Over the past 13 years, the Sisters Morales have looked at life from both sides.

Lisa and Roberta Morales, playing at 8 p.m. Saturday at Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor, were signed to a major record label for a time, but for most of their career, they’ve been independent performers. They’re trying to find a happy medium now.

“We’re still in pursuit [of a major-label deal],” said Lisa from her San Antonio home. “We’re contacting labels, they’re contacting us. It’s a matter of finding the right one.”

The sisters, with their blend of rock, folk, honky-tonk and Mexican ranchera, are a rising act popular in the Southwest and overseas. They’re coming to Maine thanks to the efforts of Lee Haynes and other organizers of the annual Austin-Acadia Connection concert series.

“They saw us at South by Southwest [festival] in Austin a few years ago,” Lisa recalled. “They’ve been trying to get us up there for a while, but we’re usually in Europe this time of year. After 9-11, we decided not to go to Europe. They’ve been asking us for so long that we said ‘Let’s make this work.'”

The sisters started playing together in their hometown of Tucson, Ariz., when Roberta was 6 and Lisa was 5. Their father would send them to a Mexican restaurant, where they would sit in with a mariachi band. They grew up in a musical family: one grandmother played classical piano, a great-aunt was first chair violin in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, their older brother Michael plays guitar.

They began playing professionally in junior high. Then Roberta quit music for a time, and both started moving around. Except for one abortive attempt to reunite, they largely went their own ways.

Then, in 1989, Lisa, living in Houston, called Roberta, residing in San Francisco, for help on a recording project. Roberta, looking for a change, flew south. They played together at a rodeo at the Astrodome the night she landed, and they’ve been a duo ever since.

“We’re very different people, my sister and I,” Lisa said. “We’re night and day. We had to go and find our own identities, to feel better about ourselves. We went through a lot when we were young, a divorce, my father dying young, and we had to work that out on our own. We also had to find our own styles.”

A record deal with RCA came to naught, as executives wanted the sisters to change their music and couldn’t understand their desire to include Spanish-language songs on their albums.

In the midst of their turmoil with RCA, Roberta was diagnosed with sarcoma in her left thigh. She went through five operations and massive doses of chemotherapy in a 11/2-year period. She’s been cancer-free for five years.

“[The cancer] brought us back the real sense of why we were doing music,” Lisa said. “When you’re in Nashville, you can get caught up in trying to figure out what [record executives] wanted. There was a difference between what they wanted and what our audience wanted, and that made us less creative. But the audience was there for us, and brought us back to where we should be.”

The sisters have released three self-produced albums on their own Luna Records, most recently “Someplace Far Away From Here.” They now are finishing a Spanish-language album, to be released in the fall.

“We’re working with outside producers, and we’ve never done that,” Lisa said. “It’s great for me, because I can just go in and I don’t have to be the organizer. I love it.”

While they enjoy creative freedom, the sisters can see the downside of running an independent record label.

“We do our own promotion and are our own booking people,” Lisa said. “That takes away from the time we have to write. I’m very happy we know how to do it. We see how much we’ve learned, and how little some [independent] labels do know. The biggest thing we’d like would be tour support. You have to get your name out there, and that takes a big chunk of money, which can really sap you financially. That’s where being on a major label would really help out.”

In addition to working with her sister, Lisa also works with her husband, David Spencer, who is the band’s guitarist. All three will be at the Northeast Harbor date.

Lisa likes to be surrounded by her family.

“If there’s any kind of conflict, it’s usually OK by the next day,” she said. “You get over it and move on. Also you trust your family more, which is important in business. Also we all have the same goal in mind.”

Tickets are $15, with children 12 and under free. For information, call 288-4365 or 288-4740.