Kate and Anna McGarrigle

McGarrigle, Kate and Anna

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The Debut of a Should-Be Dynasty

Canadian sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle make quiet, beautifully crafted singer-songwriter records that few outside of a devoted coterie of fans, many of them recording artists, have heard. Since the '70s—when Linda Ronstadt covered this album's "Heart like a Wheel"—successive waves of singer-songwriters have seized on the McGarrigles' blunt and sometimes acidic humor, the wide harmonies and eccentric perspectives that define their songs. Such influence should, at the very least, make the McGarrigles' music easy to find; in fact, several important albums have fallen out of print over the years. Everything the duo did in the 1970s is worth hearing; rarely have simple, plaintive songs been graced with such tightly bound sisterly vocals, a swooning siren sound with more power than either McGarrigle could achieve alone.

The key, though, is the songwriting: There's true daring, and a willful eccentricity, driving these explorations of modern love's minefields and barren ruins. Anna's haiku "Heart like a Wheel" belongs among the great metaphors about romance and devotion; Kate's "(Talk to Me of) Mendocino" catches a yearning for place that's as profound, and vividly sketched, as the yearning for love. The quaint, old-timey sounds (fiddle, accordion, banjo) aren't there to take listeners back to another era; instead, they provide contrast and color, framing the porcelain-pure harmonies. Swirled together, these elements combine for oddly revelatory folk music that registers as a wrenching feeling in the gut even before you're able to appreciate it intellectually.

Genre: Folk, Rock
Released: 1975, Hannibal
Key Tracks: "Heart like a Wheel," "Jigsaw Puzzle of Life," "(Talk to Me of) Mendocino."
Catalog Choice: Heartbeats Accelerating
Next Stop: The Story: The Angel in the House
Book Page: 489

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Comments:

#1 from Mo, DC - 01/20/2010 6:05

I was just reading this entry in the book last night, thinking back to 25 years ago when I saw the sisters in New York, and promising to make up for my complete lack of McGarrigle Sisters music.

And just today, I learned that Kate is gone. She was 63 years old. So sad…

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

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