Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Specializing in tart, tuneful songs that marry the resonance of folk to the emotional immediacy of everyday life, the McGarrigle sisters are probably the finest singer/songwriter team ever to go ignored by the American public. Well, not entirely ignored; Anna's "Heart Like a Wheel" is certainly well known to Linda Ronstadt fans, as is Kate's "(Talk to Me of) Mendocino." But Kate & Anna McGarrigle, the album that contains their versions of these songs, has, like much of their catalogue, spent more time out of print than in.

Given the marquee value of the guests on The McGarrigle Hour -- guests include Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt as well as Anna's ex, Loudon Wainwright III, and son, Rufus -- its relative lack of commercial success seems profoundly unfair. No matter. The McGarrigles' music has less to do with the ephemeral quality of fame than with the enduring values of family and tradition, a point deftly driven home by the homey, folk song–laden The McGarrigle Hour.

But being traditional doesn't mean emphasizing old songs, nor should the McGarrigles be mistaken for old-timey stylists such as the Watersons. Indeed, Heartbeats Accelerating sounds strikingly modern, both in its embrace of synths (as on the title track) and its ability to sketch the mundane truths of modern life ("I Eat Dinner"). Likewise, "Jacques et Gilles" and "Going Back to Harlan," from Matapedia, evoke a reality so vivid that even those with no personal connection to the landscapes (physical or psychological) will find themselves filled with longing as they hear each sad, sweet melody.

Being Quebecers, the McGarrigles are as attached to French as to English, and regularly slip franco-phone tunes into their albums, as on Love Over and Over, where they do a delightful translation of Bob Seger's "You'll Accompany Me." They've also released two albums with no English songs whatsoever. French Record mixes new recordings such as the bittersweet "Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse" with francophone selections from their first three albums. La Vache qui pleure -- the title is a joke on the "Laughing Cow" cheese brand -- is, by contrast, a fully realized album and brings a strong taste of Acadian folk tradition into what are otherwise contemporary songs about love, longing, and domestic life. C'est merveilleux. (J.D. CONCIDINE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide