Dancer with Bruised Knees is a 1977 album by Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, were a pair of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed as a duo until Kate McGarrigle's death on January 18, 2010.-Profile:...

. It employed several notable folk musicians to contribute a bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 feel to many of the tracks. The album also includes three French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 songs, one by the McGarrigles with Philippe Tatartcheff

Philippe Tatartcheff

Philippe Tatartcheff is a Canadian poet and songwriter who grew up in Timmins, Ontario. His father, Dr. Michael Tatartcheff, was a physician and surgeon in Timmins, and his grandfather, Dr. Assen Tatartcheff, was a member of the Macedonian Liberation Front IMRE...

, and two traditional numbers.

Guest musicians included John Cale

John Cale

John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

, Dane Lanken

Dane Lanken

Dane Lanken is a Canadian journalist.He was a film critic for the Montreal Gazette from 1967 to 1977, and has since been a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Canadian Geographic, among other publications....

, Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

, Dave Mattacks

Dave Mattacks

Dave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...

 and Pat Donaldson

Pat Donaldson

Pat Donaldson is a bass guitarist.The 2i's Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, Soho was a legendary hang-out for early rock artists of Britain. It was here that Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and Terry Dean played. Albert Lee and Pat Donaldson played here while they were members of Bob Xavier and the...

.

Reception

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 said the album is "Not as tuneful as some might wish" but is nonetheless "Even better than the debut". He particularly complimented the studio techniques.

Track listing

Each song's writing credit is listed below.

1. "Dancer with Bruised Knees" – 3:46 - Anna
2. "Southern Boys" – 3:20 - Kate
3. "No Biscuit Blues" – 1:43 - William Dumaresq/Galt MacDermot
   Galt MacDermot
   Galt MacDermot is a Canadian composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song African Waltz in 1960. His most successful musicals have been Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona...
   
   
4. "First Born" – 3:55 - Kate
5. "Blanche comme la neige" – 3:44 - traditional, arrangement by Kate and Anna
6. "Perrine était servante" – 3:14 - traditional, arrangement by Kate and Anna
7. "Be My Baby" – 3:11 - Anna
8. "Walking Song" – 3:33 - Kate
9. "Naufragée du tendre" – 3:46 - Anna/Philippe Tatartcheff
   Philippe Tatartcheff
   Philippe Tatartcheff is a Canadian poet and songwriter who grew up in Timmins, Ontario. His father, Dr. Michael Tatartcheff, was a physician and surgeon in Timmins, and his grandfather, Dr. Assen Tatartcheff, was a member of the Macedonian Liberation Front IMRE...
   
   
10. "Hommage à Grungie" – 3:54 - Kate
11. "Kitty Come Home" – 4:36 - Anna
12. "Come a Long Way" – 2:17 - Kate

Personnel

• Bill Monroe
  Bill Monroe
  William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...
  
   - mandolin, tenor vocals
• Buddy Spicher
  Buddy Spicher
  Buddy Spicher is an American fiddle player.Spicher started in the late 50s as part of the backing band for Audrey Williams, the widow of Hank Williams, later with Hank Snow, the Charles River Valley Boys....
  
   - fiddle
• John Cale
  John Cale
  John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
  
   - organ on "Dancer with Bruised Knees"; marimba on "Be My Baby"
• Richard Davis - bass
• Grady Tate
  Grady Tate
  Grady Tate, , is a hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer.He has played with Lional Hampton, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Lena Horne, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, Chris Connor, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Cal Tjader, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Count...
  
   - drums
• Glen Duncan - fiddle
• Jesse McReynolds - mandolin, baritone vocals
• Sue Evans
  Sue Evans
  Sue Evans is an American jazz percussionist.Evans played piano before switching to drums. She studied under Warren Smith and Sonny Igoe, and graduated in 1969 from the High School of Music and Art. She was Judy Collins's touring drummer from 1969 to 1973, and worked with Gil Evans from 1969 to 1982...
  
   - percussion
• George Bohannon - horn
• Andrew Cowan - guitar
• Ron Doleman - violin
• Pat Donaldson
  Pat Donaldson
  Pat Donaldson is a bass guitarist.The 2i's Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, Soho was a legendary hang-out for early rock artists of Britain. It was here that Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and Terry Dean played. Albert Lee and Pat Donaldson played here while they were members of Bob Xavier and the...
  
   - bass
• Gordie Fleming - accordion
• Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
  
   - drums
• Emory Gordy, Jr.
  Emory Gordy, Jr.
  Emory Gordy, Jr., born December 25, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, is an American musician and music producer. Since 1989, he has been married to country music artist Patty Loveless. Gordy was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992...
  
   - bass
• Scot Land - guitar
• Dane Lanken
  Dane Lanken
  Dane Lanken is a Canadian journalist.He was a film critic for the Montreal Gazette from 1967 to 1977, and has since been a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Canadian Geographic, among other publications....
  
   - vocals
• Gilles Losier - bass, violin
• Dave Mattacks
  Dave Mattacks
  Dave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...
  
   - drums
• Hugh McCracken
  Hugh McCracken
  Hugh McCracken is a rhythm guitar player and session musician, arranger and producer based in New York.Especially in demand in the 60s, 70s and 80s, he appears on many recordings by Steely Dan, as well as albums by Donald Fagen, Jimmy Rushing, Billy Joel, Roland Kirk, Roberta Flack, B. B...
  
   - guitar
• Anna McGarrigle
  Anna McGarrigle
  Anna McGarrigle, CM is a Canadian folk music singer/songwriter who wrote and performed as a duo with her sister, Kate McGarrigle, until Kate's death in 2010.-Musical career:...
  
   - banjo, accordion, keyboards, vocals
• Kate McGarrigle
  Kate McGarrigle
  Kate McGarrigle, CM was a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter, who wrote and performed as a duo with her sister Anna McGarrigle....
  
   - guitar, piano, vocals
• Tommy Morgan - harmonica
• Ken Pearson - keyboards
• Warren Smith - percussion
• Chaim Tannenbaum - guitar, harmonica, mandolin, recorder, background vocals
• Clarence "Tater" Tate - bass vocals
• Jay Ungar
  Jay Ungar
  Jay Ungar is an American folk musician and composer. -Biography:Ungar was born in the Bronx , the son of immigrant Jewish parents from Eastern Europe. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s...
  
  - violin
• Michael Visceglia - bass
• Peter Weldon - banjo, harmonica, vocals
• Ian Whiteman - keyboards
• John Montgomery - bass
• Tom Ewing - acoustic guitar
• Wayne Lewis - acoustic guitar