Loreena McKennitt
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Quinlan Road
Canadian World and Celtic legend Loreena McKennitt returns to her roots with a stunning set of traditional Celtic tunes. This is source material. Within this collection Loreena shows her roots, the source of her muse.
From a legendary song list comes a spectacular series of musical interpretations. Such customarily classics as “The Star of the County Down” and “As I Roved Out” to moving instrumentals “Brian Boru’s March” and “The Emigration Tunes” will envelop you in a lush, aural soundscape that will conjure forth all things Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc.
On the haunting “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” Loreena’s vocals inflect an otherworldly tone that will bring forth the good kind of cold chills down one’s neck and back. While the bittersweet retrospective “The Death of Queen Jane” recalls the death of Jane Seymour, third wife of King Henry the Eighth, due to complications from child birth.
One of my personal favorite songs is “The Parting Glass” a wonderful ‘fare-thee-well’ tune that serves as a comforting message that there’s more to come.
Just as Loreena’s musicianship and talent remains impeccable, so too is her stable of top notch musicians, including Ben Grossman (hurdy-gurdy), Brian Hughes (guitar), Caroline LaVelle (cello), and Hugh Marsh (fiddle). On “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” they perform flawlessly.
This collection is a ‘must have’ for any fan of Celtic music.
~ Michael Lohr