Troubadours On The Rhine Cd

In March 2012 an invited audience of 300 eager music devotees entered the studios of SWR1 in Mainz, Germany to participate in a truly unique concert experience and what they were fortunate enough to witness was a very special event in the long and storied career of this multi platinum Canadian recording artist Loreena McKennitt.

Accompanied only by her long standing musical companions, Brian Hughes (guitars) and Caroline Lavelle (cello), this exceptionally gifted trio of modern-day troubadours proceeded to cast a spell over both the lucky few in the studio audience and the many thousands listening-in on their radios. Over the course of an hour they performed songs from Loreena s then newly released recording The Wind That Shakes The Barley alongside a selection of favourites drawn from across her catalogue of nine studio albums, including fan favourites The Lady of Shalott, Bonny Portmore and The Bonny Swans.

Aside from the intimate nature of the performances the uniqueness of the event was enhanced by the fact that the three songs from The Wind That Shakes the Barley were being performed in public for the first time. Thrilled and elated by what they had witnessed the chosen 300 headed out into an early spring evening transported by the music back to the ancient times and places of European tribal history and into the myths and legends of three millennia of Celtic culture.

Fortunately for the rest of us, this extraordinary and refreshingly intimate trio chamber-folk performance was captured for posterity and is presented unedited in Troubadours on the Rhine, the forthcoming release from Quinlan Road. Every note is presented, just as it was performed and broadcast without overdubs or corrections.