By Stevie Connor.
It’s been a decade since Loreena McKennitt and her band toured the Canadian prairie provinces and now the award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter is coming back. The Visit Revisited Tour: The Next Chapter will include November shows in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, as well as in Saskatoon where she has never before performed.
The 27-city fall tour, which kicks off Oct. 11, 2023 in Portland, Maine, commemorates the 32nd anniversary of her life-altering, Juno Award-winning album, The Visit. The album was released in Canada in 1991 and internationally in 1992 when she entered into a partnership with major international record company Warner Music Group. The Visit propelled McKennitt onto the world stage, where she has comfortably remained ever since.
“I was born and raised in Manitoba and in many ways I’m a prairie girl at heart,” says the artist, who earlier this month was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “It’s also where I first performed at the start of my career and I can honestly say it will feel a bit like a homecoming. It’s been far too long and I’m so looking forward to being back in that part of Canada.”
The anniversary tour will also take McKennitt to 24 Northeast and Midwest American cities, including Boston, New York and Chicago, and as far west as Milwaukee and Minneapolis. It’s been eight years since she toured in the United States.
Tickets for the Canadian shows will be available Apr. 5, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Tickets for the American performances went on sale Mar. 24, 2023.
Accompanying her on tour will be long-time musical companions Caroline Lavelle on cello, Brian Hughes on guitar, Hugh Marsh on violin and Dudley Phillips on bass.
The first chapter of The Visit Revisited Tour was a 10-performance, eight-city tour in eastern Canada during September and October 2022. It followed McKennitt’s release in September 2021 of The Visit: The Definitive Edition which celebrated the 30th anniversary of her original recording of The Visit. The deluxe, limited-edition album featured an enhanced listening experience and included four CDs, audio Blu-ray and an illustrated booklet with relived memories and previously unpublished material.
McKennitt’s last pre-pandemic tour outside Canada was in 2018. The Lost Souls Tour kicked off in her home base of Stratford, Canada that September and was followed by performances in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The tour then took her to Europe the following spring and summer for 49 concerts, eventually wrapping up back in Canada in the fall of 2019. Following the tour, she announced she was putting her music career on hold to spend more time on her personal life and with family, as well as on matters related to climate change and the unintended consequences of technology.
Ahead of the fall tour, McKennitt will also be making rare appearances at three summer folk festivals in her home province of Ontario in August, joined by special guests The Bookends, a Stratford-based Celtic band. Festival tickets are on sale now.
McKennitt’s eclectic Celtic blend of pop, folk and world music has sold over 14 million albums worldwide. Her recordings have achieved Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum status in 15 countries on four continents. She has twice been nominated for a GRAMMY® Award and has won two Juno Awards, as well as a Billboard International Achievement Award.
She has performed in some of the world’s most-respected and historic concert venues, from Carnegie Hall to the famous Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain and for dignitaries including the late Queen Elizabeth II and His Majesty King Charles III, and other heads of state.
In addition to her musical career, McKennitt has been recognized for a number of noteworthy philanthropic initiatives, including:
The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety
The Falstaff Family Centre
Honorary Colonel of the Royal Canadian Air Force
In 2004, McKennitt was awarded the Order of Canada and in 2013 was appointed Knight of the National Order of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France.
TOUR DATES
August 12 Goderich, ON Goderich Celtic Roots Festival August 18 Owen Sound, ON Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival August 19 Gravenhurst, ON Muskoka Music Festival
October 11 Portland, ME Merrill Auditorium October 12 Burlington, VT Flynn Center for the Performing Arts October 13 Concord, NH Capitol Center For The Arts October 14 Boston, MA Chevalier Theatre October 15 Albany, NY The Egg October 17 Rochester, NY Kodak Center Theater October 19 New York, NY Town Hall October 20 Philadelphia, PA Kimmel Cultural Campus October 22 Norfolk, VA Chrysler Hall October 23 Washington, DC Warner Theatre October 24 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre October 26 Reading, PA Santander Performing Arts Center October 27 Pittsburgh, PA The Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall October 28 Akron, OH Goodyear Theater October 29 Grand Rapids, MI Devos Performance Hall October 30 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater November 1 Columbus, OH Southern Theatre November 2 Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre November 3 Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre November 4 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre November 5 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre November 7 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater November 8 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
November 9 Winnipeg, MB Centennial Concert Hall November 11 Saskatoon, SK Sid Buckwold Theatre November 12 Edmonton, AB Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium November 13 Calgary, AB Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Website: loreenamckennitt.com
Twitter: twitter.com/Loreena
Instagram: www.instagram.com/LoreenaMcKennitt
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