A nice tribute Kate McGarrigle who died yesterday from cancer (sarcoma). She’s the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright. Kate McGarrigle was 63.
The descriptors “Canadian icon” and “national treasure” are often used as lazy shorthand to refer to those artists who’ve made some sort of impact on our country’s music scene. But Kate McGarrigle was one of the awe-inspiring few who truly deserved those epithets — and then some.
Moi, j’me promene sur Ste Catherine
J’profite d’la chaleur du métro
J’ne regarde pas dans les vitrines
Quand il fait trente en d’ssous d’zero.
Me, I walk along St. Catherine [street]
Getting the warmth from the Metro
I don’t look in shop windows
When it’s 30 below zero.
“Complainte pour Ste. Catherine” (1977)
Video of Kate McGarrigle, with Rufus and Elvis Costello a year ago.