Kate McGarrigle       1946 – 2010

I first heard Montreal’s The McGarrigle Sisters thirty-five years ago on Jonathan Schwartz’s show on WNEW-FM.  (And also on the Sunday Show on WNEW-AM.)  They entered the American mainstream when Garrison Keillor started featuring them regularly on Prairie Home Companion.  From there it was on to Letterman and SNL and when we began VermontMornings, there was no question they would be core artists.  Kate was the mother of singers Rufus & Martha Wainwright, majors stars of a newer generation.  Kate last performed on 9th December at Royal Albert Hall during a Not So Silent Night.   The show raised CAN$55,000 for the Kate McGarrigle Fund.  You can buy the album from that concert at the Amazon.com link to the right on this page.

Kate McGarrigle died this past Monday at the age of 63 of cancer, at home in Montreal, surround by her family and friends.  The title of this  post was written by sister Anne, her regular performing partner for over forty years.