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Loreena McKennitt Biography
Review The Artist (6)
Source: http://www.wbr.com
"If one begins with the big questions of 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I here?', the understanding of the roads back in history seem as important as the ones forward, whether or not it pertains to the individual or collective, to the subject of love or the control of information."
In The Book Of Secrets, Loreena McKennitt's seventh release and successor to the U.S. gold records The Visit and The Mask And Mirror, the Canadian artist continues a process of cultural excavation of the pan-Celtic heritage, serving as a creative springboard and a passport to eras past.
Breathing life into long-forgotten lyrics, McKennitt first made her name as a folk singer, singing traditional folk ballads like "She Moved Through The Fair" with freshness and immediacy. Over the course of her three most recent albums, however, she has expanded both her music and choice of narrative subjects.
The Book Of Secrets was conceived over several journeys, including one taken via the legendary Trans Siberian Express, in which the self-managed singer and record company head found the quiet she needed to reflect and prepare for The Book Of Secrets. Finally, she had the time to read Dante's The Divine Comedy, echoes of which appear in the album's closing track, "Dante's Prayer."
Something of the motion of that epic solo voyage is imprinted on the restless folk who populate the songs on The Book Of Secrets, many driven by movement and change: the "thundering hooves" of "Night Ride Across The Caucasus"; the soul mates of "Dante's Prayer" who "share this humble path," the dramatic cast of McKennitt's setting of the Alfred Noyes poem "The Highwayman."
Even the isolated monk of "Skellig" only finds peace in his hermitage after "many a year perched out upon the sea." "The setting of the Skellig Islands is unbelievably harsh. . . set out in the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland. Even now to take a boat over there is a risky thing," comments McKennitt. Pursuing a deeper understanding of the connection between Irish monks and classical European culture, she visited Bobbio, the mountainous location of the first Irish monastery in Italy.
"It addressed in part how far certain individuals isolate themselves, in an extreme sense, to heighten their connection to that essence called God," says McKennitt of her visit to the site.
A long line of tangents form an associative construct for McKennitt's song narratives. "The Mummers' Song" links the work of a marionette maker she met in Palermo, Sicily with the "hobby horse" of May Day celebrations in Padstow, Cornwall and a Sufi order in Turkey.
Yet, as with all fine art, McKennitt's technique is translucent. Ultimately, the months of research underpinning each track are subliminal; the experience of the music is simply sensual.
The central melody of "Marco Polo," the instrumental track inspired by the legendary 13th century explorer of Asia, is a traditional Sufi chant which Polo himself might have heard.
"As with the last three recordings, this one is also a document of my own path of exploration through the vehicle of music and history. There are a lot of mechanisms within our contemporary society that seem to dilute and diminish our sense of identity. As a result, I think there is a heightened need to understand who you are, what your roots are, and where they are connected."
In some measure, The Book Of Secrets is an attempt to address these searching philosophical questions that incessantly intrigue McKennitt's lively intellect. An eager auto-didact, her conversation is a torrent of cross-cultural allusions. Although she takes pains to stress her amateur status, she has grown into something of a self-taught authority in her chosen field: how Celtic and other cultures have exchanged and fused over centuries to weave the intricate tapestry of our culture today.
"I try to figure out why things are the way they are, and you can't understand that without going back. And in the course of going back, you discover that, yes, history does repeat itself. There are cyclical patterns."
Although much of The Book Of Secrets represents the Mediterranean phase of her explorations, McKennitt was born and raised in Morden, Manitoba, a town of Irish, Scottish, German, and Icelandic inhabitants in the middle of the Canadian prairies. One could say it was here she was first exposed to her inter-cultural influences. The most vigorous Highland dancer in her rural community, she was raised by her mother, a nurse, and her livestock-trader father.
"It was a very modest community. People came from immigrant stock. Survival was the order of the day and in some ways broad cultural exposure was limited. Although my family's ancestors on the most part came from Ireland, there was very little overt 'Celticness' to my upbringing in the sense of music or storytelling." After an adolescence spent in Morden, McKennitt was eager to move into a wider world. She was first exposed to the Celtic folk boom in a Winnipeg folk club.
"The first step for me was Celtic music. The whole sound drew me in an almost instinctive way and it became this vehicle to pursue history in a way I could never have imagined," she recalls.
In more cosmopolitan Winnipeg, she briefly studied to be a veterinarian, before moving on to finally settle in Stratford, Ontario, where her composing and performing skills were soon appreciated in the lively scene around the city's internationally renowned Shakespearean Festival. McKennitt still makes her home there, living in a rural farmhouse.
Already in love with Yeats and the music of Breton harpist Alain Stivell, Planxty and the Bothy Band, McKennitt could sense the lyricism of Irish folk music. When she made her first journey to Ireland in 1982 she was to find a similar lyricism in the contours of the land and the spirit of the people.
Back home, she put her newly stirred Celtic fervor into an interpretation of Yeats's "The Stolen Child." Inspired by a D.I.Y book called How To Make and Sell Your Own Recordings, by Diane Sward Rappaport, she set up her own record company, Quinlan Road, in 1985, and recorded Elemental, a nine-song cassette. She ran off copies and began selling them from her car while meeting the public on the most immediate level, as a busker.
As McKennitt's mailing list grew, word of mouth in cafés and bookshops built her a significant audience. Her growing audience empathized while McKennitt explored the traditional canon, always seeking the reverberation that would make an ancient voice harmonize with her own. She's particularly proud of tracking down "Bonny Portmore," included on The Visit. An obscure ballad mourning the loss of ancient British stands of oak, once worshipped by pre-Christian tribes, it has a contemporary relevance to today's fight to save old-growth forests.
McKennitt followed Elemental by cutting a seasonal perennial in the Christmas carols of To Drive The Cold Winter Away (1987), and made her first steps towards cross-cultural fertilization in the subsequent Parallel Dreams (1989). It was at this time she was commissioned to score music for the National Film Board of Canada's acclaimed film series "Women and Spirituality."
A pivotal moment for McKennitt's evolution occurred in 1991 in Venice, Italy, at the largest ever exhibition and collection of international Celtic artifacts.
"Until I went to that exhibition, I thought that Celts were people who came from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany," recalls McKennitt.
Seeing the unimagined riches and variety in the centuries of Celtic art gathered from as far afield as Hungary, Ukraine, Spain and Asia Minor, she recalls, "I felt exhilarated. It was like thinking that all there is to your family are your parents, brothers and sisters, and then you realize there's a whole stretch of history that is an extension of who you are."
That epiphany transformed McKennitt's music.
The primeval sounding tamboura drone that introduced her next album, The Visit (1992), announced a new direction with its bold, cinematic interpretations of Shakespeare and Tennyson, and an unusually edgy take on the Henry VIII-penned ballad, "Greensleeves."
This process reached a dramatic flowering on 1994's The Mask And Mirror. McKennitt's new staging post on the voyage was in Galicia, the Celtic corner of Spain, and then on into 15th-century Spain itself when the cultures of Judaism, Islam and Christianity merged to produce what is still remembered as the Golden Age, a time of profound cultural influence on the evolution of Western civilization.
The distinctiveness of McKennitt's musical vision is matched by the independence with which she has approached the music business. "I think coming from a farming and rural background gave me the insight into being self-sufficient. You become familiar with creative problem solving. If you want something badly enough, you will roll up your sleeves and start chipping away."
When McKennitt decided the time was ripe to move toward the industry establishment, she signed a unique deal with the Warner Group for the world. It is a deal which has been very fruitful indeed as her recordings have gone on to sell in the millions in over 40 countries. Beginning with The Visit, Warner has distributed her work, while she controls every aspect of creation and promotion.
With her one-artist label Quinlan Road expanding into its second office in London, much of her time is now spent commuting between there and the Stratford base, attending to the myriad of things which come with running an international career in the music business.
At the exhilarating commencement of a new phase in the cycle of research, recording and touring, McKennitt surveys the arc of a career that has delved into the past to reflect the future.
"I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to marry the vehicle of my talents with the fuel of my curiosity and imagination. This process has allowed me to explore the greater depths of our humanity and the human condition in a way that is tangible and full of meaning. It has taught me that indeed we are a culmination of our collective histories and that at the end of the day, not only are we and have been more or less the same, but also there is probably more to bind us together than tear us apart. It is a force of faith I must believe in."
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Review about Loreena McKennitt
Awesme | Reviewer: Chris | 9/11/09
A wonderfully stirring voice. I first heard Ride across the Caucasus in the movie "Soldier" just had to find out who sang it. Sibce then I have been a listener. Her beauty of voice and face is captivating.
just now dicovering the pure genious of ms mckennitt | Reviewer: russell banks | 5/2/09
where do I start, listening to mt stage , and being introduced to the new breed of celtic musicians, I first heard mary mclaughlin, then on my you tube I saw loreen mckennitts name , in the relative artists, it was the best day in my life finding this peaceful , soul lifting greatness that she gives us, . . . Im a all day , in my fabrications shop building cars , listening to Loreena from morning to night, 7 days a week, . . . just wish I, d of heard of her earlier, glad I found her, . . . she really is the beethoven of our time, . . . god I, d love to meet her . . . . guess a lot of men feel that way, . . . she is very special,
A Muse in Disguise... | Reviewer: Farooq Ahmad | 2/21/09
That is what she is, she came from the mysteries of ancient times, from folklores, the fables of the faery folk, from the groups of dryads who used to wander the Celtic forests...she is a banshee of healing, with her voice and words you can get rejuvenated... I can bet she learned this from the real Merlin of the Celts, this wizardry of emotions and chanting that heals a warrior's heart. An art handed down right from the forest Elfs. She is an artist placed into our time by the ancient creatures who want their existance to be known... Listen to her music, and you might find 'em someday!
beyond words | Reviewer: serrolah | 10/4/08
too late I had the fortune to become familiar with Ms.McKennitt. A DVD (Alhambra concert) was a gift from a freind which has become my most valued possesion. I have watched Ms. McKennitt and listened to her divine voice and style a hundred times and I would do so a thousand other times to come.I love Ms. McKennitt deeply, purely, and would like to listen to her to the end of time
Incredible singer | Reviewer: Kevin C. Redden | 12/30/07
I first heard Ms. McKennitt's 'Mummer's Dance somewhere around the very early 1990s if I recall, on the radio's 'Echos' or 'Hearts of Space' and immediately fell in love with her. But only about 10 years later, was I able to get her works thanks to MP3s. Now I'm a proud owner of every single CD she's released, and all the DVDs.
Her music transcends anything I've heard. Although I'm a major fan of such as Constance Demby, Ray Lynch, and many others, hers is the top. I can listen to it all day, and never 'memorize' her songs. It's an incredible rarity for that to happen.
The songs have formed images in my mind, which I attempted to draw. It's inspired stories I've written. It's also helped me though some of the horrific and painful years of my life as well. They're healers, they're inspiration, they're just beyond words at times.
Her latest; An Ancient Muse was well worth the wait, and "Beneath a phrygian sky" is playing now, and it can easily bring tears to my eyes.
To get to watch her in concert is one major goal of mine, and inspires me to make it happen by any format possible.
She is really the Beethoven, or Mozart of our time.
- Kc
Touched my soul | Reviewer: A Kisling | 11/25/07
The music of Loreena. Somehow stirred my Irish ancestry. As much or more then the Production of Celtic Women.Wish I would have discovered her years ago!
Review the Artist Loreena McKennitt
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