Farewell Kate

Martha Wainwright, Kate McGarrigle, and Rufus Wainwright, photographed at the Paul Morissey estate in Montauk, New York, September 2006. Photograph by Mark Seliger. Vanity Fair Magazine

MONTREAL - Singer Kate McGarrigle's funeral will be held today at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.

The 63-year-old musician died at her Montreal home on Jan. 18 after a battle with cancer. McGarrigle's brother-in-law, Dane Lanken, earlier told The Canadian Press he expects singer Emmylou Harris to attend the service.

McGarrigle and her sister Anna became known as the McGarrigle Sisters and began their careers performing at Montreal coffeehouses in the 1960s with a group called the Mountain City Four.

Kate McGarrigle was invested with the Order of Canada in 1994, while she and Anna received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2004.

LOS ANGELES - Loudon Wainwright paid respect to his late ex-wife Kate McGarrigle as he accepted a Grammy Award on Sunday.

Wainwright won a trophy for best traditional folk album for his "High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project."

Wainwright closed his acceptance speech with a tribute to McGarrigle, the Montreal folk legend who died of cancer two weeks ago.
"I want to thank Kate McGarrigle, who taught me how to frail the banjo 40 years ago," Wainwright said. "Thank you very much."

Wainwright and McGarrigle married and separated during the 1970s and have two musician children: Martha and Rufus.

This video is the best, from my point of view, of Kate's work.



My daughter will be singing a Mozart piece in the chorus at Kate McGarrigle's funeral today in Montreal. Kate will be missed, I am saddened.

My daughter is not a singer (she is a clarinet player) but her voice class at McGill University had done the Mozart piece and knew it, so when the opportunity came up the professor asked the students to fill in with the regular choir.

FOLLOW UP:

MONTREAL — Rufus and Martha Wainwright both sang Monday at a funeral celebrating the life of their mother, renowned folk artist Kate McGarrigle.

"I will miss her smile, I will miss her hands," Rufus Wainwright told the congregation of about 500 gathered at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica.

"I will miss her reckless humour."

Martha Wainwright led a chorus of McGarrigle's last song, "Proserpina," and said she would always carry her mother in her thoughts and her heart.

Emmylou Harris, who covered McGarrigle's music, also performed at the two-hour service in honour of the singer, who died two weeks ago after a battle with cancer at age 63.

McGarrigle and her sister Anna became known as the McGarrigle Sisters and began their careers performing at Montreal coffeehouses in the 1960s with a group called the Mountain City Four.

Their first album, "Kate and Anna McGarrigle," was released in 1975 to critical acclaim. It was selected as one of the best albums of the year by London's Melody Maker and the New York Times.

Some of their most well-known tunes included "The Work Song," "Cool River" and "Lying Song."

But they were perhaps best-known to Canadians for their distinctive rendition of Wade Hemsworth's "The Log Driver's Waltz," which was featured in a 1979 animated short done by the National Film Board.

In addition to Harris, other artists who covered McGarrigle's songs included Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg.

While music played a prominent role in the funeral, Kate McGarrigle's personal qualities as a person and a mother were highlighted by speaker after speaker.

Rufus Wainwright said his mother was fearless about zeroing in on the truth of a situation and stating it.

And one of the most touching moments of the service came when Anna McGarrigle came to the podium to read a poem for her sister and noted with a touch of wistfulness, "Usually when I'm on stage, it's with Kate."