He was one of the great ones. In 1959, Claude L. moved to Paris to write songs with and for Edith Piaf, (Martha did a rocking cover of his ‘Non, la vie n’est pas triste’ on her 2009 Piaf oeuvre.) On his return in 1962, our high-school friend Michèle Forest (and 3rd member of the Trio Canadien) and I went to hear him at l’Estérel in Ste Marguerite where he performed with André Gagnon. They played back-to-back grand pianos and I think maybe Yvon Deschamps was on snare and hi-hat. We were hooked for life. ‘ Je me fous du monde entier quand Frédéric me rappelle les beaux jours de nos vingt-ans’….’Sur un cheval blanc, je t’enmènerai..’ ‘Les vieux pianos’ These songs were played over and over in our house in St Sauveur. Our mother Gaby could never get enough of him, especially after a couple of gins. Au revoir Claude et merci. Claude L. sings Frederic I think this was our favorite.
Another link to his song ‘Mon pays’ (not Vigneault’s) from 1965. This one made me cry last night. Oh boy.
The line-up looks great. Read more about it (in French) FETE NATIONALE – LE 24 JUIN MONTREAL, QC Rufus and Martha are doing a couple of McGarrigle-Tatartcheff tunes and I hear Ruf will duet with Robert Charlebois. We’ll all be there to cheer them on. St John the Baptist has long been the patron saint of nationalist Quebec and his feast day falls June 24 around the time of the Summer Solstice. Lately I’ve discovered the fabulously shocking Richard Strauss opera Salome based on Oscar Wilde’s play and I’ve become more than a little obsessed with John the Baptist, sex-object..I will kiss thy mouth Jokanaan.
Very sad news about Andrew Gold. Only 59. Aside from all his high-profile accomplishments Andrew along with Greg Prestopino played that wild duelling guitars thing on Complainte pour Ste Catherine which I always felt put the ‘pop’ in that cut that made it a hit in Northern Europe. Thanks guys. Read about Andrew Gold.
It’s officially out. The first 2 K&A recordings on Warner: Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1976, Dancer with Bruised Knees 1977, plus a 3rd disc of previously unreleased song demos from the time Kate was a solo act in 1971 augmented by some of the 2 of us from 1974 including a couple of tracks with Roma Baran with whom Kate first went to NYC in 1969 to suss out the folk scene. How I wish Kate could be here to see all the great press this is getting. She was beautiful and brilliant and now she’s come alive once more in her songs and she’s brought me back to life. Together again.
The foxy silver-maned Emmylou has just released Hard Bargain, her latest from Nonesuch Records. On it is the beautiful elegy she wrote for for my sister entitled ‘Darlin Kate.’ When I first heard it last Winter I broke out in tears and couldn’t listen to it. Kate and Emmy had a special bond and it’s all there in the song. A couple of days before Kate went, I called Emmy to tell her my sister was fading fast but still conscious and she said ‘I’m coming to Montreal right now.’ Within hours, Kate had slid into a coma and I called E. back and said ‘it’s too late. She’s unconscious.’ She said ‘I’m coming anyway.’ Emmy will perform ‘Darlin Kate’ the night of the Kate tributes in NYC, May 12 & 13, Town Hall. Hard Bargain has a lovely funky folky sound that will draw you right in. Emmylou Harris site
We came out of the gate around the same time in the mid 70s. Phoebe actually had a solid hit with her Poetry Man while Kate and I showed with our slightly more schizoid offerings. I remember P. as being a very soulful talented woman and quite funny. Kate and I often ran into her in NYC, either in studios or venues catching other acts on their way up. Then life kicked in. Around the time Kate had Martha, Phoebe gave birth to a daughter with severe disabilities. There but for the grace of God..Phoebe retreated for a while, Kate moved back to Montreal and we weren’t really in touch anymore. In the words of Woody Guthrie ‘ this World was lucky to see her born.’
Nonesuch Records releases Tell My Sister, a special three-disc set comprising remastered versions of Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s beloved 1976 self-titled debut; its equally praised 1977 follow-up, Dancer with Bruised Knees; and a collection of previously unreleased songs, including solo and duo demos, on May 3, 2011. Joe Boyd, who produced the McGarrigles’ first two albums, assembled the material for the third disc in addition to serving as producer for the whole set. Tell My Sister is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store, along with an exclusive, limited-edition commemorative poster.
The release coincides with a two-night tribute to Kate McGarrigle—who died of sarcoma last year—May 12 and 13 at New York City’s Town Hall. Curated by Joe Boyd, the concerts will feature performances by Kate’s children, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and her sister Anna, as well as Emmylou Harris, Antony Hegarty, Norah Jones, and Teddy Thompson, among others. Profits from the concerts will go toward creating the Kate McGarrigle Sarcoma Research Fund.
Raised in an artistic family in St. Sauveur, Quebec, Kate moved to New York in 1969 to pursue a singing career while Anna studied art in Montreal. Both wrote many songs during this period, including Anna’s “Heart Like a Wheel,” which eventually appeared on their debut album (and was made famous by Linda Ronstadt in 1974), and Kate’s “The Work Song,” which Maria Muldaur recorded in 1973. It was another Muldaur recording of a McGarrigle song that first brought the sisters to the attention of then–Warner Bros. Records President Lenny Waronker.
“Lenny and I loved ‘Cool River’ for Maria Muldaur’s second album. The tape came from Kate McGarrigle, so we assumed it was her song and her voice layering up those delicious harmonies,” recalls Joe Boyd. “The song turned out to be Anna’s; and those harmonies weren’t overdubbed, they were live, the sisters’ overtones vibrating in the air around the microphone, making two voices sound like a multitude. Warners gave them a contract; Greg [Prestopino] and I co-produced with my old pal John Wood (Nick Drake, etc.) engineering.”
Among many other critical accolades, Melody Maker named Kate & Anna McGarrigle Album of the Year and the New York Times named it to its 10 Favorite Disks list, saying “This folkish debut disk was the most charming, purely beautiful and sentimentally moving record of 1976.” The album’s 12 tracks were mostly written by the sisters, with the few exceptions including a track by Kate’s then-husband Loudon Wainwright III. Although the album did not achieve commercial success upon its release, it has come to be seen as a classic over the ensuing years.
The dozen tracks on Dancer with Bruised Knees, released the following year, are mainly by the McGarrigles, as well, with two traditional French songs. Longtime Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave it an A, calling it “even better than the debut.” Boyd, who produced the record, says, “Its only problem was the album it had to follow.”
In approaching Tell My Sister’s third disc of previously unreleased material, Boyd says, “I was wary of listening to the demos, afraid they might expose our production as overdone compared to the wonder of the two sisters sitting side by side at the piano, harmonizing like goddesses. But plain and fancy both sound great to me 37 years on.”
Anna McGarrigle said of those first recordings: “Kate could easily have had a solo career, as is evident from her early song demos, but she told me, ‘I don’t want to do this by myself.’ So I put my puppet-making career on hold. To paraphrase her ‘Blues in D,’ I couldn’t let the poor girl down. Thank you for asking me, little sister.”
To reserve your copy of Tell My Sister with the limited-edition poster, head to the Nonesuch Store now.
When folk icon Kate McGarrigle passed away over a year ago after battling a rare cancer, not only did Rufus and Martha Wainwright lose their mother, but music lost one of its most unique singer-songwriting voices.
McGarrigle inspired a host of high-profile musicians throughout her four-decade career, and EW can now exclusively reveal that jazz songstress Norah Jones will be joining an all-star roster of artists paying tribute to her in New York’s Town Hall this May.
The nine-time Grammy-winner Jones will join an all-star roster of artists for a two-day concert event, which is set to include performances by Rufus and Martha, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Fallon (appearing in a musical capacity), Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons), as well as Anna McGarrigle, Kate’s sister and musical partner.
The Canadian folk duo Kate & Anna McGarrigle came to prominence when their song “Heart Like a Wheel” was used by Linda Ronstadt as the title track of her most-celebrated album. The sisters’ self-titled debut soon followed in 1975 to rave reviews and over the years the duo’s unerring sense of composition earned Kate an eclectic fan club including Elvis Costello, Richard and Linda Thompson (whose son Teddy will perform at the tribute as well), Nick Cave and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.
Norah Jones and the rest of McGarrigle’s musical family and friends will play Town Hall on May 12 and 13th, with proceeds from both of the nights going toward finding a cure for sarcoma. Check out Kate McGarrigle singing the folk standard “Willie Moore” with her son Rufus on the British TV series Spectacle: Elvis Costello With… and enjoy her timeless talent.
![Kate & Anna McGarrigle: "Tell My Sister" [cover]](http://www.nonesuch.com/sites/nonesuch/files/imagecache/section-artists-image/media/images/mcgarrigle-tell-my-sister.jpg "Kate & Anna McGarrigle: \"Tell My Sister\" [cover]")
When folk icon Kate McGarrigle 
