Kate and Anna McGarrigle are featured on a new stamp released by the Canada Post today. The stamp is the latest in a series honoring outstanding Canadian singer-songwriters and performers who have won accolades in Canada and abroad. American Songwriter gives the three-disc McGarrigle set Tell My Sister four stars. SPIN rates it a nine out of ten, citing the sisters' "eccentric genius." Uncut credits their "sublime voices, combined in the effortless harmonies that only siblings seem able to provide."
Canadian singer-songwriters Kate and Anna McGarrigle are featured on a new stamp released by the Canada Post today, pictured at left. The stamp is one of four in the third installment of the Post's popular Canadian Recording Artists stamp series, honoring outstanding Canadian singer-songwriters and performers who have won accolades on Canadian stages and abroad. Also included in today's release are Bruce Cockburn, Robbie Robertson, and Ginette Reno.
Each stamp features a monochromatic photo of the artist alongside their Order of Canada insignia—the sisters were invested with the Order in 1994—as well as titles from some of their most well-known song titles, like the McGarrigles' "Heart Like a Wheel." To see additional images of the stamp, visit nonesuch.com/media. To purchase copies of the new stamp, go to canadapost.ca.
The Montreal Gazette includes among the highlights of last Friday's Fête Nationale party in Montreal's Maisonneuve Park a number of Francophone songs written by the McGarrigles and performed by Kate's children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, like "Complainte pour Ste-Catherine," which can be heard on the Nonesuch three-disc set Tell My Sister.
Tell My Sister comprises newly remastered editions of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's beloved 1976 self-titled debut and its equally praised 1977 follow-up, Dancer with Bruised Knees, plus a third disc of previously unreleased songs and demos. To pick up a copy, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.
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American Songwriter magazine gives Tell My Sister four stars. The first two albums from Kate and Anna McGarrigle, included on the new set, "are now considered underground masterpieces," writes reviewer Roger Hahn. "But it’s Tell My Sister, the third disc here, that’s the real revelation—a fresh-sounding, awe-inspiring collection of demos, unreleased tracks, and acoustic interpretations that still feels remarkably relevant and compelling."
Hahn goes on to say that this third disc "makes it clear the McGarrigles' prevailing vibe is channeled almost directly from Stephen Foster," concluding that what made these sisters "iconic" is "an unmistakably vulnerable presentation of deep longing and faith-based devotion expressed through the medium of charming and utterly delightful 19th-century parlour songs."
Read the complete review at americansongwriter.com.
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SPIN magazine gives Tell My Sister a nine out of ten, with reviewer Andrew Hultkrans crediting Kate and Anna McGarrigle with having "influenced everyone from Emmylou Harris to Nick Cave. The McGarrigles' songs are deceptively simple, but their inventive arrangements, unpredictable harmonizing, and hints of chanson reveal an eccentric genius." Read the review at spin.com.
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What brought their early critical acclaim, says Uncut's Neil Spencer in a review of Tell My Sister, "was firstly a pair of sublime voices, combined in the effortless harmonies that only siblings seem able to provide ... Clear, confident but wry, the voices were inseparable from songs that dealt coolly with break-up ('Go Leave,' 'Kiss and Say Goodbye'), bore sadness stoically ('Heart Like a Wheel') and recognised beauty with wistful joy ('(Talk to Me Of) Mendocino')." Read the review at uncut.co.uk.
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