Worldwide world music icon Loreena McKennitt introduced to the world two festive Christmas albums: "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1985) and "A Winter Garden: 5 Songs for the Season" (2005).
"To Drive the Cold Winter Away" is the second full-length album by Loreena. It carries a collection of traditional Christmas carols and songs.
The album is a recalling for childhood Christmas time and customs. The title of the album itself gives you a warm impression of the spirituality of Christmas Time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SFwhoimYcA
She indicated in the album's booklet, "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."
The listener can touch those feelings in her first hymn in the album, "In Praise of Christmas." and in "Let Us the Infant Greet."
The album is recorded on location, the listener may occasionally hear sounds of life continuing on around us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYcmINx7ISQ
McKennit described the music of this album as "flecks of straw in the wool sweater your grandmother might have knitted to keep the cold winter away.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GXkVMbZ-TE
Another McKennitt's Christmas themed releases alongside her Mystic-influenced stuff as “To Drive the Cold Winter Away” is “A Winter’s Garden: 5 Songs for the Season.”
She starts the album "Conventry Carol” then she attaches an impressive oriented polyphonic cover for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” beside her original “Snow” that she previously introduced in her “To Drive the Cold Winter Away”!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYLuA9xHcsQ
Therefore, McKennitt recalls and introduces the heritage of Celts and combines it with mystic oriental sounds. Her aim is to give this message of peace and unity, while Fayrouz introduced her "Christmas Hymns" (1977) to unify the Lebanese people against any separations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWmNcoe8L-Q
"Moreover, "A Winter Garden" can be linked to Fayrouz's "Christmas Hymn." Both singers introduce their own spiritual visions through the albums, however, both kept the original mood of chanting and hymns and mixed them with music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GTBJx8PJjY&list=OLAK5uy_kCETemdUFjKS-rYDE4KBpBIsS-gA3bYus
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