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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.
Anna and Kate McGarrigle were born in Montreal of mixed Irish- and French-Canadian background. Their parents, Frank McGarrigle and Gabrielle Latrémouille, were both passionate about music and raised them and their older sister Jane in the tradition of family singing that would come to define their careers.[9]
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][10]
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. Their sister Jane (1941–2025), was 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
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.[13]
All I Intended to Be by Emmylou Harris (2008) – "Moon Song", "Sailing 'Round The Room", "How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower"[15]
I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too by Martha Wainwright, Anna McGarrigle – keyboard, synths and background vocals (12), Kate McGarrigle – hand claps (2), Wurlitzer (12), backing vocals (12)
Ring Them Bells by Joan Baez – "Willie Moore" (Traditional) Baez, Kate, and Anna McGarrigle vocals; Baez guitar, Kate McGarrigle banjo, Anna McGarrigle accordion.
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.
^ abVarious 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.
^ abcd"McGarrigle sisters writing a memoir". Toronto Daily Star, April 14, 2014, E2.
^McGarrigle, Anna & Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN978-0-345-81402-9. We began recording in New York City in late 1974 and finished nine months later in LA, with Joe [Boyd] and Greg [Prestopino] co-producing.
^ abcLanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs and Stories. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN978-1-897323-04-5. Kate & Anna McGarrigle January 1976
^McGarrigle, Anna & Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN978-0-345-81402-9. In preparation for the tour to support our new record, which was due out in January 1976, Kate and I began rehearsals with a band in NYC.
^Women Who Are Making Music, by John Rockwell in The New York Times, January 15, 1976. (See Lanken, Dane (2007), page 30)
^Kate & Anna McGarrigle, in Billboard, January 17, 1976. (See Lanken, Dane (2007), page 31)
^ abRussell, Tony (January 19, 2010). "Kate McGarrigle obituary". theguardian.com. Retrieved February 22, 2016. Their first album, [...] simply titled Kate & Anna McGarrigle (1976), ...
^Brad Wheeler, "Savvy manager Jane McGarrigle oversaw careers of her folk-playing sisters, Kate and Anna McGarrigle: The eldest of the three, she was also musically talented, singing backup and playing keyboards on the road and in the studio, as well as handling the business side of things for her quirky, mischievous siblings". The Globe and Mail, February 7, 2025.
