“All Souls Night” by Loreena McKennitt

"All Souls Night" comes from The Visit, the fourth studio album Loreena McKennitt released in September 1991, and it is hers from the ground up: she wrote the words and the music, sings it, plays accordion and keyboards, and produced it, with guitarist Brian Hughes as co-producer. Hughes adds balalaika too, George Koller works through a whole cabinet of instruments (cello, double bass, fiddle and tambura) and Al Cross drums, while Jeff Wolpert recorded and mixed it. Balalaika, accordion and tambura in one place give it a far-flung, old-world shimmer that owes nothing to the rock charts of the day.

The Visit went on to share the 1992 Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album with the compilation Saturday Night Blues, and it has since gone four times platinum in Canada and gold in the United States.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.