Folk singer Kate McGarrigle dies at 63
Posted: January 19, 2010, 8:30 AM by Ron Nurwisah
Montreal folk singer Kate McGarrigle has died at age 63. The singer had reportedly been battling clear-cell carcinoma.
Kate and her sister Anna were better known as the McGarrigle Sisters. The duo were inducted into the Order of Canada in 2003 and have released a number of albums in French and English. The two were famous for songs such as "Work Song," "Cool River," "Lying Song"* and "Heart Like a Wheel," which was the title song for a 1975 album by Linda Ronstadt.
The duo's 1976 debut in London resulted in one British critic saying they were among "the very best voices to be heard in popular music today."
Kate was also mother to musicians Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, whom she had with fellow folk singer and former husband Loudon Wainwright III.
CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi paid tribute to Kate. "RIP Kate McGarrigle. One of our greats. And matriarch of the Wainwright magic. Your music will live on," Ghomeshi wrote on his twitter feed.
The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick has some lovely words for Kate McGarrigle:
Being head of that dynasty might be enough to earn her a place in popular music history, but Kate was a wonderful musician in her own right, recording 10 albums with her sister Anne McGariggle. The sisters had high, thin voices but they weaved around each other in such tight, flowing harmony that the effect was completely magical and bewitching. Bi-lingual Canadians, their repertoire included traditional folk in English and French, and original songs of their own (which are striking enough to have been recorded by such artists as Linda Rondstadt, Maria Muldaur, Kirsty MacColl, Billy Bragg, Alison Moorer, Emmylou Harris, The Corrs, Annie Sophie Von Otter and Elvis Costello. And even her ex-husband, Loudon).
One Kate And Anna McGarrigle album in particular occupies a special place in my heart (and record collection). ‘Entre Lajeunesse et la sagesse’ was released in 1980, and is better known to (English speaking) admirers as The French Record. My editor used to play it in the offices of Hot Press, where I worked as a 19-year-old graphic designer, and I fell in love with it. I speak only high school French, and I really have no idea what these songs are about, but the album just worked its way into my consciousness and my heart.
A cute animated clip called Log Driver's Waltz (McGarrigle Sisters)
More on the link to the article below;
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...ies-at-63.aspx