The Nields’ “Gotta Get Over Greta” and “Best Black Dress” poured over many an alternate airwave in the ’90s as the alt-folk-rock band toured non-stop, released six CDs, and built an adoring fan base. Sisters Nerissa and Katryna sang their hearts out, along with the boys in the band. They sold close to 100,000 records and caused a sensation on the folk festival circuit with their mix of classic folk rock, alt country, original lyrics and gorgeous sounds.

In 1998 Nerissa and Katryna were approached by the producers of the Lillith Fair and asked if they would consider performing as a duo. “I was afraid at first,” Nerissa admitted. “But suddenly while I was up on stage with Katryna, I realized our voices were taking up so much of the space that I’d always assumed the whole band was filling. And I knew we’d be okay on our own.”

Okay they have been. Katryna and Nerissa recorded their first album in the fall of 2001, “Love and China.” Guitar and drum backup (and fiddle, accordion, and pedal steel) give the album a rich western flavor. Songwriter Nerissa says, “China refers to plates, wedding gifts, breakable, delicate things. But I like the allusion to the country as well, China is cold, and an ecologically and spiritually ravaged place. That’s a crucial part of the picture I’m trying to paint. The women in my songs are tired of lives lived on the surface. They’re tired of being slaves to appearances: physical as well as emotional appearances. They are recognizing that the relationships they are in may be dying or, at the least, stifling, and they are in the process of weighing the love against the truth.”

The sisters’ quirky, emotive songs have always challenged the mind, even as they touched the heart. With their latest CD, “This Town Is Wrong,” the sisters take their most ambitious musical and cerebral journey yet, a trip into the world of two misunderstood 13-year-old girls who plunge into songwriting to ease the ache of pre-adolescence.

“This Town Is Wrong” is a soundtrack to Nerissa’s novel by the same name, and — in a risk-taking move typical of the Nields — its songs represent the creative output of several different characters who live within its pages. The result is a kind of musical hot-room yoga, twisting and stretching the songwriting of Nerissa and the singing of Katryna, as both performers push themselves toward new territories that combine the spunk and naivete of their earliest work with the more sure-footed, sadder-but-wiser qualities that characterize their more recent efforts. Paleo-Nields fans will find their fondest memories refreshed, and more recent converts will hear the duo infused with a jolt of youthful energy.

At the heart of any Nields collaboration is the sublime vocal chemistry of two sisters who have been singing together almost from the cradle. Katryna’s volcanic, mercurial soprano seems almost to need the tawny, rich tones of Nerissa’s tethering harmonies to keep it here on earth. And Nerissa’s brainy songwriting surges to life in the expressive, vital, engaging vocals of Katryna.

As anyone who caught the sisters’ previous appearances in Marblehead will attest, their spontaneous sublimity (and silliness) in our wonderful listening room is not to be missed. Come early for good seats!

Nerissa and Katryna Nields

photo by Robin Bowman

Every cut on This Town Is Wrong documents an episode in the fictional adventures of Angela Riddle and Randi Rankin, a pair of headstrong 13-year-old girls who decide to become singer-songwriters. Some tales are told from the girls’ point of view, notably the country-rockin’ “Glow in the Dark Plastic Angel” and the title track, a pulsing folk-pop jewel. Other narrative voices chime in as well. Randi’s musician father, Guy, contributes a superb folk-rock thumper, “The Day I Let Glory Steer,” and the Big Idea, a local band that the girls fancy, offers “When I’m Here,” an otherworldly country blues driven by Dave Chalfant’s slide guitar. Lead vocalist Katryna Nields’ shimmering vibrato and lilting, Celtic-flavored phrasing beautifully convey each storyteller’s poetically crafted message, and the duo’s angelic sibling harmonies glide over a punchy mix of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, percussion, Dobro, banjo, and pedal steel. It all adds up to a stirring sonic blend that’s at once buoyant and earthy.  Acoustic Guitar Magazine