Kate and Anna McGarrigle

This is the debut album of Montreal-born sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle, who have
provided Maria Muldaur and Linda Ronstadt with some of their best material. An original
crossbreeding of folk, blues and other early popular song styles, the album marks them as
traditionalists of the first order. Both sisters write striking, elemental tunes whose plainness
is underscored by their unaffected singing and by Joe Boyd's and Greg Prestopi... More >

A folkie apotheosis--dry and droll, tender, sweetly mocking its own sentiment, unfailingly intelligent. With melodies that are fetching rather than pretty (cf. Jean Ritchie) and lyrics that are not above a certain charming, even calculating, vulgarity (cf. Loudon Wainwright III). (Grade: A)