RIP Kate McGarrigle, 1946-2010

After a courageous battle with cancer, singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle died Monday, January 18 in her Montreal home.

Together with her sister Anna, McGarrigle played numerous Nippertown shows at Caffe Lena, The Egg, The Linda and the Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival Festival. The McGarrigles also played the first concert sponsored by Mona Golub’s Second Wind Productions in Albany’s Washington Park in June, 1993.

The duo also performed at Caffe Lena for the Lena Spencer memorial concert in 1989. The performance was filmed by director Stephen Trombley for a documentary that later aired on PBS-TV.

They recorded infrequently, beginning with their self-titled album debut in 1975, but that album and others – 1977’s “Dancer With Bruised Knees,” 1990’s “Heartbeats Accelerating” and 1998’s “The McGarrigle Hour” – are gems.

Their songs were also recorded by other singers, most notably Linda Ronstadt, who used the McGarrigles’ “Heart Like a Wheel” as the title track for her breakthrough, star-making 1974 album. Other artists who recorded the McGarrigles’ songs included Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins and Billy Bragg.

Formerly married to Loudon Wainwright III, Kate McGarrigle was also the mother of both Martha and Rufus Wainwright.