• Courtesy Of Ann Cutting
• Loreena McKennitt

Look, I love to shout out DIY artists. There's something impressive and romantic about bands who haul themselves across state lines in vans that probably wouldn't pass inspection. It's a rite of passage that the vast majority of musicians never really progress past, the whole bleeding-for-your-art thing.

To be clear, though, my admiration isn't envy. If I had a massively successful career as a recording artist during which I sold, oh, let's say 14 million albums, got nominated for a bunch of Grammys and won several Junos, made a genre-defining album that's still held in reverence more than 30 years later, and was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, you can bet your ass I wouldn't still be operating DIY. I'd have assistants just to tell me when I run out of weed. And I would never, ever carry an amplifier again.

Don't tell that to Loreena McKennitt. The Canadian singer-songwriter and Celtic music superstar has had a glittering career (those are her stats listed above), achieving the status of being invited to perform for the Queen of England, for example.

Yet McKennitt doesn't surround herself with assistants or even a manager. On her farm in Stratford, Ont., the 66-year-old musician enjoys the quiet life — until it's time to dust off the harp and hit the road. She was doing just that when I reached her by phone ahead of her upcoming tour celebrating (a little late — thanks, COVID-19) the 30th anniversary of her landmark 1991 album, The Visit. That tour brings her to Burlington's Flynn Main Stage this Thursday, October 12.

"I have a small heap of souls who help me put all the pieces together, but by and large I handle most of the details," McKennitt said. "The hardest part is putting together the blueprint, the routing and working out all the logistics, but once that's done, it's just about executing the plan and playing the shows."

Though McKennitt makes it sound easy, booking a tour is no mean feat in 2023. As a Canadian citizen touring the States, she has to deal with the Internal Revenue Service and pay taxes on tour income, something she worries about as the American government flirts with a November shutdown. Then there's the lingering specter of the pandemic.

"Oh, it's still changing things," McKennitt said. "In most professions, if you get sick and miss five days, it's no big deal. But I've put up half a million dollars' worth of equipment and trucks, and I have musicians and touring staff to pay, so, as a touring artist, getting sick can be catastrophic."

Still, McKennitt can't hide her excitement about touring America for the first time in more than seven years and playing some of her most celebrated material.

"It's really quite interesting to revisit those songs," she told me. "I feel like the songs hold up really well, which is nice. And for a song like 'Bonny Portmore,' this traditional piece lamenting the cutting down of a tree in Ireland, it feels as relevant now as it did over a century ago."

McKennitt admits that she rarely, if ever, listens to her old material and hasn't sung many of the songs on The Visit in years. But she relishes the opportunity to, ahem, revisit the work. She fondly recalled singing a version of the traditional song "Greensleeves" as a joke — until it ended up on the album.

"We were just playing around while the recording engineer took a phone call," she said. "Someone suggested I try singing 'Greensleeves' like Tom Waits, so I dropped my voice and did this hushed thing and it worked, so we ended up tracking it."

McKennitt fell in love with traditional Celtic folk music growing up in Manitoba, where her parents would take her to a club in Winnipeg. As soon as she heard Celtic music, with the beating bodhran and tablas and the keening fiddles, she was "smitten by it," she said.

"What I like so much about folk music is that you can't truly appreciate the songs until you appreciate the social, economic and political circumstances from which it sprung," McKennitt said. "Discovering those songs opened my eyes to Irish history, and I hope my own music might do the same."

When I pointed out that she certainly has fans who learned about Celtic traditions and songs from her albums, she noted that she lives on a farm and hasn't engaged with social media since quitting Facebook in 2017.

"I live as much of my life as close to the natural world as possible and draw a lot of rejuvenation from that," she said. "But whenever I do encounter someone who had a positive interaction with my music, I'm very humbled. To hear people got married and had kids to my songs is just an incredible sensation."

McKennitt released her most recent studio album in 2018. When — or if — she will go back to the studio to make another record is anyone's guess. According to her, the recording industry has collapsed, largely due to the advent of streaming.

"You used to make 25 cents every time your song played on the radio," McKennitt recalled. "But with Spotify, if you're lucky you can get 10 cents for every thousand plays. It's just utterly broken."

For the time being, McKennitt is focused on live music — and happy to be back on the road after years away.

"I truly can't wait to get out from the rock I live under and perform these songs again," she said.

For more info on McKennitt's upcoming Burlington show and to purchase tickets, visit flynnvt.org.