It's been about two years since The Book of Secrets came out, and Loreena McKennitt fans like myself have been waiting eagerly for new material. Instead, we've been given a double-CD live album called Live in Paris and Toronto. It's not the gift we wanted, but it's welcome nonetheless.
McKennitt, so the story goes, grew up in rural Manitoba to a life rich in farm and small town experience, but culturally limited. Despite her Scottish and Irish roots, she first heard Celtic traditional music in Winnipeg's folk clubs and at their famous annual Folk Festival. She learned to play guitar, harp and other instruments, issued her first CD, Elemental, in 1985, and took off from there. Soon she was scoring music for movies, producing more CDs, touring Canada and beyond, and stirring curiosity and commentary from music lovers, especially pagans.
Along the way, McKennitt's music deepened and became more complex. Elemental was primarily traditional, with several poems by others (like "The Stolen Child," by Yeats), and she played nearly all the instruments herself. By The Book of Secrets, most tunes and lyrics were McKennitt originals, although the CD booklet offered "a bibliography of the texts used in researching this recording", and enough musicians were credited to form an orchestra. The traditional songs on Elemental were drawn from Irish and Scottish sources, but the music of the later albums drew from a much broader definition of "Celtic" and went beyond even that: Spain, Italy, Turkey and the Russian Steppes mixed and blended in a rich stew of rhythm and harmony. All of it, from simple to complex, was self-produced and self-published.
The new live album is drawn from two live concerts presented during McKennitt's 1998 tour in support of The Book of Secrets. Disk one is entirely devoted to a reprise of that album, played in sequence. Disk two is a mixture of songs from her previous two studio albums, The Visit and the mask and mirror. As live albums go, this one's good, even without new material. The sound is lively and makes you feel almost as though you were there. The energy is more inviting than on previous albums; that is, instead of a perfect object for our contemplation, we get an experience we are invited to share. In addition, some of McKennitt's singing is a little easier to understand than on the studio albums.
The only thing missing is chitchat from Loreena. She speaks seldom and does not tell anecdotes, share confidences or even make the little jokes that musicians use to fill time while tuning. She doesn't even introduce the other musicians sharing the stage, though this might have been edited out. This is, however, not so much a complaint as an observation, and the flow of music is better as it is.
The album is, by the way, a fundraiser for the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety. The fund was started in 1998 in honor of McKennitt's fiancé, his brother and a friend; the three drowned in a boating accident.
McKennitt isn't herself a pagan, she has said, though pagans love her use of Celtic pre-Christian imagery. There are, however, albums available by pagans, meant to be ways of encouraging, supporting and inspiring other pagans. Two such are Through the Darkness: Chants from the Reclaiming Community, performed by Beverly Frederick, and Face of a New Day, written and performed by T. Thorn Coyle.
Frederick sings everything on Through the Darkness, nearly all of it a cappella. Several cuts include expressive violin accompaniment written and performed by Pam Otsuka. Most pieces are short chants, though there are several long Scottish ballads with fairy themes, like "Tam Lin." Frederick's voice is strong and sure, and particularly entrancing on the pieces structured as rounds. The only number that did not work for me was "Come Away," credited to Starhawk; it's extremely similar to a portion of Yeats' "Stolen Child," and the tune is almost identical to the one used only a few cuts earlier for "Tam Lin." I'm told that all the chants were used as essential parts of rituals at a weeklong Witches' Camp, and they would be useful to anyone wanting to emphasize a connection with the Fey in their own work.
Face of a New Day didn't work as well for me; Coyle is energetic and enthusiastic, but a bit too earnest. Her voice echoes as though recorded in a large room covered with tiles, and her guitar work is basic strum. Still, with songs called "Brigid," "Charge & Covenant" and "Lugh's Song," her heart's in the right place. Some of the cuts would make good dance music if your coven or circle is planning a little fun. It's even a fundraiser, like Live in Paris and Toronto, benefiting a number of causes, such as the Witches' Camp Scholarship Fund.
To find out more about Loreena McKennitt, check out the Loreena McKennitt Web Ring (a group of sites linked to a common portal and each other) at www.mindspring.com/~jhenjes/loreena.htm, including the excellent site "Of Straw & of Bonfires." And don't forget the official site of McKennitt's music publishing and production company, www.quinlanroad.com, where you'll find some material not generally available. For Through the Darkness and Face of a New Day, write to Serpentine Music at P.O. Box 564, Sebastopol, CA 95473, or visit their Web Site at www.serpentinemusic.com. They specialize in pagan music of all types and genres.
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