What’ll I Do

• DOWNLOAD | KATE & ANNA McGARRIGLE “What’ll I Do” (feat. Rufus & Martha Wainwright) The McGarrigle Hour, 1998

I’m super busy over the next couple of days so I won’t have time to write anything substantial, but I did want to acknowledge the passing of Kate McGarrigle — mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and a legendary folk singer in her own right. As a member of the audience when Rufus performed Judy at Carnegie Hall, I remember seeing the absolute love in his eyes when he brought his mother out to play piano on “Over the Rainbow”; I admired — and, truthfully, envied — their brilliant rapport. She was also as resilient as I suspected:

[McGarrigle’s doctor] paid tribute to her, saying: “Kate was a remarkable and warm woman, who pursued everything in life with humour and grace.” He said that McGarrigle, despite being “gravely ill,” played a three-and-a-half-hour show at the Royal Albert Hall last month. “I was amazed by her courage and stamina.”

It was obvious that Kate McGarrigle held that family together, and I had to take a break from what I was doing to appreciate that.