Kate & Anna McGarrigle - The McGarrigle Christmas Hour (2005)

Kate and Anna McGarrigle have been performing their brand of folk, French Canadian ballads, waltzes, ragtime, and contemporary pop songs for more than three decades. In November 2005, Nonesuch Records released The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, a collection of traditional and contemporary holiday songs. It is a celebration of family and friends; among the many contributors are Emmylou Harris, Anna’s daughter Lilly Lanken, and Kate’s children Martha and Rufus Wainwright.

The 14 tracks on the album comprise a wide variety of holiday songs—Emmylou Harris sings “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and Kate and Anna, with their respective daughters Martha and Lily, harmonize the traditional French song “Il est né.” More modern tracks include Rufus’s original “Spotlight on Christmas” and his version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” as well as Martha and Lily’s rendition of Jackson Browne’s “Rebel Jesus.”

Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s work first came to international recognition in 1974 when Linda Ronstadt recorded “Heart Like a Wheel” as the title song to her album. Signed to Warner Bros., the sisters released the widely hailed Kate & Anna McGarrigle. The duo has released eleven albums over the course of their career, including 1998’s The McGarrigle Hour, which Entertainment Weekly called “a poignant meditation on the meaning of family and the power of shared history” and Rolling Stone described as “a highlight of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's amazing Brönte-folk career.” Their songs have been recorded by a variety of artists including Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, and Joan Baez.