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was doing a show at the Barbican and the next night we did a little show in Oxford Circus for press. I did- n’t feel well and started getting contractions on stage, but I fluffed them off because I didn’t want to scare anyone. But we went to the hospital right after the show and there we stayed for two and a half months. He’s fine now though.”
“I It turned out to be a momentous time in McGarrigle family his-
tory. A few weeks after Arc was born, Martha was appearing at a McGarrigles cancer charity Christmas show at the Royal Albert Hall with the rest of the family, earning a standing ovation for the NHS when she recounted the story of Arc’s birth. It was, though, a bitter- sweet night – the last time her mother Kate McGarrigle ever appeared on stage.
“I think that night she performed better than she had in many, many years because she knew that was the last time and right after that trip to London, she got home, got into bed and just deteriorated. She shrunk and shrunk and shrunk, so that was really her swansong.”
Kate stopped the show that night in London with a new song
Proserpina – the last she ever wrote – which Martha subsequently recorded, a line from which provided the title of her 2012 album, Come Home To Mama.
“It was a very odd and terrifying time, but having the baby
made it easier,” she says. “A friend sent me a mix-CD which me and the baby would listen to at night time and it would sort of waft around the house. It’s a hard time when you’re nursing and it can be a bit sad, but it’s nice to have this music that the two of us shared.”
The roots of Songs In The Darkwere thus planted. She thought it would be a good idea to record some of the songs on that mix-CD and asked Lucy if she fancied getting involved and finding extra material. And somewhere along the way it all got darker.
“The songs I gravitated to on the mix-CD were the most depress-
ing ones, maybe because I was feeling so low, but also because a lot of lullabies are depressing, at least the older ones are. I looked into the reason for that and, you know, children needed to be warned of the horrific truths of life and I thought that was a really important lesson to give to children. Let them know bad things will happen as a way of preparing them. I guess because children in the past were more exposed to death in families, so I thought it was a neat idea. I asked Lucy to find songs too and the pre-requisite was that they were about children in some way. It’s music for adults but it can be for chil- dren, as long as the lyrics are quiet. They’re not all depressing…”
Like El Condor Pasa…
“Yes, Lucy came up with that one – we thought it would be good to have a song on the record that people recognise and it might sell a few more copies. Although nobody buys records any more so that probably won’t happen. But it’s always fun to sing a recognisable song because it makes you feel famous.”
It’s over four years since she released an album of her own mate- rial and if we were cynical (and of course we’re not, oh no) we might be suggesting that an album of covers camouflages a paucity of new songs of her own. She doesn’t deny it too strenuously.
“It’s hard to be a prolific writer with two children. I don’t view
the world as an artist first or as a songwriter first. I don’t walk around with a book and sit in a café and stare at people and try and imagine what they’re thinking. I go about my daily life making kids sand- wiches and then think – god, I should really write a song and then I try to filter in what I’ve experienced into song.”
“Actually I like other people’s music more than my own. I’ve always sung other people’s music. It’s a big tradition coming out of folk music, of course. And being Rufus’s back-up singer or just being surrounded by other musicians it’s hard to get a word in edgeways, so I’m used to interpreting people who are considered better than me, ha ha!”
Inevitably we talk about the family and the Wainwright-McGar- rigle musical dynasty. She seemed pre-destined to be a musician. Did she never want to rebel?
“Try as you might it would be impossible not to do it because I’m very lazy – music seemed the most obvious and uncreative choice. I was good at other subjects in school, but not that good. Not good enough to do anything other than sing and dance. I had a math teacher in grade nine who was mad at me and he said, ‘What do you
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