With 14 million albums sold, a pair of
Juno Awards and two Grammy nominations, Loreena McKennitt is known for
her groundbreaking blend of Celtic sounds and World Beat. Her career is
now documented on this gorgeous retrospective album, with a deluxe
edition including a second disc, A Midsummer Night’s Tour,
featuring highlights from the live performance recorded at the Zitadelle
in Mainz, Germany, in July of 2012—a return to the city in which the
2013 Grammy nominated Troubadours on the Rhine was recorded.
“When I look back on the road from where I
have come, the people I’ve met, the places and experiences which have
informed the music, or even where we created or recorded the music, I
marvel at how rich my journey has been,” says McKennitt. “I recognize
that many people will be hoping for a new recording and I am delighted
to say that the process of researching a new recording has begun. At the
same time we’ve learned that for one reason or another, certain parts
of the world have only had limited access to my catalogue and this 30th
Anniversary is an opportunity for us to introduce them to some of the
musical highlights over these 30 years.”
A successful self-managed maverick since
her early days busking on the streets of Toronto, McKennitt established
her own Quinlan Road label and publishing company and has produced
albums in various locales—including a barn in Southern Ontario, a
Benedictine monastery in Ireland and Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio
in England, where she recorded four of her albums. Her releases include
seven studio recordings, three seasonal recordings, and a live
in-concert DVD from the Alhambra in Spain. She garnered double-platinum
honors for 1997’s The Book of Secrets and its Top 20 crossover radio hit, “The Mummers’ Dance.”
Her appearances have taken McKennitt to
concert halls and historical venues around the world, and have included
performances for dignitaries including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
heads of state, as well as at the 2013 fantastical wedding of Sean
Parker and Alexandra Lenas in Big Sur, California.
In addition to her musical career,
McKennitt has been recognized for a number of noteworthy philanthropic
initiatives. In 1998 she founded the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water
Search and Safety and she was instrumental in the transformation of a
1929 neo-Gothic school into the Falstaff Family Centre, a charitable
organization focused on families and children.
In 2004 she was awarded the Order of
Canada, the highest individual civilian honor that can be bestowed in
her country, was appointed Knight of the National Order of Arts and
Letters of the Republic of France in 2013, and she was also made an
Honorary Colonel the Royal Canadian Air Force in 2006. As a privacy
advocate she won a landmark privacy case in the UK. She has been awarded
four honorary degrees for her non-musical endeavors.
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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.
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