Kate McGarrigle Dies At 63

Folk music legend Kate McGarrigle, mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, has died at 63.

The Canadian McGarrigle and her younger sister Anna started the duo Kate & Anna McGarrigle -- sometimes billed as the McGarrigle Sisters -- in the mid-1970s, creating a modern permutation of folk music notable for their crystalline harmonies. Their self-titled debut was a masterpiece of this new folk. The group recorded regularly in the '70s, though after 1983's Love Over and Over their output slowed. McGarrigle was married to singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III in the '70s; he is the father of Rufus and Martha. They divorced in 1976.

Here's an old clip of the entire family performing in a documentary about the Civil War. That's Rufus behind his mother.