Good news Canadian fans! Loreena McKennitt will be at the hometown this July for her Canadian summer tour. Quinlan Road website confirms:

Following a highly successful Mediterranean & middle Eastern tour, Loreena McKennitt has added two more concerts to her Canadian summer festival tour — she and her band will present two performances in her hometown of Stratford, Ontario.

The concerts, will be held on Wednesday July 22 and Thursday July 23, will be held at Knox Church, 142 Ontario Street, Stratford.

The Stratford shows come in the middle of a brief Canadian festival tour that’s due to start at Le Festival d’été de Quebec in Quebec City on July10, followed by appearances at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

The two Stratford concerts will be followed by appearances at the Hillside Festival in Guelph and the Calgary Folk Festival.

“We’ve toured extensively throughout Europe & North America these past few years and yet have not performed in Stratford since 1995. Many people I run into in my everyday life in Stratford have not seen us perform, and  they have kept cajoling me, ‘When are you going to perform here?’  Although the church sanctuary is not a concert hall, it is a very beautiful space and one I have been very fond since I first came to Stratford in 1981.

Her band includes Brian Hughes (guitar, bouzouki), Jon Pilatzke (violin), Caroline Lavelle (cello), Donald Quan (keyboards), Ben Grossman (hurdy gurdy), Clive Deamer (drums), Simon Edwards (bass) and Rick Lazar (percussion).

More information here