POP MUSIC REVIEW : Old Times With the McGarrigles

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as such a surprise that the McGarrigle sisters’ wry, lyrical folk music is as appealingly vital now as it was 15 years ago, when the Canadian duo--which performed Tuesday night at the Roxy--started recording. After all, sweet singing and starkly beautiful melodies have always been durable commodities.

Nonetheless, with seven years between their last album and the current “Heartbeats Accelerating”--and also approaching 50--Kate and Anna McGarrigle would seem better suited to a nostalgia show than their thoroughly contemporary performance at the Roxy. Though Kate sang of the despair at growing old in the haunting “I Eat Dinner,” the sisters needn’t worry that age has dimmed their talents.

In nearly two hours of music, the McGarrigles showed their versatility by singing in French and English, taking turns at the piano, and shifting from the melancholy songs that characterize the new album to joyous, sing-along folk numbers.

Though they would have you believe from their between-song banter that they’re a sardonic pair, the McGarrigles’ lovely final encore gave them away as sentimentalists. Joined on stage by Kate’s daughter and their sister, Jane, they sang an old French folk song--whose verse translates to “I have loved you for a long time and I will never forget you”--for their mother, who had come from Montreal for the show. Hers weren’t the only moist eyes in the house by the end of the set.