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

Quick Facts Background information, Origin ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle
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Kate (left) and Anna McGarrigle, 1981
Background information
OriginMontreal, Quebec, Canada
GenresFolk rock, country folk
Instruments
Years active1975–2010
Labels
Past members
Websitemcgarrigles.com
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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,[1] Emmylou Harris,[1] Judy Collins,[1] and others. These covers led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They released their eponymous debut album in 1976,[note 1] and created nine more albums through 2008.[1]

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.[3]

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Personal lives

Anna and Kate McGarrigle were born in Montreal of mixed Irish- and French-Canadian background. 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.[8][9]

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. Another sister, Jane McGarrigle (born April 26, 1941), is a film and television composer who acted as business manager for Kate and Anna, and also wrote and performed several songs with the duo.[3]:114

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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.[10] On November 22, 2006, they received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 SOCAN Awards in Toronto.[11]

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.[12]

Discography

Albums

With other artists

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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

Lanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs and Stories. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 978-1-897323-04-5.

Lanken, Dane (2007). Thirty-three Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 978-1-897323-05-2.

McGarrigle, Anna; McGarrigle, Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-81402-9.

Notes

  1. Various sources use the album's recording date of '1975'[2]:315 also as the release date, but several reliable sources in books[3]:30–31[4]:316[5]:162 and newspaper articles, both in the US[6][7] and the UK,[8] indicate or cite '1976' and 'January 1976' as the release date.

References

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