We have Canada to thank for the duo of Marcy Marxer and Cathy Fink. Marxer was singing in a band and Fink was pushing her solo career when they met in 1980 at the Toronto Folk Festival.

“There was a connection,” says Marxer.

“It was her whole band and myself just really enjoying jamming together,” says Fink. “It was tons of fun.”

But we have only them to thank for putting their music act together.

By 1984, Marxer and Fink had formed their own partnership. They realized they had perfect complementary talents as well as shared goals. Marxer is a guitarist and harmonizer. Fink plays banjo and can charm a crowd. Marxer does lariat rope tricks. Fink is a businesswoman. They both write songs. They both sing. And that’s what they both want to do. The result, they agree, is an amazing working relationship.

“That’s one of the joys of what we do,” says Fink. “We are doing our vision. We are doing exactly what it is we want to be doing.”

Not bad for two women on the folk circuit in 1999, a good 30 years after folk music had its first heyday. The women continue to do concerts throughout North America as well as internationally, and will perform at the Grand Auditorium on Friday, May 7.

In a world of career specializations, Marxer and Fink are renaissance women. They run their own business, write their own material, are multi-instrumentalists, and run a production company. And their music doesn’t fit neatly into any category.

“We’re contemporary and traditional folk and country and children’s music,” says Fink. “We defy that commercial music world one-word definition. It’s too narrow for people who love to play different types of music.”

Some of their followers are old folkies. But many of their fans are under the age of 12. A recent CD, “Changing Channels,” was nominated for a Grammy this year. Marxer calls it their “most important work” to date. The songs, she says, encourage kids to deal with TV in a positive, discerning way. Above all, it’s a statement about Marxer and Fink’s commitment to participating in kid culture.

“Part of it has to do with the intergenerational music I grew up with,” says Marxer, whose grandmother was a barrelhouse blues and honky-tonk piano player in Michigan. “Cathy and I look at kids and we think they are all our children. What we are trying to do is make no boundaries between people.”

Neither Marxer nor Fink, who are both in their 40s, has children of her own, but their backgrounds are in education. So they have worked with young people throughout their careers. Fink used to perform in hospitals and day care centers, and eventually presented music in a school on a Navajo Indian reservation. Marxer taught at schools for the deaf and for children with special needs. Both have been instrumental in developing the Wolf Trap Institute of Early Learning through the Performing Arts in Virginia, not far from where they each live in Maryland.

When Marxer and Fink play for children, they are “music activity leaders,” but when they play for adults, they do straight performances of songs they hope will make audience members think, reflect and laugh.

“It’s an amazingly eclectic repertoire,” says Fink, who yodels for some songs.

Either way, however, Marxer and Fink, who have released 15 recordings and have performed on the National Public Radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” are working their way into the annals of troubadour history. Billboard Magazine once called their sound “as close to flawless folk-bluegrass as it gets.”

“It’s not a thing you do because the world needs it,” says Marxer of her work. “You do it because you love it.”

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer will perform a concert 8 p.m. May 7 at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth. For tickets, call 667-9500.