Joni with Jorn and Rufus-Luminato 2013 Toronto

photo by Danny Kapilian

Commemoration of Place Kate-McGarrigle on Laurier in Outremont and Concerts in aid of the Kate McGarrigle Fund at Theatre Outremont.

Aug 7 is the day the City of Outremont honours Kate with the opening of Place Kate-McGarrigle on avenue Laurier near Querbes. For many years, Kate was a familiar figure on Laurier and the family is very touched by this gesture. By then, the Robert Wilson chair, Kate/Nora, will be in place in the small park space now planted with shrubs and flowers that Kate liked. The ceremony is slated to begin around 1.30p.m. or 13.30 and the City is closing off Laurier so people can mill about. Later that evening, Lian Lunson’s Sing Me the Songs That Say I love You will be screened at the Outremont Theatre on avenue Bernard. On Aug 8 there are 2 concerts, also at the Outremont, in honour of Kate and benefiting the Kate McGarrigle Fund. Special guests are Robert Charlebois, Michel Rivard, Marie-Michele Desrosiers, Fannie Bloom and Pierre Lapointe. Martha, Rufus, Jane and I are the hosts. Please come!
FOR TICKETS CHEMINANT VERS MA VILLE – CONCERT POUR/FOR KATE MCGARRIGLE

Trauma – Radio-Canada mini-series

Fabienne Larouche, the creator and producer of this very popular Quebec series about the lives of emergency room docs, invited Kate’s daughter and my niece, Martha Wainwright to do the 10 songs for this year’s cru now in it’s 4th season. For the past 3 seasons Ariane Moffatt and then Pascale Picard, 2 local artistes, sang popular English songs hand-picked by Fabienne that were then incorporated into the shows. This time around Fabienne thought she’d switch things up and asked Martha, considered to be an English-speaking artist, to interpret the season’s 10 new songs in French. Some of these are Martha’s own compos now translated into French but a couple of the songs are Quebec classics. In particular Offenbach’s, ‘Ayoye, tu m’fais mal’ (Ouch, you’re hurting me) the late Gerry Boulet’s signature song. Martha’s spectacularly emotive take on this song kicked-off the new Trauma season this past week and to use a rather crude term a small sh-tstorm has ensued. Most people like her version but there are dissenters. Some fans of the series don’t think people should be messing with the song, especially an Anglo. I’d like to point out that Martha is a dual-citizen of the U.S. and Canada has many French pure-laine ancestors, to name but a few: Arthur Latrémouille (originally from Embrun, On. same place as singing sensation/imitator Véronic Dicaire is from (we’re probably related!) Cordelia Primeau (Ste-Martine), Edouard Côté (Montréal.) Also, that from the age of 2 months (when her parents split up) Martha grew up in Montréal and graduated from Collège Rachel on the Plateau (now College Laurier.) If you want to join the discussion here’s Trauma’s facebook page. Trauma There are itunes links there for Martha’s cover of Ayoye and for the music from past seasons.

I should mention that the songs that Martha has done for Trauma will be released one at a time as they appear in the series and will be available on itunes. A compilation CD will also be released by Maple Music. Not all the songs that Martha cut for the series (limited to 10) are being used but they will all be on the CD or available as downloads. Enjoy Trauma!

Thanks Philip for the tip about this. I actually was already aware of it, my daughter Lily has been following the brouhaha. It’s her birthday today! Bon anniversaire chère Lily! It’s Jorn’s b-day too. Bon anniversaire cher Jörn!

3 yrs

Kate at the old upright, Caffè Lena, Saratoga Springs N.Y. circa 1970

Merry Noël!

CBC Radio – Inside the Music-My playlist – Sunday Dec 9 2012

Last Summer I was kindly invited to compile a playlist for the above show. I thought about it a while then made the decision to play only music by family and friends, rare cuts, demos or live versions of songs I really like. You’re not really supposed to play your own music but I did sneak in a very early Kate and Anna live from 1963 long before we became Kate and Anna. Frank Opolko taped the show here in Montreal at Maison Radio-Canada. He humoured me throughout. I was so hoping to channel Terry Gross or Peter Mansbridge, to come off sounding like a real pro. But I’m afraid it’s just little old me to paraphrase Judith Hearne she of the lonely passion. Thank you Frank!

Schedule:
Inside The Music is heard Sundays on Radio 2 at 3:00 p.m. ET, 3:30 p.m. in NL and on Radio One Sundays at 9 p.m. in Ontario, Quebec, Central, Mountain and Pacific; 10 p.m. in Maritimes; 10:30 p.m. in Nl as well as Sirius Radio Saturdays at 12 midnight ET, and Sundays at 6:00 ET.

Blackfly & Mouches noires by Christopher Hinton

Blackfly and Mouches Noires (Fr. version of Blackfly) are animated films by Christopher Hinton inspired by Wade Hemsworth’s famous song that Kate and I did music for back in the early 90s. Both are from the NFB site.

It saddens me to mention here that Christopher’s beloved daughter Emma, only 19, died tragically in a road accident out near Fort McMurray Alberta a couple of weeks ago. In memory of Emma, please consider a donation to the Frontier Animal Society, a cause to which she devoted so much time and love. (PO Box 2505, Stanstead, QC, J0B 1E0) Our heartfelt condolences to Chris, Katherine, Max and Paul.

Blackfly by Christopher Hinton, National Film Board of Canada

Mouches noires by Christopher Hinton, National Film Board of Canada

Radio Star – Martha Wainwright

Watching the news tonight, my heart goes out to all you poor NYorkers and New Jerseyites. I pray for you all and wish I could do something. Come to Montreal if you can. It’s a great place. There’s lots of room here. We need some serious immigration to Canada!

This video was inspired by Martha’s song Radio Star on her latest CD Come Home to Mama and the amazing full-Moons we’ve had lately that I’m in the habit of filming from our front porch. Sounds a bit grand. I use an old Flip videocam that I put on a tripod then go back in the kitchen and make supper while the Moon rises. The problem is the Moon is small and moves so slowly that I had to figure out ways to make it bigger, manipulate it and make it do silly stuff. I worship Steve Jobs (and proud of it) and everybody at Apple for making it the most innovative company that ever was/IS for us the artist/individualist/musician. Thank you Martha, Moon, Nessie, albino squirrel and cute dogs from Montreal’s Plateau, and Sylvan L. for putting it together for me in Final Cut.

Radio Star by Martha Wainwright from a. lanken on Vimeo.

Martha Wainwright’s new CD ‘Come Home to Mama’

MARTHA’S NEW WEBSITEMartha has a new CD. It’s got lots of great new songs beautifully produced by Yuka C. Honda. Here’s a video of Martha doing Kate’s Proserpina. This is the last song Kate wrote. It was around mid-October 2009. She sang it in the Royal Albert Hall Christmas show on Dec 9. This was to be her last public performance.

Martha Wainwright: Proserpina on Nowness.com.