To Drive the Cold Winter Away

An Ancient Muse It's been nearly a decade since Loreena McKennitt's last studio album, The Book of Secrets, but An Ancient Muse picks up the caravan exactly where she left off on her mystical journey through the cultures of the Middle East and northern Sahara. The Canadian singer opens this albu...	The Visit Mixing a variety of styles with a Celtic base, this was McKennitt's breakthrough album and remains one of her most musically interesting. "All Souls Night" begins the album, with dance-like rhythms and McKennitt's wonderful voice singing about the Celtic New Year. Other features ...	A Winter Garden: Five Songs For The Season Loreena McKennitt's "songs for the season" are haunting for their beauty and her fascinating voice. Blending traditional Irish music with worldbeat and New Age-like instrumentation, McKennitt's arrangements are at once elegant and eloquent, enchanting and familiar, whether she's ...	The Book of Secrets McKennitt's recordings always have the quality of a spiritual sojourn; her songs are those of a seeker, whether she's setting Yeats, Scripture, or her own words to her compositions. It's this that attracts people to her music, and The Book of Secrets is no exception, whether it's...	The Mask and Mirror McKennitt's travels through Spain and Morocco flavor this album with a distinctly Mediterranean tinge, from the opening "The Mystic's Dream," with its dancing percussion arrangements, to "Marrakesh Night Market," to "Full Circle" and the instrumental "Santiago." "Marrakesh Night ...
Parallel Dreams Parallel Dreams captures harpist/vocalist Loreena McKennitt at her absolute finest. Fully immersed in the Celtic style, this London, Ontario, performer's voice is lush and layered in warm harmonies, soaring overtop equally beautiful instrumentation. Flowing between traditional ("...	Elemental This 1985 album represents the debut of Loreena McKennitt. If there was justice in the world, it would have represented her commercial breakthrough. (That didn't come until 10 years later). Though her work became more complex as time passed, all the elements were already in place...	A Midwinter Night's Dream 2008 release. On her first full-length holiday album, Loreena celebrates the season with a CD that blends the five songs from A Winter Garden (1995) with eight new recordings inspired by seasonal favorites. 13 tracks including 'The Holly & The Ivy', 'Good King Wenceslas', 'Seeds ...	And Winter Came Twenty years after her landmark Watermark album, Enya's seventh studio disc, And Winter Came continues a phenomenally successful career that has included more than 70 million albums sold worldwide. And Winter Came is an enchanting evocation of the changing landscape of winter as ...	Nights from the Alhambra - (Jewel 2 CD + DVD) After nearly a decade off the scene, Loreena McKennitt returned to the performance and recording stage in 2006 and 2007. The Canadian singer picked up exactly where she left off, traveling through the Celtic-Middle Eastern fusions she explored on The Book of Secrets with her late...

3.5 stars: A winter solstice treat
I am a long time Loreena McKennitt fan. Her voice is what captured my heart and soul back in high school almost twenty years ago.I have finally got the chance to hear one of Loreena's older albums, her winter solstice themed TO DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY. For the first time I was actually not taken with the album right away. The music lacked the haunting melodies that I have come to love in Loreena's music. I had to listen to this cd several times for the music to sink in. What I have noticed on TO DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY is that the general sound of the music is more classical with a hint of mediaval, and lacks the celtic sounds I am so familiar with in recent albums by Loreena. For the first time, I actually found a Loreena McKennitt song I did not like one bit and that was "The King". Where on earth was Loreena's beautiful voice? Thank heavens the song is rather short. The same can be said about the instrumental "Banquet Hall" but I rather liked the instrumental more so than "The King". I really wanted to like this album as much as her more recent albums. TO DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY isn't terrible per say but compared to albums like MASK AND MIRROR and BOOK OF SECRETS, this album falls rather flat in comparison. Nevertheless the music is anything but your traditional holiday album.

A Very Special SEASONAL, or ANYTIME Album from Loreena McKennitt
Everyone wants to label this a Christmas Album.......well, that's ok, but personally I would tell them "please don't do that!" This is a VERY special album. Go up, here, and click on the links to the samplings from this album. Now, remember you're only gonna get about 28 seconds, totally out of context from each listing.....NOT the way to experience this music at all! But, perhaps it will "tweak" your ears and get you to go to your nearest music shop and pick up this truly unique album. I begin listening to this album in the late fall, when the leaves are just gone, and right through until they appear again in the spring. I do not consider this a Christmas album. This is a Seasonal album to me, that being, leafless trees, brisk chilly winds and breezes, snowfall, and icicles on limbs and eves, little winter birds, etc. Christmas music to me is Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Winter Wonderland type stuff, and Carols. The music here is more "old age" stuff, yes, a carol or two, but not too familiar to you, and this makes this album SO VERY SPECIAL....it IS things that you've not heard before, so no "ugh, THAT again!" type thoughts when a selection starts. A definite "Must-Have", and I would seek it out soon, as it is an older one, and I'm not sure if her work would go out of print or not. You NEED this album, trust me again! ~operabruin

Lovely music for the season, recorded in resonant halls
More gentle, clear-voiced beauty from vocalist/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Loreena McKennitt--this time a collection of rarely heard seasonal songs from England, Ireland and Scotland with a few original compositions thrown in for good measure. As with her prior album, "Elemental," McKennitt's arrangements here are filled with a spare but striking magic--in this case, reminiscent of the quiet stillness of a snowfall as it blankets the world in soft, crystaline white. The music was recorded in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland; Glenstal Abbey, England; and the Church of our Lady, Guelph (in Canada). In the album's liner notes, McKennitt writes, "as a child, my most vivid impression of music for the winter season came from songs and carols recorded in churches or great halls, rich with their own unique ambience and tradtition. In that spirit I have ventured into several similar locations that I have come to cherish in my travels ... The arrangements are sparse but somehow I felt that reflected the dynamics of the fall and winter seasons, and that their can be much beauty in such simplicity." I can't say it any better. Some of the songs are performed by McKennitt alone as harp-embellished vocals. Others feature understated harmonies and accompaniments by guest artists Shannon Purvis-Smith (viols) and Cedric Smith (vocals). If track #5, "Snow," sounds familiar, that might be because it also appears on one of McKennitt's later albums, "A Winter Garden." Loreena McKennitt's next album is "Parallel Dreams." Compare her work with that of rich-voiced singer Susan McKeown in "Lowlands" and the haunting a cappella ballads of Niamh Parsons in such albums as "Loosely Connected."

Warm your heart this winter
"To Drive the Cold Winter Away" belongs in every music lover's library. Stunningly and breathtakingly gorgeous in its wondrous sincerity and elegant tranquility--if you can find a more lovely, soulful winter album, please let me know--and good luck! There's no other singer in the world, imo, that can hold a candle to the angelic voice of Loreena. Every single song is Flawless. TDTCWA is truly a five star album. Buy it now, trust me. I wish to include Loreena's own words in the liner notes about her inspiration for this ethereal, enchanting album: "As a child, my most vivid impression of music for the winter season came from songs and carols recorded in churches or great halls, rich with their own unique ambience and tradition. In that spirit, I have ventured into several similar locations that I have come to cherish in my travels...[mentions Annaghmakerrig and Glenstal Abbey in Ireland]... This recording was completed in The Church Of Our Lady in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. As we recorded through the dark hours of the night, this magnificent church, built in 1877, offered great inspiration. The arrangements are sparse, but somehow I felt that reflected the dynamics of the fall and winter seasons, and that there can be much beauty in such simplicity. As it is recorded on location, you many occasionally hear sounds of life continuing on around us. We hope these aren't distracting, but rather are embraced like the flecks of straw in the wool sweater your grandmother might have knitted you to keep the cold winter away." L.M. "All hail to the days that merit more praise than all of the rest of the year.." from "In Praise of Christmas." Ah yes, let's keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts year round. I give this one of my highest recommendations and likewise, this album. Heh. Soar!

not my absolute favorite McKennitt, But......
I love the Celtic sounds and stories of Loreena McKennitt's CDs. They take me back to another time, and I fancy I can see the misty moors, the dashing men on horseback, the travels to exotic places. If I close my eyes, there are the castles, the Lady of Shalott floating off to Camelot. Alas, this one didn't transport me very far. I loved Banquet Hall, in which I could see and smell the Yule log in the giant fireplace. The Stockford Carol carried me away, and Let All That Are To Mirth Inclined sounded most like the McKennitt I'm accustomed to. It sounds as though I didn't like it -but I Did like it! Just not as much. This album belongs in every McKennitt collection, to be cherished as a glimpse into the Dickens winter season, crisp and cold, a snowflake upon the tip of your nose; ladies in their velvet capes, laughing upon the arm of a dapper gent. Sticky balls and humbug candies, disappearing into little hands and mouths. It always seems as though a century has gone by since the last McKennitt CD has made its appearance. Don't wait till Christmas - you can play this anytime.