Finding her daughter upset, Austin worried that she had done something wrong or forgotten to get her child something she wanted. But the girl — now 30 — wasn’t crying over something her mother had done. She had broken up with her boyfriend the night before.

“As a parent we can’t always be everything to our kids, sometimes they just have to take the lumps,” Austin said. She held on to that moment for years before creating a song from it.

A horticulturist by trade, these days Austin spends time tending not only to her garden, but to her music career. Under her label Barking Topiary, the talented performer has released two albums available on CD Baby and iTunes — 2003′s Drive-by Romance and 2006′s Drive on Back. The band is quite active, with twice-monthly shows at the Davenport Roadhouse and upcoming shows at Soquel’s Ugly Mug, the American River Music Festival and Don Quixote’s,

“I took a left turn when I thought I’d go right, and it’s just been wonderful,” she said.

Molho thinks it’s wonderful that the Concerts in the Barn will bring music back to the Agricultural History Project. The volunteer-built museum dedicated to teaching the history of farming used to host members of the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society (now the Northern California Bluegrass Society) during the fair. Its three buildings are located at the entrance of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds.

Musicians would jam in front of the displays. But as the site became more and more built as a museum, there were fewer places inside to play. After a while, the music stopped.

“It didn’t work,” said Molho, who recently left the museum’s board after 25 years. “It fizzled away. But I always had it in the back of my mind that this is a great venue to do something with.”

House concerts held by Marky Starks in Prunedale inspired Molho to pursue putting on a concert himself. He hopes it will be like Mountain Winery’s concerts used to be before the Saratoga venue’s events got so big. “You used to be able to have a tailgate picnic and listen to good music.”

That hometown flavor is what Molho would like to see happen at Concerts in the Barn. The site will open at 6:30 p.m. so people can bring picnics. The Heritage Foundation will sell beer, wine and soft drinks, but not food.

If it’s successful, Molho wants to do four or five concerts a year. For now, folk singer Chuck McCabe is scheduled to perform the second of the Concerts in the Barn on October 10.

The Sherry Austin Band at Concerts in the Barn. 8 p.m. Saturday, August 15, Albert & Alzora Restoration Barn at the Agricultural History Project, entrance of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 East Lake Avenue, Watsonville. $20. (831) 724-5898.