Kate McGarrigle, 1946-2010

Cafe Society
1

Kate McGarrigle, of the Canadian folk duo Kate & Anna McGarrigle, has died at 63.
Obit/appreciation here

Unfortunately, she may now be better known outside of Canada as the mother of Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, the two children of her marriage to Loudon Wainwright III, but she and her sister Anna produced some of the most preternaturally beautiful music of the last 50 years.

Title track from their 1996 album Matapedia.
Hard Times Come Again No More, from the Ken Burns Civil War series.
Complainte pour Ste-Catherine from The French Album (ignore the goofy video)

Thanks for the music, Kate. You’ll be missed.

2

Damn. She was a lovely singer, heartfelt and honest.

3

Yeah. What Canadian folkie didn’t have an album or three of theirs. Some beautiful, beautiful songs, not to mention fantastic collaborations with other musicians. This is a bummer day for losing people.

4

This clip was often seen on CBC, whenever they had a few minutes to fill in and no commercials to fill them in with; anyone who watched TV in the late 80s got to see it often:

5

Now I’m bummed out. I love Kate and Anna. And Loudon, Rufus & Martha.

What a talented family.

6

Damn.

I bought their first album when it came out & it’s one of my favorites. Very different from the local Texas Singer Songwriter stuff & very beautiful.

Bought it in cassette & left it at the work place that had the cassette player. Bought it in CD. Then bought the MP3 download from Amazon; yes, I could have ripped the CD, but I wanted it on the work PC & didn’t mind sending some money in that direction.

“Mendocino” & “Heart Like a Wheel” could already bring tears.

7

Her funeral was today at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.

Anna apologized for her nervousness, saying usually when she’s on stage, she has Kate with her.

*The golden coach is on the track
And ready, set to fly
The rainbow ride will make its arc
And send me to the sky

Come flotsam, come jetsam,
The riff-raff, the raggle-taggle,
And get aboard the rainbow ride…*