Kate & Anna McGarrigle

Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Kate (left) and Anna McGarrigle, 1981
Background information
Origin Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres Folk rock
Occupation(s) Musicians, singer-songwriters
Instruments
Years active 1975–2010
Labels
Associated acts Mountain City Four, Joel Zifkin, Wade Hemsworth, Dane Lanken, Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, Emmylou Harris, Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright
Website mcgarrigles.com

Kate McGarrigle (February 6, 1946 – January 18, 2010) and Anna McGarrigle (born December 4, 1944) were a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed until Kate McGarrigle's death on January 18, 2010.

Music career

In the 1960s, in Montreal, while Kate was studying engineering at McGill University and Anna art at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, they began performing in public and writing their own songs. From 1963 to 1967 they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group Mountain City Four.

They continued to write, record and perform music with accompanying artists. Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Linda Ronstadt,[1] Emmylou Harris,[1] Judy Collins,[1] and others. The covers of their songs by well-known artists led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They created ten albums from 1975 through 2008.[1]

Although associated with Quebec's anglophone community, they also recorded and performed many songs in French. Two of their albums, Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse and La vache qui pleure, are entirely in French.

Their version of Wade Hemsworth's song, "The Log Driver's Waltz" grew famous as the soundtrack for a 1979 animated film directed by John Weldon at Canada's National Film Board. They provided backing vocals on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's 2001 album No More Shall We Part.

Personal lives

Anna and Kate McGarrigle were born in Montreal of mixed Irish- and French-Canadian background. They grew up in the northern suburb of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, where they learned piano from village nuns. Kate McGarrigle was married in 1971 to singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Their children are Rufus and his sister Martha, both singers. The two divorced in 1976. Kate McGarrigle died in 2010, aged 63, of a rare form of cancer.

Anna McGarrigle is married to Canadian journalist and author Dane Lanken. The couple have two children, Lily Lanken and Sylvan Lanken, and in North Glengarry, Ontario, just west of the Quebec border. Dane appeared as a vocalist on several of the sisters' albums and in 2007 wrote their career biography.

Another sister, Jane McGarrigle, is a film and television composer who acted as business manager for Kate and Anna, and also wrote and performed several songs with the duo.[2]:114

Honours and awards

They were appointed Members of the Order of Canada in 1993 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2004.[3]

On November 22, 2006, they received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 SOCAN Awards in Toronto.[4]

Discography

Albums

Notes

  1. ↑ Various sources use the recording date of '1975'[5]:315 also as the release date,[6] but reliable sources in books[2]:30–31[7]:316[8]:162 and newspaper articles, both in the US[9][10] and the UK,[11] indicate or cite '1976' and 'January 1976' as the release date.

With other artists

Filmography

DVDs

Film work

Bibliography

Lanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs and Stories. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 1-897323-04-2.

Lanken, Dane (2007). Thirty-three Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 1-897323-05-0.

McGarrigle, Anna; McGarrigle, Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-81402-9.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "McGarrigle sisters writing a memoir". Toronto Daily Star, 14 April 2014, E2.
  2. 1 2 Lanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs and Stories. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 1-897323-04-2. Kate & Anna McGarrigle January 1976
  3. ↑ Betty Nygaard King. "McGarrigle, Kate and Anna". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Thecanadianencyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  4. ↑ http://www.socan.ca/about/awards/2006-socan-awards
  5. ↑ McGarrigle, Anna & Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-81402-9. We began recording in New York City in late 1974 and finished nine months later in LA, with Joe [Boyd] and Greg [Prestopino] co-producing.
  6. ↑ "Kate & Anna McGarrigle". discogs.com. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ McGarrigle, Anna & Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-81402-9. In preparation for the tour to support our new record, which was due out in January 1976, Kate and I began rehearsals with a band in NYC.
  8. ↑ Brend, Mark (2002). Rock and Roll Doctor. Google Books. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-4768-5201-0. Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1976 (US Warner Bros BS2862, UK 56218)
  9. ↑ Women Who Are Making Music, by John Rockwell in The New York Times, 15 January 1976. (See Lanken, Dane (2007), page 30)
  10. ↑ Kate & Anna McGarrigle, in Billboard, 17 January 1976. (See Lanken, Dane (2007), page 31)
  11. ↑ Russell, Tony (January 19, 2010). "Kate McGarrigle obituary". theguardian.com. The Guardian (London). Retrieved February 22, 2016. Their first album, [...] simply titled Kate & Anna McGarrigle (1976), ...
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Recording Credits
  13. ↑ "Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Discography - Sunnyvista". Mcgarrigles.info. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Kate and Anna McGarrigle". Documentary film. National Film Board of Canada. 1981. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  • Kate and Anna McGarrigle official web site
  • Kate and Anna McGarrigle at The Canadian Encyclopedia
  • Long, Pete. "Kate & Anna McGarrigle: A Concert Chronology and A Discography".
  • Watanabe, Hideki. "Songs of Kate & Anna Recorded by Theirself & Other Artists". Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  • Hochman, Steve (February 24, 1997). "McGarrigles' Insight Improves With Age". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  • Documentary film
  • Lanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Songs and Stories. Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press.
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