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Kate McGarrigle (2/6/1946 – 1/18/2010)

January 19th, 2010 · No Comments

Kate McGarrigle
(photo: last.fm)

I could credit the sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle with being partly responsible for opening my ears to the possibilities of music beyond Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and The Steve Miller Band, whose record albums got major spin on my turntable when I was in high school.  Near the time of my graduation from college, and at the urging of the all-knowing clerks of the Harvard Coop record department, I purchased their 1982 Love Over and Over.  I remember taking the album with me to the Widener Library stacks, where I was to spend the afternoon working, and being interrupted periodically by the desire to pull the LP from its brown paper bag to read and re-read the liner notes, and admire the cover artwork.  I did this several times before getting it home and listening to it.  Then, I was hopelessly hooked.

The McGarrigle sisters’ vocal blending is unique, their harmonies non-traditional.  While listening, I imagined this French-Canadian pair using music as an extension of a secret language learned in childhood, that no one else could possibly recreate, but that could communicate emotional power in that purely musical way that requires no words.

But then there was their songwriting.  “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Goin’ Back to Harlan,” “Heartbeats Accelerating,” “Talk to Me of Mendocino,” “I Cried for Us.”  These songs and many others have become part of the folk music canon, championed by Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, Emmylou Harris and others.

[audio:Kate_and_Anna_McGarrigle___Heart_Like_a_Wheel.mp3]
“Heart Like a Wheel” by Kate & Anna McGarrigle, from Kate & Anna McGarrigle (1975)

A large percentage of the sisters’ recorded output was sung in their native French: albums of folk songs, original songs, and translations of pop songs (their cover of Bob Seger’s “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” – “Tu Vas M’Accompagner” – is priceless).

Kate McGarrigle was also the matriarch of an amazing musical family that includes children Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and former husband Loudon Wainwright III – talented musicians all.

Thanks for everything, Madame.

Go, leave
She’s better than me
Or at least she is stronger
She will make it last longer
That’s nice for you

Go, leave
Don’t come back
No more am I for the taking
But I can’t say that my heart’s not aching
It’s breaking in two

I remember days when we laughed a lot
Those that weren’t so good I soon forgot
We could sit and talk till words
Were coming out our ears
Not just for days or weeks or months
But it’s been years
Now here they come
Here they come here come my tears

So go, leave
You said goodbye
But could it be that you are stalling
Hearts have a way of calling
When they’ve been true

[audio:Kate_and_Anna_McGarrigle___Go_Leave.mp3]
“Go Leave” by Kate & Anna McGarrigle, from Kate & Anna McGarrigle (1975)

More on Kate McGarrigle at The Music’s Over and northjersey.com.

Tags: language · music

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