The first thing you notice when you listen to The Mask & Mirror for the first time is Loreena McKennit's voice. It is one of the most beautiful voices you will ever hear. I first heard this album when I was making some very difficult choices in my life and I can honestly say that her voice led me through some very tough times.

The central point of this album is her rendition of the classic poem "The Dark Night of the Soul," and she sings each note as if she were truly searching for her soul. Hidden behind her voice a rich layer of musical instruments: a harp, a cello, a violin. All of these add to a very powerful musical effect, one that extends in both directions throughout the rest of the album.

Loreena draws on my sources for her album, all of them richly detailed in excerpts from her diary printed in the liner notes. The Mask and Mirror plays like a diary of a weary traveler. Each song transports to

different places, different times.

Have I studied every lyric on this album? Not hardly. Some of the songs do not have words at all, and one gets the sense that a misplaced word would destroy some of the mood created. There is much to be explored here, and I feel that I will still enjoy exploring this album for years to come.

One of the problems with Loreena is describing her music. Is it New Age music? Is it World music? Before she gained popularity it was very fun trying to find her albums, as record stores don't quite know where to put her. I enjoy giving this album away as wedding presents. I think I have purchased about ten copies of this album and all who receive it as a gift at least tell me they enjoy it. Of all of the albums on this list, this is the one that I would have no trouble introducing any music lover to.

It's really strange to see one of your favorite performers go through that process we know "becoming popular." Loreena's music is not the type of music that you would expect to see creeping up the Billboard Top Forty chart, but recently that's exactly what happened. Thanks to the wonderful process of resampling, she has a bona fide hit.

Book of Secrets, the follow up to The Mask & Mirror, follows the same path, but probably because of the fact that it wasn't my introduction to Loreena, it isn't quite as good an album for me.

A little album that she released between those two albums was a short Christmas album. This is an incredibly fun choice of songs and is great to play during the holidays.

I have one of Loreena's older albums, and there are some more moments of greatness on it. Most notably, she does a sprawling ten-minute version of the famous poem "Lady of Shallot." However, some of this is redundant and it is nowhere near the album that The Mask & Mirror is.

One of my most prized CD's is a promotional only copy of a live Loreena McKennitt concert. This is one of the most beautiful sets that I have ever heard performed and (like it says to do on the case) I can close my eyes and almost imagine myself there. While it appears that she doesn't mess with the songs very much, the songs are still amazingly beautiful and it seems that she takes great pride in making them sound good in a live setting as well in the studio.

I caught her first performance on Letterman and this verified the fact that she would be a very good performer to see play her songs. She has a charm that few artists ever attain.

Loreena is not touring as much as she used to and it appears that I might not ever get to see her in concert. This is one of those artists that you really wish you discovered earlier.