Kate & Anna McGarrigle

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Kate McGarrigle (February 6, 1946 – January 18, 2010) and Anna McGarrigle (born December 4, 1944) were a duo of folk rock and country folkTemplate:Cn Canadian singer-songwriters (and sisters) from Quebec, who performed together until Kate's death in 2010.

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Music career

In the 1960s, in Montreal, while Kate was studying chemical engineering at McGill University and Anna art at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, they began performing in public and writing their own songs. From 1963 to 1967, they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group Mountain City Four.

Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Linda Ronstadt,<ref name="star">"McGarrigle sisters writing a memoir". Toronto Daily Star, April 14, 2014, E2.</ref> Emmylou Harris,<ref name="star" /> Judy Collins,<ref name="star" /> and others. These covers led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They released their eponymous debut album in 1976,Template:Refn and created nine more albums through 2008.<ref name="star" />

Although associated with Quebec's anglophone community, they also recorded and performed many songs in French. Two of their albums, Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse and La vache qui pleure, are entirely in French.

Their version of Wade Hemsworth's song, "The Log Driver's Waltz" grew famous as the soundtrack for a 1979 animated film directed by John Weldon at Canada's National Film Board. They provided backing vocals on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's 2001 album No More Shall We Part.

They continued to write, record and perform music into the 21st century, with assorted accompanying artists including Gerry Conway, Pat Donaldson, Ken Pearson, Michel Pépin, Chaim Tannenbaum, and Joel Zifkin.<ref name="Lanken"/>

Personal lives

Anna and Kate McGarrigle were born in Montreal of mixed Irish and French-Canadian background. Their parents, Frank McGarrigle and Gabrielle Latrémouille, were both passionate about music and raised them and their older sister Jane in the tradition of family singing that would come to define their careers.<ref name=wheeler>Brad Wheeler, "Savvy manager Jane McGarrigle oversaw careers of her folk-playing sisters, Kate and Anna McGarrigle: The eldest of the three, she was also musically talented, singing backup and playing keyboards on the road and in the studio, as well as handling the business side of things for her quirky, mischievous siblings". The Globe and Mail, February 7, 2025.</ref>

They grew up in Saint-Sauveur, where they learned piano from nuns. In 1971, Kate married the singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Their children, Rufus and Martha, are also both singers. The two divorced in 1976. Kate McGarrigle died in 2010, aged 63, of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.<ref name="KMcGGuardianOb" /><ref name="reuters-kate-obit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Anna McGarrigle was married to Canadian journalist and author Dane Lanken until his death on March 3, 2023. The couple had two children, Lily Lanken and Sylvan Lanken, and lived in North Glengarry, Ontario, just west of the Quebec border. Dane appeared as a vocalist on several of the sisters' albums and in 2007 wrote their career biography. Their sister Jane (1941–2025), was a film and television composer who acted as business manager for Kate and Anna, and also wrote and performed several songs with the duo.<ref name="Lanken"/>Template:Rp

Honours and awards

They were appointed Members of the Order of Canada in 1993 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2004.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On November 22, 2006, they received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 SOCAN Awards in Toronto.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

They received the 2010 Mojo Roots Award, which was presented by Emmylou Harris. The award was accepted by Anna together with Kate's children Rufus and Martha Wainwright, as Kate had died early that year on January 18.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Discography

Albums

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  • Tant Le Monde: Live in Bremen, Germany, 2005 (2022)

With other artists

  • Album II by Loudon Wainwright (1971), Kate McGarrigle – vocals on "Old Paint"
  • Attempted Mustache by Loudon Wainwright, Kate McGarrigle – banjo and vocals
  • Waitress in a Donut Shop by Maria Muldaur (1974) – "Cool River", "Travelin' Shoes (Kate only)"<ref name="Recording Credits">Recording Credits</ref>
  • Prisoner in Disguise by Linda Ronstadt (1975) – "You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down"<ref name="Recording Credits"/>
  • Unrequited by Loudon Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, vocals.
  • Sunnyvista by Richard and Linda Thompson (1979) – "You're Gonna Need Somebody", "Sisters", "Traces of My Love"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Filmography

DVDs

  • The McGarrigle Hour (1999) – with Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright, Chaim Tannenbaum, Jane McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Lily Lanken).
  • 2009 – A Not So Silent Night (2009) – with Rufus and Martha Wainwright.

Film work

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Bibliography

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Notes

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References

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