Emmylou Harris to Present Award to Legendary Sisters
at Folk Alliance Conference in Montreal on February 24

ASCAP & SOCAN Join Together to Present Performance by McGarrigles and Harris

The ASCAP Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of Folk Music will be presented to Canada's Kate & Anna McGarrigle at Strictly Mundial, the 17th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Montreal on Thursday, February 24. On hand to pay musical tribute and present the award to the singing and songwriting sisters will be their longtime friend and admirer, Emmylou Harris. The performance will be a co-presentation of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada). Previous recipients of The ASCAP Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Folk Music have been Dave Van Ronk, Eric von Schmidt and Tom Paxton.

For thirty years, the songs and recordings of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, in both English and French, have been enjoyed by devoted fans around the world. Among the artists who have recorded their songs are Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur and Nana Mouskouri. Some of their best-known titles are: "Heart Like a Wheel," "Goin' Back to Harlan," "Complainte pour Ste. Catherine," "Love Over and Over," "Heartbeats Accelerating," "Talk to Me of Mendocino" and "On My Way to Town."

Kate and Anna were born in Montreal and brought up in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Québec in the Laurentian Mountains. They emerged as popular folk performers in Montreal in the 1970s and, after Maria Muldaur and Linda Ronstadt began recording their songs, Kate and Anna issued their own landmark debut in 1976, Kate & Anna McGarrigle. There have been numerous critically acclaimed albums since then, including Matapedia (1996), The McGarrigle Hour (1998) and Vache Qui Pleure (2003). In recent years, the children of Kate (Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright) and Anna (Lily Lanken) have become celebrated singer-songwriters in their own right.

The McGarrigle tribute at the Folk Alliance Conference will be followed by a special performance showcase called ASCAP Presents: Quiet on the Set. The showcase will feature up-and-coming and veteran performers. This year's lineup is: Peter Mulvey, Anais Mitchell, Sid Selvidge, Clare Burson, Lori McKenna and Bianca DeLeon.

About The ASCAP Foundation
The ASCAP Foundation supports the American composer and the development of American music through educational programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops, grants to young composers, music education programs, and public service projects for senior composers and lyricists. The ASCAP Foundation is supported by contributions from ASCAP members and music lovers throughout the United States.

About ASCAP
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading Performing Rights Organization in the U.S., representing the world's largest repertory which totals over 8 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 200,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. Additionally, ASCAP represents the works in the repertories of 70 affiliated foreign performing rights organizations created by many thousand affiliated international members. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. Unlike the other American Performing Rights Organizations, ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership every two years.

About SOCAN
SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective for the public performance of musical works. We administer the performing rights of our members (composers, lyricists, songwriters and their publishers) and those of affiliated international organizations by licensing the use of their music in Canada. The fees collected are distributed as royalties to our members and to affiliated performing rights organizations throughout the world. We also distribute royalties received from those organizations to our members for the use of their music worldwide. SOCAN has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Dartmouth.

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