Your Sister 39;s A Six Song

[Ludivina Speed]

Wetry to pick a key that fits all our ranges so nothing is too low or high. Then we get some basic parts lined out for the skeleton of the song and then start brainstorming on variations and messing with different chord choices.

I am very late in coming into the Quebe Sisters scene. I heard a concert on PBS you did in the cave. Now you are on my UTube playlist. Thank you for your love and dedication to an almost lost music. Continue to spread the joy. Bless you in your work and fun.

Had never heard of the Quebe Sisters maybe 2006 & they had a very small part in the Play Ride with Bob Wills by Ray Benson they stole the show with there Harmony & have seen them several times over the Yrs They make it looks so easy they remind me of the Andrew Sisters

Been a long time fan of the Quebe Sisters. I am from San Angelo, Texas and fell for these lovely ladies the first time I heard them. I just saw them perform in Buffalo, NY last evening. Seeing these artists perform live and meeting them after the show was the treat of a lifetime. They are amazingly talented and gracious. Hats off to these fellow Texans. You capture the spirit of our Lone Star State, and share it with others in a most magnificent way. I wish you continued success and cannot wait to see you perform again! Happy Trails!

Hi to you girls just discovered you and your music via internet due to being housebound because of coronavirus we live in greenvale a suburb of melbuorne victoria australia yes we do have internet down here thank god so thank you for great music with professional presentation we get great delight in watching your videos

I'm going to take this song to a really dark place. I've always been a Mazzy Star fan but hadn't heard All Your Sisters until a really dark day. It got me through unbearable pain and related to me when I felt no one else could understand. I feel it came to me for a reason. It led me to conclude that this is what this song is about or something related:

-Being in a abusive/toxic relationship with a man. A man who isn't even faithful to you and has other women in his trap who are in a sense, your sisters because you're all controlled by him. Maybe even a man who is sociopathic to an extent. Think of Charles Manson and his ability to convince his harem of women to murder for him. Do anything for him.

"and I knew I was close to you/and I knew" - The love and connection the woman feels she has to the man that makes her feel like she should stay. The illusion of love he has created that she thinks is truth. It makes it so hard to let go of him no matter what pain he causes her, because she thinks she KNOWS for a fact that no one can love her like he did.

"catch me flying in the sun/catch me drinking of your wine"- When he does give her moments of affection, it feels euphoric like she is a bird flying in the sun. She clings to those small moments. Drinking of his wine...the wine is like a metaphor for his toxicity, his problems...his negative influence. She is drinking all his negativity and it is impairing her judgment. It's dragging her down.

"I'm gonna put something in you/make the devil feel surprised" - He is now able to control her and manipulate her to do things she would never normally do...she lets him control her sexually, emotionally, etc. She'd do anything to please him. This isn't her. She normally has morals, standards for how she is treated, etc. The devil is even surprised she is doing these things for him, that she has thrown all her self respect away because she is normally a really happy person. Maybe the devil is surprised that he has put such a sorrow inside her. Such an emptiness. Maybe he has introduced her to hard drugs she's never done before and never thought she would, other immoral things.

"all yous sisters wanna fly/around my golden sky"- She is with him at the moment, she thinks of him as her golden sky. All the other women or "sisters" that he has abused that he has on/off relationships with are jealous, angry. Sometimes that is her when he is with them instead of her. He's always going back and forth between women. They are sisters connected by their abuser and the pain they share but instead they feel like enemies.

"just because you feel hollow inside/it's real"- What she tells herself.Even though she feels so hollow, he gives her so much pain...she feels like the love is real. She feels like she can't turn her back on her love. It's so controlling and strong over her. She tells herself even though she feels so empty, it has got to be real. How could she be being deceived? How can this love not be true when she feels it so strongly?

I love this song, but what the hell is it even about? Maybe that's the whole point. The music is gorgeous, but it's meant to be hazy and confusing lyrically. Maybe I'm too dumb to figure it out. It sounds almost like she has intentions to haunt someone.

The fact that she's being "caught" drinking of his wine implies that she's not really supposed to be. And then the whole devil bit feels like she's saying she's gonna absolutely blow his mind.This is out of left field, but the song in general, especially with the sisters and hollowness thrown in there, feels like it's about jealousy.

I think it's about knowing a person is your soul mate or twin flame but they don't realize it, yet. You wish they would be more receptive to that emptiness, you too, feel, and in the song the girl has determination. She is willing to be burnt and the devil may not want them to fill that emptiness, but she knows it has to happen and her persistence will surprise him, the devil. I think the sisters may be those who are jealous of the dynamics of the singer and the one she sings of, they too want to fill that void, but they see her and know that these two are written in the stars. God,this is amazing song. No, I am not high, but I occasionally enjoy some Mary jane. ;-)

A. "catch me drinking of your wine", I think the phrase 'your wine' is important because it implies there's something unique about the intoxication she feels in relation to the person. Drinking someone's wine might be like you're convinced by and adoring of their insanity / sense of overt enchantment. I feel like someone who is infatuated with another could be said to have 'drunk from their spirits'.

B. the fact that they're not supposed to be drinking the wine at all, hence why they were 'caught', implies that they shouldn't be together at all, especially not with how much of an influence he has on her.

I do not know who the sisters are or why they want to fly around her golden sky, but the part about surprising the devil makes me feel like she's planning to do something so insidious, not even the Godfather of Evil could have seen it coming.

and i knew i was close to you (I know you love my music, I am close to your heart)and i knew (I know THE SECRET, someday youll come looking)catch me flying in the sun (the secret is Lucifer, whoops, you caught me)catch me drinking of your wine (I'm the rich guy you hate)

i'm gonna put something in you (Im gonna brain wash you)make the devil feel surprised (to hate my enemy)all your sisters wanna fly (you love my beliefs)around my golden sky (you love the church of the light)around my golden sky (you want to follow the light)

Spirit answers the empty spaces, is found in the empty spaces, can fill them up, and she has Intentions of reaching this space where she can "make the devil seem surprised" - transform her hollow loneliness to one of real 'light" [flying in the sun / my golden sky]

"All your sisters wanna fly" - a reference to women, sisterhood, recognition we all have these feelings of hollowness inside - perhaps for various reasons, or perhaps from being women, wanting to feel fulfilled by more than a man alone

TERRY GROSS, host: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. I've been listening to the beautiful music that Kate and Anna McGarrigle made together. The two sisters started recording in the mid-'70s. They never became as famous as their song, "Heart Like a Wheel," which was a big hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1974, but the McGarrigles had a devoted following in the U.S. and in Canada, where they're from. Kate died a year and a half ago of sarcoma. Two tribute concerts are scheduled for this week, featuring such performers as Norah Jones, Jimmy Fallon, Emmylou Harris, Teddy Thompson, Anna McGarrigle and Kate's children Martha and Rufus Wainwright. A new three-CD set has been released, called "Tell My Sister." It collects the McGarrigles' early demo recordings, as well as their first two albums, their self-titled 1976 debut and their 1977 follow-up "Dancer with Bruised Knees." The cover a period when Kate was married to Loudon Wainwright and gave birth to Rufus. My guest, Anna McGarrigle, is going to talk with us about Kate and the songs they recorded together. Let's start with the demo version of "Heart Like a Wheel," which was written by Anna. (Soundbite of song, "Heart Like a Wheel") MCGARRIGLE SISTERS (Musicians): (Singing) Some say the heart is just like a wheel: When you bend it you can't mend it. And my love for you is like a sinking ship, and my heart is on that ship out in mid-ocean. They say that death is a tragedy. It comes once, and it's over. But my only wish is for that deep dark abyss 'cause what's the use of living with no true lover. When harm is done, no love can be won. I know it happens frequently. What I can't understand oh, please God hold my hand - why it should have happened to me. And it's only love, and it's only love that can wreck a human being and turn him inside out. Some say heart... GROSS: Anna McGarrigle, welcome back to FRESH AIR, and I'm so sorry about your sister and so glad that these albums have been reissued and that the demos are now available for us to hear. What's it been like for you to listen back to these sessions without her to listen to them with you? Ms. ANNA McGARRIGLE (Musician): Well, it took me a long time before I was able to listen to her sing at all, period. You know, this is after she died. It took me a few months. And then I had to do a lot of listening to things. And I just thought, well, I'm just going to grit my teeth and do this. But every now and then, I'd hear her sing something, and I would just - you know, sometimes it would be so unexpected. I wouldn't know why it was a particular song or the time of day or whatever. It's just - I'd break out in tears. GROSS: So the song that we just played, "Heart Like a Wheel," was the first song that you ever wrote. And the liner notes make it seem that you would never have written that song if it weren't for your sister, Kate. And she was in New York at the time, becoming part of the folk scene there. You were in Montreal. I think you were in art school at the time. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, I was just finishing up art school. GROSS: And so tell us how you were inspired to write a song because of Kate. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Well, the thing is she and Roma Barron had gone down to the Village just to see what was happening. And they had worked out a lot of blues stuff at piano and guitar, and they were really fantastic. And there'll be later demos down the line that they did. But she called me, and she said: Hey, everybody down here is writing their own songs because Dylan - we know, you know, we were big followers of Dylan. But when he came along, you know, it made it hard for anybody else to measure up to his talents. So people just didn't bother writing songs. You know, we were in folk groups, and we'd always sing covers and covers of Dylan. But somehow by 1969, there were a lot of people who were out there just, you know, writing new kinds of I guess you could call it new folk because it wasn't really sort of traditional folk. And so when she told me that, I just, I ran with the idea and sat down at the piano, which I never actually was able to get on because in our house, a lot of people played the piano, and I was, like, the last one to get on it. But I had to wait for everybody to go away. (Soundbite of laughter) Ms. McGARRIGLE: And they were all gone. So I was able to play it. GROSS: So it's a great song. You know, if everybody could write such a great song as their first song, what a world it would be. But had anybody actually said to you, you know, that the heart is just like a wheel, when you bend it, it can't be mended? You know, because... Ms. McGARRIGLE: No, nobody had ever said that. But I think I was thinking about a bicycle, and it's true that once you've bent that wheel, you ain't ever going to roll right again. And that - I thought of the heart as being the same way. And at the time, I was having a bit of heartbreak, so... GROSS: Oh, do you want to tell us what happened? Ms. McGARRIGLE: No. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: OK, fair enough. So, so - and then eventually down the line, Linda Ronstadt ended up having a really big hit with this. It was the title track of a very popular album. So how did she get the song? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Well, Kate and Roma worked it up. They came back to Montreal, and I played it for them up in my mother's place in St. Sever. They did a really lovely version and actually made a couple demo tapes in studios in New York because they were looking for a deal at the same time, too. And anyway, so people heard the demos, and I - the story is that Jerry Jeff Walker had either heard them or heard a demo, and he played it for Linda Ronstadt. GROSS: And I guess she liked it. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, she did, although she always used to say a lot of people thought it was a really awful song. (Soundbite of laughter) Ms. McGARRIGLE: I think what it is, it's very artless in a way because I think Roma had pointed this out. I was sort of changing metaphors in mid-ocean or whatever. And - but that didn't bother me because that's - I was just writing from the heart. GROSS: Right, in terms of changing metaphors, it's like the heart is like a wheel, and my heart is on a ship out in that ocean. (Soundbite of laughter) Ms. McGARRIGLE: That's right. GROSS: OK. So it sounds like you hadn't necessarily thought seriously about a music career, about, you know, performing a lot when your sister was in New York looking for a recording deal. And it was only through accident, through a mistake, really, that you ended up recording with her. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes because we used to sing backup in a folk group in Montreal. But by 1969, I was definitely not singing, and Kate and Roma, you know, had become a sort of duo. And then when Kate - after Kate got married in 1979, and they moved to London, she and Loudon moved to London, she lost a baby, their marriage broke up temporarily, she came back to Montreal. And then, sooner or later, Rufus was born, and it was after that that she still wanted - she wanted to do something in music. And at that point, we already had three covers, I think, of our songs. So we weren't exactly chopped liver. People took us seriously because Maria Muldaur had recorded "The Work Song," and then she did a song that I wrote with a friend called "Cool River." And "Heart Like A Wheel" had just come out on Linda Ronstadt's record. So we were a known quantity at that point. She said to me: I don't want to do this by myself. So - and I wasn't really doing much of anything. So I said sure. GROSS: So because she didn't want to perform by herself, you joined her? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes. I would never have done this on my own, never. GROSS: Why not? Did you not, were you not interested in that kind of life, or did you not have faith in your voice, or...? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yeah, I mean, I didn't - for one thing, I wasn't a very good musician. I mean, I could sort of accompany myself badly, and I could sing, and I could harmonize easily enough. And I didn't have an amazing voice. But I think together we sounded nice, and I think she convinced me that it would be, I don't know, that it would be a good thing to do. GROSS: Well, you harmonize so beautifully together, and I thought I'd play something from the demo recordings that have just been released as part of the box "Tell my Sister." And this is a traditional song that I guess you figured out your own arrangement for. And it's called "Rose Blanche," "White Roses," and before we hear it, tell us something about how you learned this song. Ms. McGARRIGLE: You know, I think that Kate may have sung this once not really for a soundtrack for the National Film Board, but it was possibly something that they were thinking of using because she had done a couple of soundtracky type things. And I think she and I knew the song because when we sang in this folk group in Montreal, we had two or three French songs in our repertoire, and that would have been one of them. GROSS: So who's singing the high part, and who's singing the low part? Ms. McGARRIGLE: We switch. GROSS: Wow. Ms. McGARRIGLE: We switch back and forth, yeah. GROSS: OK, well, these are two sisters harmonizing beautifully, and you'll be hearing Anna McGarrigle and her late sister Kate McGarrigle, and this is from a demo that's on the new box-set, "Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Tell My Sister." (Soundbite of song, "Rose Blanche") Ms. ANNA McGARRIGLE and Ms. KATE McGARRIGLE (Singers-Songwriters): (Singing in foreign language). GROSS: That's "Rose Blanche," sung by my guest Anna McGarrigle with her late sister Kate McGarrigle, and that's a demo recording from the very beginning of their career, and that's been released, along with their first two albums, in a new box-set called "Tell My Sister." And there's a memorial concert for Kate McGarrigle May 12th and 13th in New York. So as we could hear from that recording, you sound so much like sisters. Your voices, they sound so similar. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, I think what it is, you know, you find your place in the family. Kate was the youngest. I was the middle. And our sister Janie was the eldest. And the three of us actually sounded very nice together, as did, you know, Kate and I sounded nice together. And it's just you find your voice, you know, in more ways than one. You find the note, and you also find your - well, the way you're going to be. GROSS: Well, you were very close in age, also. You were a year older. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yeah, we're 14 months apart, yeah. GROSS: My guest is Anna McGarrigle. We'll talk more about the music she made with her late sister Kate after a break. This is FRESH AIR. (Soundbite of piano music) GROSS: My guest is Anna McGarrigle. For over four decades, she performed with her sister Kate, who died a year and a half ago of sarcoma. Their early demos and their first two albums, recorded in the mid-'70s, are collected on a new three-CD box-set called "Tell My Sister." So were you and your sister competitive as singers, or did you enjoy singing together and feel like you were better together than individually? Ms. McGARRIGLE: You know, I think when we started out, we probably didn't think too, too much about it. Kate was definitely more competitive than I was. But I think that she also appreciated the fact that maybe I wasn't as competitive. I think if I had been very competitive, we probably wouldn't have worked very well together. GROSS: It sounds like Kate was more of the traveler, more of the adventurer. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yeah, Kate was fearless. You know, I have no idea, if I hadn't had a sister, a younger sister, would I have been different? I don't know. I have a feeling -you know, Kate was very - she was God, she was a hyperactive child, even though later on in life she was the kind of person that would sleep in or fall asleep on the couch or something, whereas I could never - as I got older, I got more nervous. So it's strange. We kind of switched places. GROSS: You mostly stayed in Montreal. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, I did. GROSS: And she lived in several places and wrote about coming and going places. And I want to play one of her songs about leaving, and this is a song called "Tell my Sister," and it's about leaving London, leaving England, anyways, to come home. And the refrain is: Tell my sister to tell my mother I'm coming home alone. Is this song based on a real story? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, it is. Kate and Loudon, after they got married in 1971, moved to London. And she was expecting a baby. She lost the baby at about five and a half, six months. GROSS: When she was pregnant with - it was a miscarriage, or? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yeah, a miscarriage. And her marriage kind of fell apart at that point. I think Loudon decided he didn't really want to be married. And now that this had happened... Anyway, so she did come home alone, and the other thing is, like, when Kate wanted to get out of a tight situation because she was often - I'm not saying she was often in tight situations. She didn't like to disappoint people. So if she wanted to leave a job or something, she would always say: You're the oldest and more responsible one. You tell so-and-so that I can't do such-and-such. So I would be the one to do that. And then she would, you know, sort of scoot off and be free. But so in this way, she sang. She doesn't want to tell my mother. So she says tell my sister to tell my mother. GROSS: Well, this is a really beautiful song. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yeah, it's great. GROSS: So we'll hear Kate McGarrigle singing lead on "Tell My Sister," and Anna, you sing some harmony on this. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes. And Kate is also at the piano. GROSS: This is "Tell My Sister." (Soundbite of song, "Tell My Sister") Ms. ANNA McGARRIGLE and Ms. KATE McGARRIGLE (Singers-Songwriters): (Singing) Weatherman on the radio threatens rain, maybe snow. He don't know. I need blue skies. I've got to go. I'm not a cowboy, I've never been shot. I'm not a convict, I've never been caught. Tell my sister to tell my mother I'm coming home, home, alone. Sunday morning, I boarded a plane, leaving London, England, in the rain. Tell my sister to tell my mother I'm coming home, home alone. GROSS: That's the McGarrigle sisters, "Tell My Sister," a song written by the late Kate McGarrigle, who also sang lead on it and was featured on piano. My guest Anna McGarrigle is singing harmony. And that's released on the new box-set "Tell My Sister," which features the McGarrigle sisters' first two albums and their first demos. Did singing together make you closer or create new conflicts as sisters? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Kate and I grew up, we were very, very close friends when we growing up. But then we became teenagers, we all sort of knew the same people, but we, you know, we weren't together 24 hours a day. And in fact, at one point, I wanted to get my own apartment. This is after my father had died. And my mother said: I want your sister to live with you because I want to go back to the country, because she was leaving Montreal. My mother was leaving Montreal. And I really didn't like the idea. I really, I was so looking forward to having my own place, and then suddenly, oop, here we are, Kate and Anna again in the same apartment. But we were just so completely used to each other that, you know, new conflicts, sometimes we'd argue about how to do things or how to go about doing things. But, you know, I think down deep, a lot of things didn't get done because, I don't know, we'd just move on to the next thing. You know, maybe sometimes we didn't solve all the problems. GROSS: My impression is there's probably a lot more drama in her life. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Certainly there was more drama at one point in her life, yeah. GROSS: Which point was that? Ms. McGARRIGLE: Well, when, you know, when she split up with Loudon the first time, she was walking around with peritonitis for about two months. And she and I were doing a few gigs, and she was living at my mother's place up in St. Sever. And we went into - you know, we went and did a couple of folk festivals together. And then it occurred to everybody that maybe she was sick. She had lost a lot of weight. She was running a fever from time to time. And my mother said let's go to my doctor. And anyway, so we went, and the doctor said don't expect to have children because she had, you know, blocked fallopian tubes or whatever. And she couldn't believe her ears. You know, here she was now told she couldn't have any children, and it just, it kind of broke her heart. So I think she just went out and tried to prove them all wrong, and she did. She came back and, you know, got back with Loudon, and suddenly she was pregnant again, this time with Rufus. GROSS: And she had two children, Rufus and Martha, who are both singers and songwriters. Ms. McGARRIGLE: Yes, yeah. GROSS: Anna McGarrigle will be back in the second half of the show. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. (Soundbite of music) GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with Anna McGarrigle. She's best known as half of the duo the McGarrigle Sisters, which performed their own songs. Anna's sister Kate died a year and a half ago of sarcoma. She was 63. Two concerts will pay tribute to Kate at Town Hall in New York this week, and a new three CD set has been released, collecting the McGarrigle Sisters' early demo recordings and their first two albums, their 1976 self-titled debut and their 1977 follow-up, "Dancer With Bruised Knees." The collection is called "Tell My Sister." It covers a period when Kate was married to singer and songwriter Loudon Wainwright and gave birth to their son Rufus, who has become a well-known singer and songwriter. Now we heard the song "Tell My Sister," which was about Kate coming home from England. You wrote a song, a beautiful song called "Kitty Come Home." And Kitty was Kate's childhood nickname. Ms. MCGARRIGLE: Yeah. A lot of people still called her Kitty. GROSS: Mm-hmm. So what's the story behind this song? Ms. MCGARRIGLE: Well, this is written after she and Loudon split up for good, and she was kind of at loose ends. She was living in New York City on 115th Street with the two children and Loudon was living in the country house and he had a girlfriend at the time. And my mother and I went down, we rented the biggest car we could rent and we went down, and we scooped her up and with the kids and all her belongings and we moved back to Montreal temporarily because I don't think she really want to stay here forever. And she rented an apartment and my mother helped her a lot with the children. And she would find girls who were mothers helpers and that because at this point we were already signed to Warner Brothers and we were about to start in our second record, "Dancer With Bruised Knees." So anyway, I wrote "Kitty Come Home" because of that thing. I was - I guess I was really angry. GROSS: Angry at? Ms. MCGARRIGLE: Angry at her husband for whatever reasons. You know, I mean I wasn't - I don't know all the exact causes of their breakup, but I just felt terribly for her with the two young children and it just kind of broke my heart, and I thought, well, come back here. At least people love you here. GROSS: Well, it's a beautiful song. And it's a song by my guest Anna McGarrigle. We'll hear her singing lead and featured at the piano with Kate McGarrigle playing organ. (Soundbite of song, "Kitty Come Home") Ms. MCGARRIGLE: (Singing) No scheme and no direction with only one way to turn. Pack up all your children. Come home to our love and concern. Kitty come home. No being however mighty, where chaos reigns alone, will see his feeble love grow when cast upon a stone. Kitty come home. Home, Kitty come home. GROSS: That's Anna McGarrigle singing her song "Kitty Come Home," with Kate McGarrigle featured on organ and piano. And Kate died a year ago January. And there's a concert in her memory that will be given May 12th and 13th in New York. The McGarrigle Sisters first two albums have just been reissued along with their first demo recordings. It's a three CD set and it's called "Tell My Sister." You know, we talked a little bit about how Kate had lived in several places and had some songs about coming and going. And you read a passage from "On the Road," Kerouac's "On the Road" at her funeral. Was that a passage that she particularly loved? Ms. MCGARRIGLE: You know, I don't know whether she liked that particular passage, but I think he talks about the dangle doadies, who are these, you know, the people that he's attracted to, the people, you know, who burn with a kind of artistic ambition and who are, you know, sort of kinetic energy. And I think of Kate as being that kind of person. If you met Kate on the street you would want to know her because she had that kind of power, that aura about her. Anybody that met her never forgot her and she made sure that you didn't forget her. She wanted to be - she wanted to make an impression on people. GROSS: What about yourself? Ms. MCGARRIGLE: You know, less so. I'm not driven the same way. I'm a completely different animal. GROSS: You know, it's funny, she'd been married to Loudon Wainwright and they had two children together and, you know, had a difficult separation. And when you compare their songs, their s