MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: FRASER & GIRARD

Musical partnerships are touchy things; each person has to compliment the other in just the right way.  Even when there's magic, if one overshadows the other, the harmony wears out.  Then it's goodbye, Garfunkel.  C, S and N have all felt the sting of Y over the years. Even the Everlys couldn't take it any more by '74.

So it's a brave move when a pair of established performers decide to put it all on the line, and commit to a duet or twelve.  It could all come crashing down in a clash of egos and personalities if you choose wrong.  But when the voices and talents match up, the results are spectacular.

Both Allan Fraser and Marianne Girard have substantial folk careers already, as writers and performers.  This is the actual folk music by the way, not a pop band with a banjo, sticking a layer of woosh-woosh on top.  Both are top-quality writers, giving us insightful tales.  In Girard's My Name Is Carol, she gives a voice to a damaged soul: "You've seen me there, along the shore road, in my motor chair." Fraser is less direct with his stories, more impressionistic:  "Well, I was outside St. Louis when I heard the news, that you had inherited the St. Louis Blues, and transplanted them up to the north."

Now comes the chemistry.  They each have easy country voices that sound perfect together.  It's the best Canadian folk duo mix since Ian and Sylvia.