Kate and Anna McGarrigle. (RIP Kate 2010)

Kate McGarrigle RIP.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/neilmccormick/100006239/kate-mcgarrigle-death-of-a-matriarch/

oh shit!

RIP

The debut album was there at a very important time in my life. You made me very happy Kate.

:(

Goddamn. They're dropping like flies. RIP.

so sad! love her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9s54CaK2wY

oh man.

such a bad time for montreal musicians.

is one of them the crazy woman who wanted you to go on a musical cruise with her in tv commercials that got overplayed in atlantic canada? (i am doubtful, but the name sounds familiar)

such an alive person

ugh, RIP, Kate! that first McGarrigle Sisters record is brutally good. Was actually sometimes too emotional for me to listen to before, now it's gonna be even more so.

RIP :(

Sad to say that my only awareness of their work is through Billy Bragg's version of "Heart Like A Wheel", which I just found to be a heart-wrenchingly sad song. When I sought out their original it didn't affect me as much, for some reason. I also saw them do a beautiful version of Leonard Cohen's "Winter Lady" at the Cohen tribute show in Brighton.

I really love Kate & Anne. My mom played them all the time when I was a kid and I scooped up their records on vinyl when my mom got rid of her record player. Years after that I played them. Up late one night, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes and feeling nostalgic. Probably that Nick Cave record they sang on made me curious again.

Even though I knew every song, it was a huge surprise to me how good it was - idiot that I am. Just great songwriting and just a really smart, cool, down-to-earth feel to it - very anglo Montrealer in attitude all around. Sounds way more like real people in the real world than Joni or Buffy to me - not that that's neccessarily the best thing all the time, but it sure worked for them.

RIP Kate.

"complainte pour ste-catherine" is my favourite too!

oh no. i was wondering why this thread had been revived. r.i.p., i love kate & anna.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjG0Tk3HFQ

xpost and now nonxpost oh is that the same song Kirsty McColl did once?

Sounds way more like real people in the real world than Joni or Buffy to me - not that that's neccessarily the best thing all the time, but it sure worked for them.
yeah, this is otm -- i feel like the mcgarrigle's best stuff was way more down to earth and concerned with the quotidian than a lot of 70s singer-songwriters (kinda like Loudon come to think of it). Just that there's a real-life mix of humor/sadness/dignity ... I dunno, not explaining it well.

So sad. Some of the best sounding records ever. Hi-fi lo-fi. They gave off a vibe of "we're just sitting around the living room, playing music and harmonizing -- anyone can do this." Kind of like the Ramones, in that sense.

thanks Owen, great version of that, kinda way better than the lite reggae on the record(s)

It's actually an Anna song but so beautiful. And I'm into the drummer, he's got a good look.

Very sad today about Kate's death.

aw, this sucks. a great talent.

RIP.

So sad. They made music for adults -- very rare in today's world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb2x9uZVPek

really sad to hear this
i did always have trouble figuring out which one was kate and which one was anna

Proserpina - a newly written song, performed about a month ago. View with caution if you're a sentimental type.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xzwJVNTNKs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcbIjfLYxOY

I hurt. Why must we die?

this is awful. hit me in the gut. poor kate.

the title track of Dancer with Bruised Knees is really sounding great for me these days - kinda slept on it when i first bought the record but totally loving it now

http://www.mcgarrigles.com/uncategorized/tell-my-sister-nonesuch-2011

love the cover
http://www.mcgarrigles.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mcgarrigle-tell-my-sister-280x248.jpg
anyone heard this yet? demos any good? guess it is bargain priced for a 3-CD set, so I'll probably end up getting it.

Remastered versions of the first two albums PLUS a third disc of demos all for the price of around one CD? Hells yes this is worth it, especially for anyone who doesn't already have the first two albums already! Haven't heard the third disc yet, but it's in the queue!

so yeah, anyone who likes these ladies needs to get the new comp. the demos disc is astounding.

and the remastered sound on the two albums is fab too. coming around on dancer with bruised knee, which i sort of neglected in facvor of the debut. how did i miss that john cale plays on it?

lol, just searched out this thread to tell everyone that the new comp is sooooo good! and as is apparent from the last two posts, no one cares! i care!
there's one song on the demos disc "annie" which is just a gut punch of a performance. seems to be a cover of a song by someone named chaim tannenbaum?

The self-titled is just completely ripe for discussion. Such an interesting intersection between brash almost-showtune style, NYC folksinger, 70s singer-songwriter, French-Canadian folksong, and French chanson. It has a vibe that I can't quite find an analogue to, but seems familiar and comfortably lived-in at the same time. French-Canadian Laura Nyro? Anyways, like I say...I'd love to see more discussion of particularly the debut, but really anything they've put out, if anyone's interested. I haven't heard the comp that tylerw mentions. I will have to seek it out.

also, need to add my voice to the claim that "Heart Like A Wheel" is among the most devastating songs re: heartbreak ever.

I agree, although I'm always bothered by the niggling suspicion that a bent wheel could actually be mended quite easliy.

Has anyone listened to the album taken from the tribute concert yet? I don't wanna say it's my fave album of the year, but it's certainly the one I've listened to the most thus far.

the highs are real high

Justin Vivian Bond's "The Work Song" is a showstopper.

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUr8MJYAjRk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahNmtiUb4YI

Scored an inexpensive yet near-mint vinyl copy of the debut today. This really is one of the greatest albums ever.

Everyone got Anna and Janey's memoir, right?

Didn't know it existed! How is it?

Belated shout out to my former upstairs neighbor who was blasting Dancer With Bruised Knees loud enough that I was able to Shazam "Naufragée du Tendre (Shipwrecked)" through the walls. Such a lovely album.

Several things on this thread I need to check---and there was a box set, right?
From my blogged Pazz & Jop comments on 2016:
Reissues:
Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Pronto Monto starts strangely, with olde folkie warbles over tasty yachty licks. And these top-paid studio pros should never be asked to play a straight-fwd guitar shuffle. But in terms of at least gettin' concise-if-not-always-down sounds, and thematically appropriate melodic-harmonic explorations, Kate McG. is the Lennon figure here, with Anna the moonier McCartney. Then again, her "Park Fixture" is dynamically *about* an obsesso romantic, as written and performed from that POV. (And she tries to get more concise, "I love my kid" etc.) So far seems like about half of this album works pretty well after all. Do like Kate's solo voice more than the duets.
So easy gratuitous comparisons to males, but at least musically high-standard males, was apparently the thot, if any.

The box was a three-disc set w/the first two albums and a disc of demos/outtakes.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTIsIkm73TBU6zSuhvKS44JotKDkol5UdVi7Q&usqp=CAU

Tell My Sister

Overall, I consider myself a fan; but though the decline in quality wasn't steep or complete, I would include them on the list of "artists whose every record was weaker than the previous one" (caveat: I haven't heard the French albums).