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Loreena McKennitt
The Book of Secrets (Warner) (star) (star) (star) 1/2
Stratford, Ontario, the home base of Loreena McKennitt, is far from the Emerald Isle, but that doesn’t make the gold record-reaching singer a Celtic-music poseur. “Book of Secrets” is as fine a work as you’ll hear from Clannad or its sisterly spinoffs Enya and Maire Brennan, voices for which McKennitt could be mistaken. The recording fuses Celtic touches with Eastern mysticism, notably on “Marco Polo,” highlighted by violin, accordion (McKennitt also is a talented instrumentalist), guitar synthesizer, hurdy-gurdy and bouzouki.