Kate and Anna McGarrigle. (RIP Kate 2010)

The box was a three-disc set w/the first two albums and a disc of demos/outtakes.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTIsIkm73TBU6zSuhvKS44JotKDkol5UdVi7Q&usqp=CAU

Tell My Sister

Overall, I consider myself a fan; but though the decline in quality wasn't steep or complete, I would include them on the list of "artists whose every record was weaker than the previous one" (caveat: I haven't heard the French albums).

Maybe Matapedia was an improvement on Heartbeats Accelerating? Certainly their best is their debut, and their 2nd is second-best.

I prefer the second album to the first, but they're both absolutely top-shelf

Xgau on a couple of collections:

Odditties [Querbeservice, 2010]
A hodgepodge segmented to make sense as a sampler, all recorded by 1990 and most well before, consisting of: 1) Four Stephen Foster weepers, two Civil War and two early death, harmonized prettily instead of tartly. They're saccharine, yes, but wittingly so, and exposure plus comparison with a Foster comp I like convinced me that this was the most effective rendering of 19th-century parlor music I knew. 2) Two by Canadian folk icon Wade Hemsworth, a McGarrigles staple in their Mountain City Four days--the first a waltz that motorvates plenty after those weepers, the second in 5/4 and over my fundament. 3) A Quebecois encore done live in '76 and a Cajun two-step studio-stomped. Both leap the language barrier. 4) Four lost McGarrigles songs, three by Anna and a collaborator, one by Kate alone. All are worthy, two wondrous: Anna's threnody for her cat Louis, which is slight, and Kate's love song to Martha and her dolls, which is wiry. Play it for someone you love on Mother's Day. But be sure to check it out yourself first. A-

Tell My Sister [Nonesuch, 2011]
Since these "demos and unreleased recordings 1971-1974" are part of a superbly designed and moderately priced little box that also includes their extraordinary Warner Bros. albums of 1976 and 1977, I should specify that my grade is for the bonus disc, which although it includes only five titles unavailable in later versions is one of the most useful I know. Much as I love the debut, its intelligent gloss is no longer needed to put the music across; on the demos, spare piano highlights voices we now know to be delectable without the subtlest sweetening. Proudly selling herself, Kate especially is more forthright and less cunning--and also, poignantly, younger. In a few cases--I'd name "Kiss & Say Goodbye," "Tell My Sister," and "Blues in E"--the demos are even preferable. Special thanks too for Chaim Tannenbaum's unheard "Annie." And then there's the great prize: Kate's newly unearthed "Saratoga Summer Song," a fond, funny, ruefully dissolute chronicle of a hippie summer that casually epitomizes both concepts--not just "hippie," but "summer." A
(Tyler was asking upthread about Chaim T; he's a Wainwright-McG. family friend [or relative?] who has never released an album in the Lower 50, far as I know, but is also on The McGarrigle Hour and I guess could be on some related round-ups)

Xgau on the Kate tribute (his description reminding me that the new Martha album is wild, also awesome): https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/mcgarrigle-11.php

anna's son sylvan released a lovely little debut album earlier this year:
https://open.spotify.com/album/46OPGXyDpECrypjQvgwLkV

From Omnivore:

Mountain City Four
Mountain City Four
Release date: September 23, 2022

Description
Historic, early recordings from Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s beginnings as members of the Mountain City Four.
In 1963, Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon recruited Kate McGarrigle to form a trio. A few months later, Kate’s sister Anna joined, and the group became the Mountain City Four. Playing locally at Montreal folk clubs, the band developed a loyal and substantial following and played into the 1970s.

Kate and Anna began writing songs which were passed from friend to friend, and eventually found their way into the repertoires of Maria Muldaur and Linda Ronstadt. While in L.A singing backups on Maria’s first record, they were invited by Greg Prestopino to record a few of their other compositions. Greg passed the demo on to Warner Brothers Records who quickly offered Kate and Anna their own recording contract and they were off and running. For several years, the Mountain City Four continued as the opening act for Kate and Anna’s live shows and contributed backup vocals and instrumentals to the sisters’ early studio recordings.

The McGarrigles origins shine brightly on Mountain City Four which contains sixteen previously unissued recordings from 1963–1964, 1969–70, and a final one in 2012 two years after Kate’s passing which featured members of the Mountain City Four’s extended family. The tracks include classics like Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon Of Kentucky,” the traditional “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “This Train,” and “All The Good Times,” written by Lead Belly and Alan Lomax.

Mountain City Four is produced by original member Peter Weldon and Jane McGarrigle. The packaging contains photos and liner notes from Weldon, both Jane and Anna McGarrigle, and Joe Boyd, outlining the history and sharing memories of the Mountain City Four. Not only is Mountain City Four a window into the origin of one of the world’s foremost singer/songwriting sisters, but a look into the incredible folk music scene of the 1960s.

CD / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
JESULEIN SÜSS/WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN
MEAN OLD FRISCO
EREV SHEL SHOSHANIM
MOTHERLESS CHILDREN
DARK AS A DUNGEON
BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY
REUBEN RANZO
YOU’VE GOT TO WALK THAT LONESOME VALLEY
EN FILANT MA QUENOUILLE
THIS TRAIN
THE LOG DRIVER’S WALTZ
V’LÀ LE BONNE VENT
YOU’RE GONNA NEED SOMEBODY ON YOUR BOND
ALL THE GOOD TIMES
SAM HALL
SHENANDOAH

Cat: OV-501

CD, MP3---more info: http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/mountain-city-four/

I usually have to get used to the Sisters' definitively 60s-based folkie vocal precision (a bit dainty sometimes, no matter how expressive) all over again after not listening for a while, but the MC4 have an arrestingly rich harmonic blend right off---maybe it helps that this set is mostly live---and the effect continues when the McG.s are way up front, confidently reaching out to the audience, though never oversinging---well, "This Train" does sound like something from A Mighty Wind, but that's "This Train," unless maybe Woody G. sang lead: he couldn't chirp if his life depended on it, and wouldn't anyway---also, "Dark as a Dungeon" zips by like most others, too fast to register in this case, but otherwise they do slow down when appropriate, which is not too often. Really good range of material, too.