CD Odyssey Disc 1563: Loreena McKennitt

This next album features a harpist. Fun fact – when I was a kid I wanted to learn how to play the lyre. My mom searched all around for someone who taught the lyre, but all she could find was someone who taught the harp. Being a headstrong teen, I rejected this very reasonable compromise. Never did learn to play the lyre either…

Disc 1563 is…. The Visit

Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1991

What’s up with the Cover? Who is this woman knock knocking on my chamber door?  Why does she seek to gain entry at this unearthly hour? Is she pursued by vampires, or is she just trying to escape the humidity that is playing hell with her hair?

How I Came To Know It: I saw a video (I think it was “All Souls Night”) on a music channel back when those were a thing. I think it might have been Country Music Television. I liked it a lot and went and found the album it was on. This was it.

How It Stacks Up: We have six Loreena McKennitt albums, and “The Visit” is the best of them all. Number one! This is the final review as well, so here’s a recap.

1. The Visit: 5 stars (reviewed right here)
2. Parallel Dreams: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 141)
3. The Mask and Mirror: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 262)
4. Elemental: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 143)
5. The Book of Secrets: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 552)
6. An Ancient Muse: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 282)

Ratings: 5 stars

It has been almost nine years since the CD Odyssey last landed on a Loreena McKennitt album, but there is no question we’ve saved the best for last. “The Visit” is a record I have heard hundreds of times but every time I put it on it still makes my spirit soar.

Since it has been a long time since I wrote about McKennitt, a refresher is in order. She is Celtic folk music, emerging from between the shadows to briefly bubble up into the mainstream consciousness when Celtic folk was a fad back in the early nineties. While there was a lot of junk that came out of that Celtic Renaissance (Riverdance comes to mind) there was also a lot of great music. “The Visit” is as good as it gets.

McKennitt plays both keyboards and harp on the record, and if you’re wondering what keyboards are doing on traditional Celtic folk music, you’d be right – this isn’t purely folk. McKennitt blends in a number of influences, but she does it so artfully you won’t mind.

In any case, it is the harp and her vocals that are the stars of the show. We don’t get many opportunities to hear the harp in modern music, and it is often relegated to a lonely corner at the back of a wedding dinner. “The Visit” brings it front and center. There is none of the fustiness you might expect from such a ‘chamber’ instrument. McKennitt’s harp trills through the album, burbling across songs across the top of the melody like some kind of water spirit.

McKennitt’s vocals have an equally magic quality. High and operatic, but with a rustic delivery that lends itself to storytelling. Modern artists like Marissa Nadler owe much to pioneers like McKennitt, who blended these traditions so artfully.

All the other players on the record are amazing as well, notably the fiddle work from George Marsh, but it is the way they are arranged together that matters most; always creating a swell that propels the story of each song forward.

As for the songs, they are exceptional. A mix of McKennitt’s own compositions, traditional folk tunes and sometimes a mix of English Literature masterpieces set to McKennitt’s music. The best of these is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” Tennyson was always a master of meter and flow and set to McKennitt’s music it will make your heart cry with the great and tragic romance that unfolds. The experience takes almost 12 minutes and at no point will you tire of the journey.

“The Visit” is McKennitt’s third album, and sees her beginning to explore broader Celtic traditions, and bringing in sounds from across Europe and beyond. “Between the Shadows” has a Middle Eastern flare to it and “Tango to Evora” brings in South American traditions. The opening track, “All Souls Night” is a mix of Celtic tradition and New Age mystery. All of it threads together in a grand tapestry of sound, and style.

McKennitt can also play it straight. The traditional “Bonny Portmore” laments the loss of a great tree that is felled to build a ship. I saw McKennitt live on “The Visit” tour back in 1991, and when she played “Bonny Portmore” tears streamed down my cheeks with the Goddamn tragic beauty of it all. This did not leave me looking manly in the eyes of my date, but I regret nothing.  

To this day, that concert was one of the best I have ever attended and to this day, this album is one of the best in my collection.

Best tracks: All tracks, but in particular All Souls Night, Bonny Portmore, Between the Shadows, The Lady of Shalott, and The Old Ways

CD Odyssey Disc 552: Loreena McKennitt

Yesterday I wrote my first complete rap song (after many partial efforts).  It is called “I Carry the Load” and it is a pretty fine freshman effort, if I do say so myself.  Now I just need a DJ to give me some fresh beats to rap over.  Maybe I’ll call up Eric B. and see what he is doing, or see what Terminator X is up to.  Or maybe I’ll just keep my day job.  Probably the latter.

This next review is as far from rap music as you can get, but it is variety that makes the music world turn, my friends.

Disc 552 is…. The Book of Secrets

Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover?  Loreena herself, looking resplendent despite facing sinister (if you know your heraldry, that will make sense).  The yellowish sepia tone makes it look very old, like the cover of a book of secrets maybe.

How I Came To Know It:  I was a fan of Loreena McKennitt since I first heard her album “The Visit” back in 1991.  I bought “Book of Secrets” when it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  We have six Loreena McKennitt albums.  “Book of Secrets” is good, but not great.  I’d put if fifth out of the six.

Rating:  3 stars

Sometimes as an artist becomes more and more successful, they can fall deeper and deeper into their own sound.  This can be both good and bad.  Part of Loreena McKennitt’s sound is that she is one of the great masters of establishing a mood in music. 

Establishing a mood can take a while, and on “Book of Secrets” there are only eight songs, but a full 53 minutes of music.  I found myself alternating between soaking in the journey and wishing she’d just get on with it.

In the liner notes, McKennitt is keenly aware of her own inclinations, offering up a Lao Tzu quote that goes, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”  Good stuff, although I personally prefer Canadian Earle Birney’s expression of the same sentiment: “do you want to climb this mountain, or just get to the top?”  Whatever your preferred quote, this is a good way to approach this record if you want to enjoy it

All of the usual excellence in McKennitt’s earlier records is evident on “Book of Secrets” as well.  McKennitt’s operatic voice soars over a rogue’s gallery of instruments from around the world, including the bodhran, the hurdy gurdy, the shawm and mandocello (seriously, I’m not making these things up – go ahead and google them).  Many of the instruments are ancient medieval and renaissance affairs, and they give the recording a timeless quality.

Her subject matter is similar to previous records, as she explores the roots of the ever-travelling Celts across Eurasia.  “Skellig” is a nice track in this vein, telling the tale of a monastery located on the Skellig Islands near Ireland. You can practically feel the dark and dank stone walls, and the lone candle burning in a tower as some ancient dark ages monk scribbled away, writing scripture and history for future generations to discover.  Of course, it is slightly less spellbinding when you think about some of the classical texts and history monks in this era scraped off their pages so they’d have something to write on.  But I digress…

The true classic on this record is “The Highwayman.”  Like she did with Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” on an earlier record, McKennitt has taken the epic Alfred Noyes poem, “The Highwayman” and brilliantly set it to music.

My degree is in English Literature, and I’ll always have a soft spot for a great poem.  For me, McKennitt’s treatment of “The Highwayman” is a five star affair that never fails to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

“The Highwayman” tells the tale of a robber who has taken a shine to an innkeeper’s daughter, and visits here between heists.  The English redcoats set a trap for him there, but not before drinking the innkeeper’s ale without paying and tying up the daughter in the window so she can watch her lover die.  They tie a musket under her chin and (spoiler alert) she twists her hands in her bonds until she is able to get her finger on the musket’s trigger, and tragically warn him of the trap by killing herself.

When the Highwayman hears, he flees the trap, only to learn later what has happened and decide to return back into the trap to avenge her death:

“Back, he spurred like a madman shrieking his curse to the sky

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were the spurs i’the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat

When they shot him down on the highway

Down like a dog on the highway

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.”

So, no, he didn’t quite avenge his lover, but full points for bravery.  Also, the story shows that long before “Breaking Bad” gave us Walter White good writing was already making us root for what are essentially bad people.

Noyes’ writing flows naturally anyway, and with both McKennitt’s voice and the music perfectly punctuating the ebb and flow of the poem’s emotion, it makes it better than any simple reading could ever accomplish. The final stanza tells of how the Highwayman’s ghost still haunts the inn looking for vengeance, even as the music shifts to a disquieting whisper of percussion and almost whispered words:

“Still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees

When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,

When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor

The highwayman comes riding

Riding, riding

A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

There are other good songs on “Book of Secrets”, including the complex rhythms on “Night Right Across the Caucusus” and the piano-driven devotional “Dante’s Prayer.”  “Night Ride…” uses a multitude of instruments to create the feeling of a journey, while “Dante’s Prayer” is sparse, using mostly the aforementioned piano, accentuated with timely violin bits and some Gregorian Chants.  I was again reminded what a fine production ear McKennitt has (she not only wrote, but produced the record).

“Book of Secrets album does drag a bit in places (“Marco Polo” made me feel like I was listening to background music from the Civilization videogame), but overall the album is a solid effort.

Best tracks:  The Highwayman, Night Ride Across the Caucusus, Dante’s Prayer

CD Odyssey Disc 282: Loreena McKennitt

I did a fair bit of driving today, and result being I got through my next album in only a day! Of course part of that driving experience was going around the London Drugs parking lot three or four times. That is one bad parking lot to find a spot.

Disc 282 is...An Ancient Muse

Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 2006

What’s Up With The Cover?: It looks like the tent that some lord from the middle ages would use when travelling with his army. In any event, this is one awesome album cover, and a huge improvement over previous ones like this, or this.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a fan of Loreena McKennitt for many years, so this was just me buying her new album - and excited to do so, as there had been a gap of almost 10 years. This particular album sat for a long time on my shelf, after I gave it a couple listens and decided it didn't sit well with me. In the past year, I've been putting it on as mood music for my other writing. In the process, it has slowly won me over to its charms.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums, although I'm soon to have seven, as I see she's put one out last year. For now, six - all of them good. Of a good bunch, I must reluctantly put "An Ancient Muse" into last place, amid stiff competition.

Rating: 3 stars.

I've covered the general information on Loreena McKennitt in previous reviews, but a quick recap that she is a Canadian celtic/new age artist who can play the harp with the best of them, and sings like an angel.

"An Ancient Muse" was McKennitt's first release in almost ten years - a gap caused by the sudden and tragic death of her fiancee in a boating accident in 1998. Nothing could ever replace that, and I have often taken a moment to send some kind thoughts to McKennitt at that time. Being a new-agey type, I hope she got them.

Like Neil Peart from Rush - who also suffered a tragic loss of family - McKennitt took a long time soul searching before she decided to seriously return to music. I'm glad she did come back, as "An Ancient Muse" demonstrates that she still has the knack.

This album finds her still tracing the Celtic peoples roots across Eurasia, absorbing different musical influences along the way. By the release of this album, she has been doing this to varying degrees on her previous three records, so if you are expecting straight ahead Celtic folk music, you will be surprised at what you hear instead - but not disappointed.

Every McKennitt album has some piece of literature that she has set to music, and "An Ancient Muse" is no exception. For this record, she adapts Sir Walter Scott's ballad, "The English Ladye and the Knight", the story of a woman poisoned by her brother so that she will not marry her lover. The brother in turn gets his, as the lover stabs him through the heart. As Scott admonishes:

"So perish all would true love part
That love may still be lord of all!"

Love may be lord of all, but it is a depressing reign if everyone gets stabbed and poisoned. Nevertheles, it is a pretty song, and often her poetic adaptations end up as my favourites. I was interested to find the songs I liked even more were McKennitt writing both lyrics and music.

"Penelope's Song" is a mythical reference to Odysseus' famous wife, waiting for him to return to her from the Trojan War. It is an oft-covered story, and the focus on Penelope's perspective a fairly popular approach in the 20th century, but I like what McKennitt brings to the story. The song begins with Penelope making an oath to her husband, lost on the other side of the world:

"Now that the time has come
Soon gone is the day
There upon some distant shore
You'll hear me say

"'Long as the day in the summer time
Deep as the wine-dark sea
I'll keep youre heart with mine
Till you come to me."

FYI - oaths are a big deal in the ancient world (I wish they were as important in the modern one). These lyrics aren't particularly special, but I like that McKennitt uses Homeric structures (such as the grouped phrase 'wine-dark sea'), and with the help of the music, the whole takes on a beautiful longing quality that takes the listener to another world, as we stand on a cliff face with Penelope, pining for the man who has been gone for twenty years.

The other song I love on this record is "Beneath A Phrygian Sky", which is a nine and half minute epic where McKennitt muses on the history of the land of ancient Phrygia (central western Turkey, on the Anatolian Peninsula). Emotionally, it reminds me of Neil Peart's lyrics for "Tai Shan" and how you can become overwhelmed when standing on an ancient land, thinking of all that has happened there.

Given that Phrygia has suffered more than its share of armies criss-crossing it, McKennitt's song begins by focusing on the terrible waste of human violence:

"My mind was called across the years
Of rages and of strife
And all the human misery
And all the waste of life."

The song transitions away from this early sadness, however, toward an understanding that sometimes conflict is needed if liberty is to be defended, and after that, we've all gotta learn to love each other in this crazy world.

In contrast to the bad drumming on the Wallflowers album I just reviewed, the measured - even haunting - drumming on "Beneath A Phrygian Sky" is key to setting the tone as we slowly transition from historical grievances to hope. Listening to McKennitt, I always feel like that is possible.

While this album has less stand out tracks than some, the overall mood is beautiful. It is like wading into a fast moving stream in a mountain. Cold at first, with treacherous footing, but soon enough refreshing and invigorating if you stay in long enough and get your bearings.

Just have a towel handy, and use the buddy system. A Creative Maelstrom doesn't want anyone catching hypothermia while looking for enlightenment.

Best tracks: The English Ladye and the Knight, Penelope's Song, Beneath A Phrygian Sky, Never Ending Road (Amhran Duit)

CD Odyssey Disc 262: Loreena McKennitt

From the powerful riffs of Judas Priest, the CD Odyssey takes another sharp turn - this time back into my other love - folk music.

Disc 262 is...The Mask and Mirror

Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1994

What’s Up With The Cover?: In previous reviews of Loreena McKennitt I've been kind of harsh on the cover art, so I'll ease off this time and just say that this is an improvement. Obviously, as time went on Loreena had a bigger art budget. I'm not a fan of the collage as art, and her hair still needs help, but this is at least passable. For a folk album, it is positively high tech.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of McKennitt when this album came out in 1994, and so just bought it as a matter of course. There was a music video for "The Bonny Swans" which I believe alerted me to the fact that there was a new album to be had.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums. Of these, I'd put this one third.

Rating: 4 stars.

This my third review of Loreena McKennitt, so I won't get into too much detail on the basics (haunting voice, amazing harpist etc.) and focus instead on this album.

While I was already firmly a fan of McKennitt in 1994, this was in many respects her breakout album (if such a thing is possible in the folk genre). The usual McKennitt elements are here, with the focus still being on the harp and vocals, but this record adds a number of other layers, including the occasional use of synthesizer. This brings it a more new age feeling than was present on her first two records, and advances themes only lightly covered by the record that immediately preceded it, "The Visit".

A quick review of the album's liner notes to see what other instruments were on here revealed quite an array. Everything from the pedestrian (electric guitar, fiddle, accordion) to the typically arcane folk fare (bouzouki, Uilleann pipes, balalaika) and into things so strange I'd never even heard of them (the hurdy-gurdy, the dumbek and the udu).

A quick search on the 'interwebs' reveals the latter two are types of drums, and the hurdy-gurdy is some bizarre stringed instrument played by means of a crank.

I couldn't pick out where each of these is used, let alone why, but this rogue's gallery of instruments could easily come off sounding like a disjointed mess in less agile hands. Instead, they complement each other very well under McKennitt's detailed and carefully wrought production. It never seems like an instrument is just put on for novelty's sake, but rather in every song, the sounds all just seem to belong with each other.

This is saying something, because as I noted earlier, McKennitt strays far afield from just a traditional Celtic folk album here. She works in Middle Eastern music, Russian folk sounds (hence the balalaika) and various other sounds from throughout central and western asia. It is an album that lovingly traces the roots of the Celtic people themselves, and brings their sounds from across thousands of miles of geography and hundreds of years of musical history.

It is deliberately done, certainly, but it is done with a deft and subtle hand. McKennitt gives us a musical history lesson without seeming preachy.

There are only eight songs on the album, most of which are very long - between six and nine minutes. They take time to develop, but never feel overblown. They are each exactly as long as they need to be. OK - except "The Mystic's Dream" - I could've shaved a minute off that one, but it is a minor quibble.

Favourites include "Full Circle" and "The Bonny Swans". The latter is a very grim (and Grimm-like) fairy tale of a woman drowned by her sister out of jealousy of her lover. The drowned sister's body floats up into a miller's wheel, where a harpist finds it, and makes a harp out of it (hair as strings, finger bones as tuning pegs and rib cage as the frame). The resulting harp is enchanted, and plays itself in front of the murdered girl's family - identifying her sister as the killer.

While I always enjoy the poetic justice in the song, I also wonder what sort of harpist makes a harp out of a dead body - and then what kind of hall lets him bring it into the dining room and play it. I mean - gross. But that's old school folk tales for you - they can be pretty nasty.

As usual, McKennitt also sets a few poems to music (Yeats' "The Two Trees" and a speech by Prospero from Shakespeare's "The Tempest"), but my sentimental favourite is a conversion of a 15th Century Spanish poem into a song called "The Dark Night of the Soul."

This song shows McKennitt in all her glory - from her deep whisper in the verses that sounds like a ghost is singing to you, up to full operatic majesty in the higher register of the chorus. The original poem is about a man's relationship with God, but it always struck me as incredibly romantic:

"Upon a darkened night, the flame of love was burning in my breast

And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest

Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled

The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead.

"Oh night thou was my guide

Oh night more loving than the rising sun

Oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one

Transforming each of them into the other."

Best of all, on my first date with Sheila, I was in full thrall to this album's beauty, and when I invited her in, I suggested we sit and listen to 'this great song I've recently discovered.' We sat in the dark and I put on "Dark Night of the Soul." Not only did Sheila love it - she already knew it. She had the album, and had even seen this particular tour live. So while it could've been a little heavy handed for a 'we just met' moment - it all worked out after all.

So in summation, this is a fine album, with some great memories, and while I'm not suggesting it is likely to help you score girls, it certainly worked for me.

Best tracks: The Bonny Swans, The Dark Night of the Soul, Full Circle, The Two Trees

CD Odyssey Disc 143: Loreena McKennitt

Recently there was a reign of terror a certain "MK" (I won't type his full name for fear that he will appear behind me if I do). Now there appears to be a second round of random terror, as Loreena McKennitt is rolled for the second time in three discs.

Oh no! I've typed her name - what is that behind me? The rural setting, the ill-fitting prairie dress...could it be? No! No! Noooooo...!!!!

Disc 143 is...Elemental
Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1985

What’s Up With The Cover?: Another piece of bad folk photography. A frightened Loreena McKennitt runs across a field in the fading light, wearing an ill-fitting 19th century peasant undershirt. Is she going to leave her harp out like that? The dew will definitely damage the tuning!

How I Came To Know It: I just covered this, but I liked the album "The Visit". "Elemental" was just me digging through the collection. Although it is her first album, I bought it third overall.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums. I'd put "Elemental" at about 4th out of those six.

Rating: 3 stars.

Having just reviewed McKennitt at Disc 141, I don't have a whole lot to add in a general sense. I'll just say she is an excellent example of Celtic folk music, and a Canadian original all at the same time.

"Elemental" is her first album, and is aptly named. It is far more traditional in its approach than any of her other recordings by a wide margin.

Most of the songs are traditional folk songs that have been around for a very long time. "Blacksmith" and "She Moved Through the Fair" are both standards I've heard any number of times. That isn't to say they are bad, and in fact I haven't heard either any better than when in her hands.

The songs that are McKennitt tunes, are her setting famous poems to music. On this front, her interpretation of the Yeats' poem "Stolen Child" is one of my favourites on this or any of her albums. This is her first effort in putting famous poetry to music - a skill she perfects with "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Highwayman" on later albums.

"Stolen Child" tells the tale of a young child abducted from human society by faeries. It is a retelling of the story of the changeling, which I've always been fascinated by. A changeling in Celtic myth is a 'fey child' that replaces a human child, while the human child is taken away by faeries. Usually the fey child looks like the original baby, but behaves differently, and has powers or insight beyond what is mortally possible.

This alienation myth of one's own child is a fascinating one to me, and wraps up any number of subconscious fears we feel into one story. What it means I don't know, but I always find Yeats' imagining compelling - particularly given it focuses on the human child being drawn away by the natural beauty of the world, rather than simply stolen. When you match the power of Yeats' vision with the ethereal quality of McKennitt's songwriting talent, you get a winner.

The other notable literary tip of the hat on the record is "Lullaby" which features McKennitt's music again, this time accompanied by a male actor (Douglas Campbell) reading a poem by William Blake. It begins:

"O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war! - When the senses
Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed
Fight in the troubled air that rages, who can stand?"

Groovy sermon, and better heard than read.

McKennitt also gets a guest singer (Cedric Smith) to handle "Carrighfergus" which has been a favourite of mine for years. It is the story of a man who wants to get across the sea to Carrighfergus to see a woman he loves, but has no boatman to help him. Since the sea is too wide, he decides to get drunk, and wander from town to town until he gets sick and dies. OK, it is not a heroic song, but it has a nice barroom quality and is fun to sing along.

Musically, the album is very sparse and traditional, and in places I found myself wishing for some of the braver choices she would make in later albums. I will say that "Come By the Hills" is notably beautiful and has a kick ass harp riff. The kind of thing I can get my folk-mosh on for. Yeah - you read that right, punchy.

This album is a solid entry in McKennitt's discography. It may be primarily old folk standards, but it is an early display of her deep talent, and sets the stage for what is to come.

Best tracks: Stolen Child, Carrighfergus, Come By the Hills, Lullaby

CD Odyssey Disc 141: Loreena McKennitt

Time to take another trip down to my folksy past. I am in a bit of a hard rock phase right now, so the Odyssey’s ability to transport me into genres I don’t play as often is welcome indeed.

In fact, a side effect of this whole experience is that I am finding myself simultaneously interested in all different musical genres.

Disc 141 is...Parallel Dreams
Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1989

What’s Up With The Cover?: Folk music is great, but the covers can be painful. Here we have Loreena McKennitt, sans hair product, trying to look mystical on the edge of a lake. Pictures like this always look like they were taken by a family friend, rather than professionally done. In Loreena’s defence, this album was before she broke ‘big’ on the Canadian folk scene – so the style budget was probably pretty tight.

How I Came To Know It: I heard a song from the album that followed this one, (1991's "The Visit”) and when I bought that album I was an instant fan. “Parallel Dreams” was me doing what I do best – drilling into the collection. It was the second Loreena McKennitt album I would buy.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums. Of the six, I’d put this one probably second or third, but more likely second.

Rating: 4 stars.

Loreena McKennitt is a great example of how talent and hard work can equal success without compromise. For most of her career she marketed her own CDs, with no management company - selling the discs from her own house, and running her own mail order business, in addition to writing, performing, producing and arranging her own tours. There is even some great footage of her going to record stores in New York to lobby managers to display her discs more prominently, or to play them while people shopped.

When “Parallel Dreams”, came out in 1989, McKennitt was still toiling in relative obscurity (at least I had never heard of her). It is a shame, too – so often the album right before an artist hits it big is some of their best work, but is overshadowed by what comes after.

Before we go any further, at this point a warning is in order. “Parallel Dreams” is not for the faint of heart. It is a hard core folk album, with very few of the pop sensibilities like we saw with the Dixie Chicks. This album is Celtic folk, where the lead instrument is a harp.

If you can get past that, then you’ll be well rewarded. McKennitt has a high, haunting voice that has few equals. Her later work adds a lot of more modern, new age elements but “Parallel Dreams” captures her in a very raw way, and lets her singing and storytelling come to the fore. When listening to this album, you really feel like you’ve been transported back to ancient Ireland or Scotland.

Of the eight tracks, McKennitt writes the music for seven, and the lyrics for four of the six that aren’t instrumentals. The other lyrics and music are ‘traditional’ which on Celtic folk records is…er…traditional.

I particularly enjoy the “Huron ‘Beltane’ Fire Dance", which I believe is McKennitt merging Huron Indian chants with fiddles inspired by the Celtic holiday of Beltane (she tackles the more famous holiday of ‘Samain’ on the album’s opening track, “Samain Night”). The “Fire Dance” has a rolling quality that makes you feel like you are dancing around a bonfire, even when you are actually in your car, stuck in traffic.

Bar none, however, the best song is the traditional, “Annachie Gordon”, a song about a young woman who wants to marry her true love, but is instead betrothed by her father to another man, who has (as Monty Python so aptly puts it) ‘great tracts of land.’

This song is a tragic tale, told in a time when people legitimately died of a broken heart. Of course, people still die of it, but modern medicine likes to call it something else these days to make us all feel a little bit more in control of our feelings. I have played “Annachie Gordon” easily one hundred times – and in the excitement of my youth, I’ve inflicted its full 8:22 on any number of victims over the years. It chokes me up every time.

While ‘Annachie Gordon’ is a five star folk song, there is one track on this album that annoys the hell out of me – that being “Dicken’s Dublin (The Palace)”. It is not enough that this song references one of my least favourite Victorian authors (as in – please sir, can I have some less?). No, added to this is some young English boy babbling on about life being tough in the streets of the city. If I want to hear about the down and out I prefer the master - Shane McGowan. Dickensian-inspired eight year olds need not apply.

Despite the abomination of “Dicken’s Dublin” this album is solid work, and has a couple of the better folk songs I’ve ever heard. It isn't the first Loreena McKennitt album I'd recommend, but it is probably the second.

Best tracks: Samain Night, Huron ‘Beltane’ Fire Dance, Annachie Gordon, Standing Stones.