Loreena McKennitt Shines in the Short But Lovely A Winter Garden

When I took a class in folklore during my six-week trip to England in 2001, my professor enthusiastically sang the praises of Loreena McKennitt, bringing in a recording of her singing The Highwayman so that we could all appreciate the talent of this mystical-sounding Canadian songstress for ourselves. That was the last I heard of McKennitt for a while, but I recently discovered that she had recorded a Christmas EP, so in delayed deference to my professor, as well as a Canadian friend I know also esteems her, I checked out A Winter Garden.

Coventry Carol - This traditional 15th-century carol is delicately beautiful, with plenty of opportunities for McKennitt’s harp-playing skills to shine. The harmonizing she does with herself is also sublime.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen - Probably the most familiar song on the album, it’s also the longest, with the more emphasis on the instrumentals than the vocals. Particularly noteworthy here are the strings, pipes and ever-present pounding percussion, which give the track a spooky and almost Middle Eastern feel.

Good King Wenceslas - Acoustic guitar, played by Aidan Brennan and Dan Ar Braz, ripples through this track, while the pipes weave in and out, a mixing of the earthy and transcendent. As it’s a narrative song, it’s driven more by the lyrics than the others, so McKennitt’s vocals are particularly important here.

Snow - McKennitt wrote the music for this song, while the lyrics were written by a young poet in the late 1800s. Her voice has an especially ethereal quality to it on this track, and the harp perfectly evokes the dainty beauty of gently falling snowflakes. I also like the instrumental conclusion, which softly echoes the second track. “The barking of a dog, or call / To cattle, sharply pealed, / Borne echoing from some wayside stall / Or barnyard far afield; / Then all is silent and the snow falls / Settling soft and slow.”

Seeds of Love - Like the previous track, this fairly simple traditional folksong was previously unfamiliar to me. McKennitt again composed new music for this reflective tale that initially seems rather out of place on this EP. After all, it speaks of spring and summer and flowers. But the implication is that the speaker is now in winter, and that these are most likely metaphorical seasons. She seems to be a aged woman who held out for true love, and attained it, but now is alone again, presumably a widow. Robert White’s pipes nicely complement her voice in creating a sense of wistful melancholy. “In June there was a red rose bud / That is the flower for me / I often times have plucked the red rose bud / Till I gained the willow tree / Till I gained the willow tree.”

In the liner notes, McKennitt indicates that this was recorded over the course of a few days. I’m not sure if that’s the time frame they were limited to or not. If it was, that might explain why there are only five tracks. After I picked this up from the library, I discovered that she later expanded the album, adding eight tracks for A Midwinter Night’s Dream. Though I have yet to listen to that, if this teaser is indicative of the overall quality of that album, it must be lovely indeed.