Lorreena

Now that the holiday season is approaching, I can get out the Christmas CDs. I have plenty. I wanted to share with you one of my favorites albums, by Loreena McKennitt.

Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer whom I used to know slightly. She is a friend of friend in Stratford. I remember her over at his house back in the early 80s when she was a chorus girl at the Festival. He would design some of her greeting cards. Later, when she came to Chicago for a concert, I met up with her afterwards. (The audience was half empty; me and several displaced Canadians, wild with happiness as they could not normally get a ticket to see her back home).
Over the years she has become internationally famous and I am no longer in touch with her. But I adore her music. It is a combination of Celtic, Moroccan and other folk music. She is popular with the New Age folks, Mystics, Celtic music lovers. Her lyrics often are ballads, with lyrics from the poetry of Yeats or Shakespeare. This is her “Christmas” album “To Drive the Cold Winter Away’. I use the term “Christmas” loosely as while there are carols referring to Christ’s birth the whole album has a more ancient feel to it. I call it my “Solstice” album. Missing are the usual Christmas tunes. Rather she has a combination of ancient carols (example; the Wexford Carol) and some of her own. Her song” Snow” is gorgeous.
I point it out as a marvelous holiday CD. I point her out as a marvelous singer.

By the way, she now has her new album out! It only took 10 years of waiting!