The household is abuzz with preparations for this year’s Christmas Concert “A Not So Silent Night” at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. The Kate McGarrigle Fund of the MUHC Foundation is partnering this year with Cancer Research UK and like last year there will be a certain number of charity tickets available for those who wish to contribute to Kate’s fund.
Last year before the Christmas Concert at Carnegie, Martha Stewart invited Kate and Rufus on her show to make Kate’s ski biscuits (the rest of us tagged along to sing.) There was much yakking going on as Kate and Rufus each worked over their pots all the while answering Martha’s questions about this and that when Martha S. noticed that Ruf had inadvertently put twice the amount of the dry ingredients into his mixture. Chaos ensued and it got really silly.
The Cedars people sure know how to put on a fundraising gala. First of all get Lance Armstrong and a bunch of wealthy cyclists committed to cancer research, plenty of excellent food and drink, outstanding entertainment which included Martha and Rufus who were joined on stage by Brad and Kate, and you have the makings for a wonderful event. The setting for Heroes Night at the Mt Tremblant Casino and in the massive adjacent tent was worthy of Fellini, or a ceremony atop Mt Olympus? Little cedar trees instead of laurel crowns. I can hear Kate who knows her mythology saying ‘heroes are but fallen gods’.. whatever. I was impressed. Riding the silent gondola across the dark mountain under a beautiful starlit sky and alighting at the other end in the centre of ‘the village’ was the perfect conclusion to a most memorable evening. And they raised a ‘lot’ of money for the Cedars Cancer Institute of the MUHC.
Thanks to all who made this possible.
And don’t forget this year’s Xmas concert, A not so Silent Night, to be held Dec 9 09 at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. The Kate McGarrigle Fund within the MUHC.
Having trouble loading pics to this site. If you want to see Kate and Lance go to gardencourt
The Cedars Cancer Institute of the MUHC is honouring some local notables this evening at their Heroes Night Gala which is being held at the Casino Mont-Tremblant, QC. Kate along with hockey stars Jean Beliveau and Saku Koivu among others are to receive their honours from the great Lance Armstrong who is leading a pack of 50 bike riders on a 100 km course before the dinner and ceremony. Rufus and Martha Wainwright will grace the stage along with their mum during the post-dinner concert.
Congrats.
For further information please contact the Cedars office at 514-843-1606 or go to Tour de Lance
Kate also has her own charity, The Kate McGarrigle Fund within the MUHC.
Go here if you want info on ‘A Not So Silent Night’ this year’s Christmas Show to be held at the Royal Albert Hall, London UK, Dec 9 09.
You can hear a snippet of Kate and Anna singing Wade Hemsworth’s Foolish You (from Kate & Anna McGarrigle WB 1976) during this NYT slide-show about Scott Johnston a front-porch radio broadcaster in Montana who plays music that isn’t heard on commercial or for that matter any kind of radio. We fit that format to a t. This went online yesterday Sept 8. NYT slide-show about Front-Porch Radio
As mentioned on an earlier gardencourt blog, the singular Kate, intrepid Rufus and passionate Martha and the fab Norah Jones performed last weekend at the Watermill Foundation fundraiser “The Last Song of Summer” and they wowed the crowd as reported here at Vanity Fair. By the looks of it Jörn wowed them too! And Brad and Thomas B.
We didn’t make the cut for the 90 min. version of the Seeger 90th show that PBS is airing this Sunday night, so here we are doing Dink’s Song, our contribution. Kate, Bruce, Martha, Rufus, Chaim and Anna. We frankly thought it was beautiful but I guess it didn’t have enough star power. We first heard Dave Van Ronk sing it in Montreal in the early 60s. P.S. This performance was included in the 2 hr special that was aired in some markets. It’s also on the Seeger 90th DVD.
Martha will be playing an intimate show coming up soon at Dixon Place in New York City.
The Details:
two nights only! join us june 14th and 15th at dixon place for an evening of french song.
Martha Wainwright and Hal Willner have paired together to make a live album of rare Piaf songs. Featuring Doug Weilselman, Brad Albetta and Thomas Bartlett, as well as other guest musicians
Sunday June 14th at 8pm
Monday June 15th at 7:30 and 10:00pm
Still dwelling on the Seeger event. Couldn’t find a youtube that had both visual and sound performance of Dink’s Song♥ aka Fare Thee Well which features Kate McGarrigle vocal & guitar, Bruce Cockburn vocal & guitar, Martha Wainwright vocal, Rufus Wainwright vocal with Chaim Tannenbaum echo harp and Anna McGarrigle accordion. Somebody has posted just the sound on youtube, better than nothing at all. Thank you. Fare Thee Well/aka Dink's Song.
♥Story has it the song was collected in 1908 by John Lomax who heard a woman (presumably Dink) sing it. Dink was living in a tent on the banks of the Brazos River in Texas and she was doing her laundry. (Kate: take note) It’s utterly heartbreaking. “If I had wings like Noah’s dove, I’d fly up the river to the one I love, Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well… Maple Byrne, who works with Emmylou, when asked to name his favorite songwriter, replied: “Dink.” We first heard Dave Van Ronk do it in Montreal in the early 60s. Pete S. sang the song with banjo accompaniment and Barbara Dane had sort of a hit with it. Don’t know if there’s a recording of Dink singing her song (1908?) but she will live forever as long as people call it by its name, Dink’s Song.
Read down this article to where the reviewer calls our performance the musical highlight of the evening, no less..we thought it was too. It is the Irish Times and they may be just a little biased…There were many great moments. I think Amazing Grace did it for me. IRISH TIMES REVIEW OF SEEGER 90TH
BEFORE TOMORROW – LE JOUR AVANT LE LENDEMAIN
Also putting in a link for BEFORE TOMORROW/LE JOUR AVANT LE LENDEMAIN this film Kate and I have some music in. It was released in late March and we didn’t have our new site up then. Here is a poster for it.
from left: martha wainwright, joan baez, emmylou harris, kate mcgarrigle, anna mcgarrigle, behind her are bruce cockburn and rufus wainwright
Pete Seeger turned 90 somewhere near the 3rd of may which saw a huge turnout at madison square garden for the blessed event.
We first saw him when he was less than half that age! He made us want to make music and sing…which we did.
When we saw him at the garden, he was almost physically unchanged from when we heard him back in those dark ages somewhere in early sixties – tall, slim, dressed in a checkered shirt and blue jeans….the hair was white tho, and the voice that made him so famous was barely audible. But the sound in our memories was as clear as the Bells of Rhymney.
So as everyone danced on stage to We Shall Overcome, we pinched ourselves and remarked “who’d a’ thunk back in 196l that we’d be here today celebrating the 90th birthday of the undisputed master of all folk music…pete seeger”.
