Big Break Ruins Her Plan for a Big Break

Nothing like a hit to mess up some nice plans.

For Loreena McKennitt, having her lilting song “The Mummer’s Dance” climbing the charts has really thrown a monkey wrench into her intent to take some much-needed time off.

The Canadian musician figured that with the release last November of her sixth album, “The Book of Secrets,” she’d give herself a break after more than a decade of solid work not only as a composer-performer, but also as her own manager and proprietor of her record company. The record would take care of itself, by and large. She had worked hard for years to build a solid, loyal following for her Celtic- and medieval-flavored music.

The method was already proven. With no commercial radio exposure to speak of, each of her last two albums, 1992’s “The Visit” and 1994’s “The Mask and Mirror,” sold a respectable and profitable 400,000-plus copies in the U.S., on top of strong sales in her home country and throughout Europe. Warner Bros. Records, which through its Canadian wing licenses and distributes her releases from her Quinlan Road company, had a creative marketing plan laid out that seemed a good bet to surpass that level with the new collection. So once the album was finished, it seemed a good time to cut back and concentrate on other things.

“This had been building brick by brick since 1985,” says McKennitt, 40. “I’ve chosen a very labor-intensive method by taking on the management side, and it’s allowed me many great things. But at the same time it has not allowed me to be part of the community and spend time with family and friends, and I felt I really needed that.”

So confident was she in this agenda that although this record marks the end of her deal with Warner Bros.--with its performance to play a large part in setting the value of her next deal--she didn’t even believe it necessary to be on hand for the album’s launch.

“I was so determined to get on with my new life that I actually went on a two-week bicycling trip in China right when the album was released,” she says.

Now, though, the red-headed native of the small town of Morden finds herself with a legitimate, if unlikely, hit on her hands. Like most of her compositions, “The Mummer’s Dance” is in part the product of scholarly research into Celtic and medieval music and culture that she’s conducted in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The sounds she employs reflect that, combining her own skills on the Celtic harp with such other traditional instruments as Andalusian oud and Arabic hand drums, with just a hint of modern textures and rhythms.

That version helped the album reach No. 1 on the U.S. world music charts, where it has stayed for four months.

The radio version, though, is a remix of the album version, edited to shorter length and given a new rhythm track and some electronic embellishments. Still, it’s rather exotic for pop radio. When was the last time you heard an oud on alternative-rock leader KROQ-FM (106.7)? But there it is, among KROQ’s most-requested songs, and doing just as well on adult alternative and adult contemporary stations.

“We don’t normally support this kind of sound,” says KROQ music director Lisa Worden. “But on Day One when we heard it in November we looked at each other and said, ‘This will be huge.’ And the first time we played it, the phones blew up [with listeners who liked it]. I think it’s just someting about her vocals, and with the remix it’s something that we can play.”

Sales of the album--already more than 400,000 in the U.S., passing her previous best--are increasing weekly, standing last week at 44,000 bringing it to No. 22 on the national album sales chart. In L.A., the impact is even greater, with the album currently the No. 9 seller, according to SoundScan.

“The irony is that this [attempt to pull back] is happening at a time when my career is really peaking,” she says. “But you can’t have it all. . . . I realized that this project was so labor-intensive that we’ve hunkered in [Canada] and in my office in London. Coming up is a four- or five-week European tour, and I’m hoping to squeeze in a few dates in North America.”

But the single’s success is not steering her from her artistic path, she insists. This remix--done with her permission but without her participation--is merely a side trip. While she says she is open to new directions and explorations, she has no interest in trying to repeat the hit formula.

“First, I don’t think there’s another track on the album that can be remixed and retain its integrity,” she says. “And I’m not going to do it as a gratuitous effort. It would be a purely opportunistic exercise to do that and would involve a whole different philosophical position than I feel comfortable with.”

KROQ’s Worden says that McKennitt may have to be opportunistic in that way to maintain the momentum she has.

“Going through the album, I’m not sure we’d do well with the other songs,” Worden says.

McKennitt, frankly, feels her music is better suited to less aggressive ways of reaching people.

“I’m not going to have a knee-jerk reaction that we have to do everything right now [while the single is hot],” she says. “One thing about people who have come to my music is they’ve often come by word of mouth or other circuitous ways and feel their relationship with it is very intimate. I’m worried that marketing can cause the impression that you’re buying a garment off the rack, and [the bond] is not as tight. So the method people find my music is as important as the music itself.”

Surprisingly, that’s fine with the people in charge of marketing McKennitt’s music at Warner Bros.

“I will challenge anyone to find a stronger artist with word of mouth than her,” says Peter Standish, Warner Bros. vice president of product management. “She’s made music that’s melodically gifted and has an almost angelic voice, and she has amazing determination and focus. And one thing that’s really great is she’s always keeping an eye on her fans, always thinking about them.”

Perhaps to the label’s dismay, though, she’s not thinking about her future in the record business. Though the hit puts her in a strong position for a new deal with a major, she’s not sure what she plans to do next. Her first three albums were released without major support in the style now associated with Ani DiFranco, and with her wider renown today, she may explore a return to that method.

“The stretch of working with Warner Bros. has been very positive,” she says. “But at the same time, I’m not interested in getting into a contract with anybody now. I don’t want to have that responsibility looming. Strategically, most managers would never do something like that, but fortunately my business is not dependent on being aligned with a major, and I have interests in film and theater that I want to restructure in a way that allows me to stay home more.”

Hear the Music

* Excerpts from Loreena McKennitt’s recordings and other recent releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: https://www.latimes.com/soundclips