Far be it from me to presume to know what Ms. McKennitt requires to nurture her unique creative process, but I confess, I chafe at the idea that she might be touring at the expense of creating new music. Her studio recordings seem excruciatingly rare as it is. Now, for the lucky few who can catch a live performance in Europe this summer, this question must sound quite mad. Yet shouldn't we as her most devoted fans be encouraging her to focus instead on finding new inspiration, rather than playing material already available to us all?

Okay, so everyone probably knows I'm a speaker-nut by now. But I'm also a computer-nerd and my audio background has its roots in car audio.

So I'm thinking that we need to devise some sort of wireless networking system between the tour buses to integrate with a computer-based recording system, and build a multi-bus, mobile recording studio, so they can cut studio tracks on the road!

Now if we can just get past that pesky need for sleep, they can keep us all happy!

I'm not in anyway presuming to answer for Ms. McKennitt but if I were a musician/composer/performer I would have to get out and tour. It would seem to me that a successful business depends upon a balance. And a healthy state of mind and body also depends upon balance and not focusing to much on one aspect of the process.

I know that it's that way for me when I make my jewelry. I can't sit all day in my studio, I can't sell all day on the internet...sometimes I have to get out and do the fairs and shows. I love meeting the people who buy my pieces. I love their comments and their conversation.

Hi RedClay

Your question really made me wonder about me alias.

I didn't think that much about it, as I chose it.

For a short moment I thought I might have misunderstood the meaning of the word. So I have found this defination of it on the net. I think it descibes it very well...

anx·ious
Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use roughly as a synonym for eager, but many prefer that anxious be used only when its subject is worried or uneasy about the anticipated event. In the traditional view, one may say We are anxious to see the strike settled soon but not We are anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the museum. Fifty-two percent of the Usage Panel rejects anxious in the latter sentence. But general adoption of anxious to mean "eager" is understandable, at least in colloquial discourse, since it provides a means of adding emotional urgency to an assertion. It implies that the subject so strongly desires a certain outcome that frustration of that desire will lead to unhappiness. In this way, it resembles the informal adjective dying in sentences such as I'm dying to see your new baby

I have always translated anxious to be longing for something, that might not come true.

I remember I added the 2 because I liked the idea the it can be spelled in different ways
two, too, to


Maybe I just unconsciously chose this alias because it is quite opposite.

You really got me anxious...


...too

quote:

Originally posted by RedClayTexan:
...
I'm also curious, Anxious, as to how you selected your alias, since your posts sound wise and not anxious in the least...

Hello, Loreenakateers, I believe Ms. McKennitt should create more music. I would suggest if she did stuff like setting T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" to music. --Loreenya

What she does is write about people, their
lives, and way of life (as it was). She needs to study and research it as her heritage seems to be Irish (I would think with the name McKennitt). Much of what she is working with lately seems to be of middle eastern nature, so travel and study was/is her inspiration.
It's more complicated than writing about what happened in a honky tonk in Texas, a blues bar in Chicago or what a Rockstar does at 37,000'.
Although they are writing about what they experience as well.
Her's is more a history lesson all at the same time, while combining her musical interpretation of how it should sound.
I think one leads to the other and then we get to hear it full circle when she is done.

Income and travel notwithstanding, as a musician the one thing you want to do most is play music. Being on stage and performing is the reason for being. As a recording artist, the LAST thing you need is a record that doesn't measure up to your personal standard. I've always thought the hardest thing in the recording business is to come up with the follow-up record and not have it be "An Ancient Muse II" or "Ancient Muse-The Lost Tracks" or "Stuff That Didn't Make It On Ancient Muse". The trick is to come up with something that's new, fresh, unique and yet maintains trademark Loreena McKennitt. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers has been able to do this for years, for example. I have no doubt Loreena has tons of material she can draw from for a new record and would venture a guess that even if she started right now it could take 12-18 months before a new record can be released, that time includes getting the stage show nailed down. The tour promotes the record. As to the question of tour or create, Loreena can probably walk and chew gum at the same time. One thing is not exclusive of the other. No pressure Loreena...

I agree with all the points raised but releasing new material is important for fans such as myself who live in Australia where Loreena doesn't normally tour.

I live in hope that she will one day make it down under!

Thanks for your thoughts, Dan and Anxious, and I trust you are right that Loreena gains emotional and financial sustenance from her concerts. I certainly do not question her artistic integrity, which is clearly beyond reproach. Let's hope only that she knows that many of us await her next recording more eagerly than her next tour.
I'm also curious, Anxious, as to how you selected your alias, since your posts sound wise and not anxious in the least...

Hi

I agree with both of you (RedClay and Dan).

We are having the Day of the Music (Musikkens Dag) in DK today.

I think it is very important for the musicians and the puplic to share the music together.
I find it is both a joy to go listen to music and to be able to perform it for others.
It would be a shame if people who does not play or sing themselves cannot enjoy the music live.
And I believe it to be some sort of appreciation to the artist to have someone who likes to hear them play.
You cannot be who you are if you haven't got some one who listens to you, and belives in you. And this does not just involve the music business. I would be tempted to call it an essencial part of being human. We need to feel appreciated...


Anxious

I suppose touring generates a good deal of income for her. That income will allow her to wander some part of the world for a couple of years. So I guess it's a necessary part of the process. Plus, I suppose she gets some emotional satisfaction out of presenting her most recent finished product live to us. She needs to get that out of her system before moving on.