McGarrigle/Cockburn/Wainwright/Tannenbaum – Fare Thee Well or Dink’s Song

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.

Thank you Pete

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”.

Thank you Pete.

potatoes in the garden with msg

A Not So Silent Night at Royal Albert Hall

From Rufus’ Blog:

We’re happy to announce information on this year’s holiday show…

A Not So Silent Night featuring Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Kate McGarrigle, Family & Friends.

This special show will take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on Wednesday, December 9th. The presale for tickets will start tomorrow, April 8th at 9am BST (British Summer Time). Click HERE to purchase tickets.

A limited number of exclusive A Not So Silent Night VIP Packages include excellent seats for the concert, entry to an intimate post-show cocktail with the performers, and unique gift bags. These packages can be obtained by making a donation of $1,000 CAD, $750 USD, or £500 GPB to the Kate McGarrigle Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to cancer care and research and affiliated with the McGill University teaching hospitals and Cedars Cancer Institute in Montreal, Canada. Proceeds from the sales of these VIP packages will benefit cancer care and research in Canada and the UK. For more information, call Cléa Desjardins at the McGill University Health Centre Foundation, toll-free at 1-877-601-4536 (1-514-931-5656 from outside North America), email clea.desjardins@muhc.mcgill.ca, and visit http://www.muhcfoundation.com/mcgarrigle

Welcome to our new website!

After lots of hard work, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of our brand-new webpage. Please come and look around.