ANNA McGARRIGLE was one half of the acclaimed, award-winning folk
music duo Kate and Anna McGarrigle. She continues to write music
and perform. She is also a visual artist and makes short
videos.
JANE McGARRIGLE managed her younger sisters' music careers from the
late 1970s to the mid-1990s. During this time she co-wrote several
songs with the duo and performed with them in the studio and on
tours of Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.
“From the moment I met The Mountain City Girls, Kate, Anna and
Jane, I wanted to be a part of that magical McGarrigle circle—the
songs, the suppers, the families and fellow travellers, and they
blessed me with it all. This book is a charming history, written
with affection and wit by Anna and Jane, and now everyone can share
in the story of their lives and lineage. It is a love story really,
of a time, a place and a remarkable sisterhood that has given the
world some of its most unique and stunningly beautiful
music.” —Emmylou Harris
“Be it family history, beautiful snapshots from the early lives of
three remarkable women or significant slices of Canadian history
from the last two centuries, this book stacks up to at least be a
triple threat. Add music and humour, well, now that’s positively
formidable. Thanks for keeping the bar raised, ladies.” —Rufus
Wainwright
“Not many public figures become part of our ‘family
album.’ In Canada, the McGarrigle sisters have. We grew up
alongside them, went to their concerts, bought their
albums, and then got to listen to the amazing next generation.
We heard the sisters talk on the radio about ‘harmony’—it made you
feel you were living on a much more civilized planet. Their
songs—in English and French—became part of our dialogue, our
thought processes.” —Michael Ondaatje
“A detailed, intimate portrait of one of Canada’s great musical
families. Vivid with stories of a changing country, a transforming
Québec, all its real-life to-and-fro ringing with vibrant
music.” —Sean Michaels, author of Us Conductors
“I can still hear the warbling voices of the McGarrigle sisters
garnishing and haunting Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball album. Ah!
... those sweet moments of excellence. And now the history of that
talented family in the pages of Mountain City Girls. Their journey
to a sweet sound.” —Daniel Lanois
“As witty, intelligent and intimate as any McGarrigle
song, Mountain City Girls beckons the rest of us to come
hear the domestic music-making of an extraordinary Quebec
family. How lucky we are to be invited to this special
McGarrigle show.” —Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life
& Times
“Reading this book is like having a conversation with the
McGarrigles. It is quirky, intelligent, and full of
mischief.” —Linda Ronstadt
“The stark beauty of Saint-Sauveur in the Catholic Quebec of
another era comes to life as the young Kate, Anna and Jane
McGarrigle sit nightly at the piano with their father, singing and
playing instruments. I, an only child, loved the closeness of the
creative sisters who were best friends in their ramshackle home.
The sisters were perfect harmonizers because they seemed to share
musical brains and could anticipate what note the other would play
and sing. It was fascinating to read the biographical details of
what was going on in their adult lives when they penned such
classics as ‘Talk to Me of Mendocino’ and ‘Heart Like a
Wheel.’” —Cathy Gildiner, author of Too Close to the
Falls and After the Falls
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