ROOTS

Kate and Anna McGarrigle: "Metapedia"

Hannibal, HNCD 1394 (45 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1641

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Warner Bros 9362-45677-2 (36 mins) - Dial a track code: 1751

Kate and Anna McGarrigle: "French Record"

Hannibal, HNCD 1302 (37 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1861

Something new, something old and something in between. But first, a short tale. A few weeks ago, leafing through the racks of folk CDs in a nearby store, I came across Kate and Anna McGarrigle's eponymous debut. I had seen it in many stores countless times through the years, but had always managed to sidestep the temptation to purchase, preferring not to risk disturbing the memory of emotional honesty, spine tingling harmonies and heart moving melodies and the times they evoked. As one gets older one is entitled to such childish thoughts. As usual, however, I examined it and was shocked to discover that it was 21 years since its release in 1975. As it had come of age, so to speak, I felt it right to test my own memories and so invested. And folks, let me tell you that this album has lost none of its remarkable appeal to the years. It remains a desert island disc, an inspired folk rock tribute to life, loving and losing.

Cut to 1996 and the McGarrigles have delivered their first new album in six years. The 21 years have not been as kind to the Canadian sisters as we would have expected in those innocent, expectant days of the middle 1970s. Alter their debut they recorded the excellent Dancer With Bruised Knees before slipping out of the main frame with subsequent releases. They bobbed up again occasionally, notably for the totally French Canadian flavoured French Record which remains a fine effort, but the weight of their early work seemed to overburden expectations. It never quite sounded the same or maybe we just weren't listening with the same ears.

Metapedia is different. But it is also the same. The release of this album shows that the McGarrigles' creative pulse is beating again. This is an album of rare power - the kind of power that sends shivers down your spine. The themes arc those of middle age: children, memories, loving, death and our role in the whole game. As ever it is open heart surgery without any hint of self consciousness or guile. And though it is an album with flaws and blemishes, wears them, like its unabashed emotions, honestly. The title comes from Kate and Anna's intriguing opening song, a perfectly paced and beautifully constructed slice of memory that has at its centre the Metapedia river which flows through eastern Quebec. This sets the standard for the following nine tracks. It rarely falters.

Anna's Goin Back To Harlan, covered so well by Emmylou Harris on her Wrecking Ball collection last year, gets a slightly different though no less enchanting reading, while Kate's I Don't Know is, perhaps, a mother's knowing advice to a daughter about the vagaries of love. Anna throws in a couple of love songs, notably The Bike Song and a particularly vivid Song For Gaby about the death of their mother, plus a brilliantly produced piece of humanistic outrage, Why Must We Die? On a different tack, Kate celebrates life (and loving) in the initially awkward Talk About It, which is the last thing she wants to do, while Anna sings the only cover - and the only song in French - Philippe Tatartcheff's moody Arbre.

However, the centrepiece of the album is the remarkable Jacques Et Gilles, Kate's wonderfully moving tale of the tribulations of the early Quebecois who had to move to the woods of New Hampshire to earn American money". Pierre Marchand's atmospheric production builds a picture of hard times and the hopes and dreams which kept the reluctant immigrants going. In particular, Marchand's accordion strikes a note of sadness that is hard to forget, as the thrilling harmonies and Kate's sensitively modulated voice. Indeed, this is an album which lingers long in the mind after the final notes have faded. Investment is recommended. (The McGarrigles, supported by Kate and Loudon Wainwright's son, Rufus Wainwright, play in Galway's Roisin Dubh on October 29th and then Whelan's, Dublin on October 30th and 31st.)