January’s tribute to Kate McGarrigle, + new paintings

Kate McGarrigle died of cancer on monday, she was only 63. I discovered the McGarrigle sisters when I bought their debut album, ‘Kate and Anna McGarrigle’ in 1975. One of my favorite songs on that lp, ‘Talk to me of Mendocino’, presaged my long held dream to move to California, which I did – from 1997 to 2001. During all those years of listening to the song, I didn’t realize that South Bend, Indiana figured in the lyrics. My next move was to exactly that place in the midwest, just an hour or so outside Chicago.

Talk to Me of Mendocino, written by Kate McGarrigle
1975 Garden Court Music (ASCAP)

I bid farewell to the state of old New York
My home away from home
In the state of New York I came of age
When first I started roaming
And the trees grow high in New York State
And they shine like gold in the autumn
Never had the blues from whence I came
But in New York State I got ’em

Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes I hear the sea
Must I wait
Must I follow
Won’t you say come with me

And it’s on to South Bend, Indiana
Flat out on the western plain
Rise up over the Rockies 
And down on into California
Out to where but the rocks again
And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I’ll rise with it till I rise no more

Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes I hear the sea
Must I wait
Must I follow
Won’t you say come with me

A sensitive songwriter and lyricist, she could be both tender and funny. Her ‘Kiss and Say Goodbye’  helped to manage my equilibrium during many a youthful break-up.

Kiss and Say Goodbye

My newest pair of paintings, inspired again by music; Jean-Luc Ponty’s ‘Mirage’ from his 1977 LP, Enigmatic Ocean. In the deep of winter, the piece suggested mysterious blues and dioxazine purples, with that high note shock of cadmium red deep.

Mirage I, oil on canvas panel 9″x12″ 2010.

Mirage II, oil on canvas panel 9″x12″ 2010.