***1/2 Kate and Anna McGarrigle

MATAPEDIA

(Hannibal/Rykodisc)

The current of Quebec's Matapedia River is suggested by the percussion-driven rhythm of the Irish/French-Canadian soeurs' most rustic -- and least precious -- album ever. Ghosts of traditional balladry hover overhead, especially on Anna's atmospheric "Goin' Back to Harlan," where waltzing fiddle lends a more mountainous feel than Emmylou Harris gave the song on her Wrecking Ball.

Part sung, part spoken, Kate's "Jacques et Gilles" is a scathing historical portrait of ignorance, ethnic bigotry, and religious exploitation. Borrowing the tune from the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill," it shows homesick French-Canadian scabs shivering in New England mills as a wistful accordion plays the melody to a banished French-Canadian's lament, "Un Canadien Errant." Their pain digs far deeper than the sweet tristesse of their long-ago "Dancer with Bruised Knees." Science and sorrow fuse on "Why Must We Die?", a song haunted by their mother's specter. Quiet but intense, the eccentric sisters' first CD in six years is well worth the wait.

-- Bruce Sylvester

(Kate and Anna McGarrigle play the Somerville Theatre this Sunday, November 10, and the Iron Horse in Northampton the following day, November 11.)