Loreena McKennitt - The Songbook of Secrets

The Italian dates of Loreena McKennitt are drawing near, her new work "The Road Back Home" is out, and the Canadian artist seems like a train that never intends to stop. As you'll read, her life is packed with activities both musical and otherwise. Her warmth during the interview is truly surprising: Loreena answered our questions with that blend of gentleness and determination we recognize in her unmistakable voice. The world is her home, and that's where Loreena wants to welcome us...

Loreena, what can fans expect from your shows on the The Visit – Revisited tour? With a notable lineup on stage...

Well, as is clear from the title, we'll be playing the whole "The Visit" album, start to finish, in the second set. The first set will instead be made up of songs from other albums. The musicians I work with are longtime friends of mine: Caroline Lavelle on cello, Brian Hughes on guitar and bouzouki, Hugh Marsh on violin, and Dudley Phillips on bass. Yes, we can't wait to come back to Italy!

Next summer you'll be back in Italy for five dates celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the release of "The Mask And Mirror". An album that raises universal questions about the meaning of contamination between distant cultures, through an evocative musical fresco of 15th-century Spain. Can you tell us how that album came about and what it means to you?

Mh-hm... Well, excellent question! As far as I'm concerned, I've always been interested in what spirituality might be and what role it plays in our lives as a human species. And you can't reflect on spirituality without bringing the role of religion into the picture. I believe religions were an answer to this need to be spiritually engaged. When I was researching the history of the Celts, one of the first places I delved into was Spain, starting from the northwestern corner of Galicia. But you can't understand or appreciate Spanish history without appreciating the role of Moroccan culture. And also the period of time when Judeo-Christian communities lived together in an acceptable way. So, "The Mask And Mirror" was an exploration of the different aspects of all that. I also reflected on the path of the Sufis, who at the time were associated by many people mainly with Islam: there's a writer called Idries Shah who argued instead that the Sufis should be placed outside of Islam. In any case, what they talked about was, for example, the concept of cleaning the mirror of one's soul. That falls within that part of spirituality: the fact that one seeks to reach the divine. This kind of exploration also showed up in setting to music the poem "The Dark Night of the Soul" by St. John of the Cross, and in how it metaphorically referred to God as if it were a relationship between lovers. It was a very rich experience in terms of travel, in Spain and in Morocco...

There was a lot of mysticism, like in Gnostic writings and so on...

Yes, yes! You know, religions have sadly become, in certain ways and at certain times, something very political. And that politicization has created, as we well know, serious problems. But still, it wasn't about being trapped in or wanting to delve into politics, so much as the genuine, pure exploration of how we reach, through our soul, a place of goodness and divinity. In a way that makes us interconnected with the rest of the world: I think what has been very interesting to me in recent years – getting more in touch with Indigenous communities here in Canada – has been starting to appreciate their worldview. Which is another version of spirituality, deeply integrated with the natural world and with respect for it.

How would you instead describe the sound and atmosphere of "The Road Back Home"? As you already said, "home" isn't just the place where a person lives...

Yes, this feeling of home as something more than a building came to me while I was working on "An Ancient Muse" between 2006 and 2007. At that time I was reflecting on more nomadic peoples who moved from place to place: it's the communities of people, the rituals, the habits, the traditions that form your culture. It can be washing together, sharing a certain meal together, playing music together. This feeling of "home" is what the Greeks called agora: coming together to discuss matters of common interest. I believe that in the times we're living in this is something very important, given our solitary lives with our devices and so on. "Home", for me, has always been something much more than a physical structure, and those people, those habits, those rituals shape daily, weekly, monthly and yearly life. And they include things like playing music, for instance: one of the most formative periods for me was when I lived in Winnipeg, right in the middle of the Canadian prairies. I used to go to a folk club on Saturday nights, where we'd gather to learn all this Celtic music: we shared albums, played different instruments, and in a way, at that time, it was part of what I felt as "home". Once I was introduced to the history of the Celts and started following the Celtic story across Europe, into Turkey, Greece, Mongolia, China, Russia... Well, that whole journey was truly rich, but these recordings take me back to that folk club in Winnipeg in the late Seventies. When I think of the cover artwork, the mountains represent the Celtic journey through all those places, and then, starting from the peak and coming down along the winding path, you arrive at these clustered little houses and the people, where that ritual takes place.

Your passion for Irish folk "roots" is well known. Two institutions of Irish music, Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O'Connor, recently passed away. Can you share a memory of them?

Well, I've actually listened to their music only in a very limited way, but there are a couple of things that really struck me: the depth of their passion and the originality with which they performed. They were truly attached in a profound way... I mean, it wasn't simply something about passion, their whole expression seemed to be deeply tied to their very essence. And they took something of Celtic music, the "Celticness" of the music, and drove it in a very distinct direction.

The harp is one of your instruments of choice. Recently there have been important female musicians who have dusted off the nobility of this instrument, from Joanna Newsom to Mary Lattimore. What does the harp represent for you, and who, in your opinion, are the best current performers on this instrument?

Well, first of all, my total attraction to the harp was born in the late Seventies, when I heard a recording - thanks to that folk music club - by Alan Stivell, the harpist originally from Brittany, in France. I listened to the album "Renaissance Of The Celtic Harp" and then the one titled "Live In Dublin", with various musicians and instruments. Philosophically or academically, the harp is associated with the bardic tradition. The bards were the media of their time: in Celtic culture they were tasked with capturing history and stories, and by traveling around, as we already know from television and the internet, they played a significant role in connecting people by sharing important events and history itself. So, in a way, I feel I'm following a very contemporary part of that mission. As for the rest, I'm honestly embarrassed to say I'm not familiar with other harpists: I should be, but I'm not, I think it's the result of being the manager of my own career! I think I spend 70% of my time on administrative matters and I don't listen to much music (laughs): I really have no idea who else plays the harp!

What sources would you suggest to younger generations interested in delving deeper into Celtic music and culture?

Well, the bands I found very formative aren't all still together these days. And just as with the harpists, I'm not entirely sure who the other groups are... but I'm sure there are many. However, the ones who particularly influenced me were the Bothy Band, Planxty, Steeleye Span, though they were English... I already mentioned Alan Stivell... Davey Spillane, who's a great uilleann pipe player, the Chieftains are of course immense to me, but as I said before, none of these people or groups are still with us. But the recordings are!

What are your main activities today, outside the musical field? The Falstaff Family Center, for instance...

Yes, so there have been a few ventures in the "civic" sphere, as I call it. The Falstaff Family Center is where I am right now, upstairs, sitting in my office: I bought this building in the year 2000 and turned it into a family center. We don't focus particularly on programming ourselves, rather we host and support groups and agencies focused on children and families. Downstairs we have multicultural associations, we're connected with Indigenous communities who have their Medicine Wheel Garden here... That's the Falstaff Family Center. In 1998 I also created a foundation dedicated to water safety, called the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund For Water Search And Safety: we've raised between three and four million dollars for this purpose. This initiative was also a consequence of the death of my fiancé in a boating accident in 1998. I also wear the hat of honorary colonel of the Royal Canadian Air Force, so I'm a civilian within the Canadian military. This role will end next year, but my task is to be a bridge between military and civilian life, to help families who relocate and to speak about the importance of democracy, which we always take for granted. Then I've also been involved in a few civic battles here in Stratford, one of which was over the glass factory during Covid, and thankfully we won that one! So I'm involved in a lot of things outside my musical career.

Finally, what can fans expect from you once the tour is over? Anything in terms of recordings?

Well, I'm definitely thinking about it! A few years ago I went to Rajasthan, in India, to explore the early Eastern connections with the Celts. It was a very rich research exercise. I'd love to do something there, with that material... Also, as I mentioned before, I have a lot of contacts with Indigenous people here in Canada: I've learned so many rich and important things from them and through them. There are various artists in those communities I'd like to collaborate with. And certainly with many other people around the world, because in Australia, New Zealand, certain parts of South and North America there are still Indigenous populations. Not so much in Europe... There's so much richness in the way they see the world, I think people would be interested in learning from them. But that has nothing to do with the Celts, it would be a project unrelated to Celtic history, whereas the Rajasthan, India one would be.

What message, greeting and invitation to join you at upcoming concerts would you send to the Italian audience?

I sincerely hope that anyone who enjoys my music will be able to join us for the The Visit Revisited tour in spring, or for the Mask And Mirror Tour in summer. It's always fantastic to play for Italian audiences, and I love meeting people whenever I can.

Ride the wave of great music

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