Sarah McLachlan has a reaction very similar to the rest of us when she hears her most famous song, Angel.
And she doesn’t hear the recording very often, but yesterday, as a guest on CBC Radio’s daily program “Q”, she told host Tom Power, after he played a couple of bars, that she’s very proud of writing it.
She described it as, “one of my great songs, if not the best song I’ve ever written”.
“I feel grateful and I feel this flood of, kind of quiet joy”
She says she “channelled” it, that it came through her.
The plaintive hymn, released almost 10 years ago on the album Surfacing, went on to became the unofficial song of mourning after 9/11 attacks in New York City.
“It moves me every time I sing it,” McLachlan said. “I feel grateful and I feel this flood of, kind of quiet joy”.
She wrote it in a week in St. Sauveur, just north of Montreal. She was staying at Jane McGarrigle’s “little cottage” recuperating after being on the road touring for two years.
Jane McGarrigle is the older sister of folk duo, Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
ListenSarah McLachlan had read of the death of musician Jonathan Melvoin. The keyboard player in The Smashing Pumpkins, he died in his hotel room of a heroin overdose.
She felt great empathy she said, she could relate, and the story “broke her heart”.
Sarah McLachlan arrives on the red carpet at the Juno awards show, Sunday, April 2, 2017 in Ottawa. She was the 2017 Inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
McLachlan says people often stop her to tell how much the song means to them and how it got them through a tough time, perhaps losing a loved-one, or the funeral of a family member.
She recalled being on a Caribbean island for a holiday last winter and the local people so glad to have her as they’d used ‘Angel’ to help them through the post-hurricane season.
She’s also very proud of Lilith Fair. The travelling female music festival she organized, toured for three summers beginning in 1997.
She said it was instrumental (if you’ll pardon the pun) in changing the music business for the better, for women.
“We all got to feel like we were a part of something bigger than ourselves and in a really nurturing, loving environment.”
And she said, “It was fun”
(With files from CBC)
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.