When I saw the press release for this book I knew that I had to read it. Mired in controversy, this book has created waves with serious consequences to anyone involved with journalism. With the ink barely dry on the first court case lawyers are already running to judges citing McKennitt v Ash in order to prevent embarrassing articles being published.
Niema Ash was a long time friend, traveling companion, and confidant of Celtic Superstar Loreena McKennitt and in Travels she chronicles both Loreena’s rise to fame from very humble beginnings, and also her developing friendship with the diva.
This book is easily segmented into three sections, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Travels is a most apt title to use, much of the first half of the book chronicles life on the road, either as friends vacationing and exploring the mysteries of exotic places, or as part of the Loreena McKennitt entourage romping around the world. It is fascinating to travel along as a passenger watching Loreena as she transitions from street musician to Celtic Goddess. Niema Ash and her long time companion Tim are drawn into the whirlwind that is the music industry. Long hours on the road, grueling schedules, and the inevitable hassles that occur are all hurdles that this happy group of friends easily overcome.
Alas fame and fortune comes at a price, and often that can be a very high price. In the second part of Travels we start to see a darker side of the Celtic diva. On the stage we have an angelic and mesmerizing performer, in private we find a hard nosed business woman who vacillates between genteel companion to wailing banshee. Little by little the cracks in the friendship start to appear.
The final part of the book is definitely the downright ugly. We see a side of Loreena McKennitt that makes me shudder. We watch Loreena move into the ‘punishment’ phase. For non compliance both Niema and Tim are not just tossed aside, but actively persecuted. Using a legal team that comes from the O.J. Simpson school of creative lawyering Loreena sets about trying to ruin Niema and Tim financially.
This is a must read book. I found it deeply disturbing, and if there is a lesson to be learned it is ‘money does not buy happiness’. McKennitt has done her utmost to prevent publication of this book, and in fact is still trying to do that. I normally would add an Amazon link so that people can purchase a book, and indeed there is an Amazon link to Travels, but don’t try to buy it. McKennitts 800 pound gorilla lawyers have leaned on the printer and distributor, and they have ceased distribution fearing legal action. So if you want a copy you will have to get it direct from Niema. Oh, and order soon, she only has a limited supply and no way to get more printed.
Simon Barrett
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11 users commented in " Book Review: Travels With Loreena McKennitt by Niema Ash "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe irony, of course, is that if LM had done nothing at all, this would have remained a self-published book bought by a handful of people. Now it’s getting some attention.
I’m disappointed. You do a disservice to your blog readers, not to mention Ms. McKennitt, by presenting such a one-sided “review”, apparently accepting Ash’s words as gospel while never once questioning the motives of a self-proclaimed “friend” who had no qualms about trying to sell intimate secrets about McKennitt’s private life once the latter achieved hard-won success. McKennitt sought — and won in court, mind you — the right to make Ash remove certain sections of the book that dealt with truly intimate matters (the death of Ms. McKennitt’s fiance, her sexual life, etc.). We as the public should respect that right to privacy; we don’t “own” performers. I suspect we would all fight pretty darn hard to protect our personal privacy if it was threatened as McKennitt’s was; I’m not in the least surprised that Ms. Ash was shown the door once the content of her book became known. But while Ms. Ash may have felt “persecuted”, she was in fact rightly prosecuted for crossing a boundary — and she lost in a court of law. The shame of it is that if Ash could have written a responsible, balanced book about McKennitt — still making any points she wished to make about the price of fame, etc. — without resorting to indiscretion or judgment, the dissolution of the friendship and the subsequent court case might never have happened. Ms. Ash has no one but herself to blame for the bad judment and dubious motives she displayed in trying to sell intimate details about McKennitt’s private life, thereby diluting the worth of a potentially fascinating book into an unpalatable glass of sour grape juice. Those who consider buying Ms. Ash’s book in the hope of finding intimate or compromising “dirt” about Ms. McKennitt should instead consider the source, question their own motives, and find a more constructive way to fill their own private lives. With a “friend” like Ms. Ash….
As most of the information contained in the book is in the ‘Public Domain’, by way of Court Transcripts, press coverage, and anecdotal data, one must draw the conclusion that it is likely truthful.
Of course it can be argued that Ms. Ash is morally wrong in writing this book, but based in the ‘punishment’ that she endured, I think this is a very small retribution.
Zzsimonb, you are in the minority on this one. If Ms. Ash had just been a “friend” enough to run her idea by Loreena to write the book, as any respecting friend would do before undertaking such an endeavor (such a “friend” she is), then there wouldn’t have been controversy to start with. And, had Ms. Ash not gone against the binding action of the non-disclosure agreement and not used her spite to wrong Ms. McKennitt, there too would be no reason for such action on the part of Ms. McKennitt.
She knew what the consequences are, she knew what she was doing was wrong, and yet she wrote the book anyway. Certainly a woman who has been friends with the Dalai Lama knows to turn the other cheek and forgive and let go, but she writes a book spewing vitriol and the exact opposite she claims to be.
zzsimonb — Details of particular factual incidents may be in court transcripts, etc., but when it comes to press coverage and anecdotal stories, one would be entering much murkier territory. Any emotional judgments between the players of a drama like this would be inadmissable in a court of law. Any conclusions Ms. Ash draws about the reasons for the failure of the friendship in question or perceived changes in Ms. McKennitt’s personality are her viewpoint, and as such she is entitled to have them and even publish them — but that does not necessarily make her assessments “facts” or even “likely truthful”. That’s an important distinction. None of us is ever likely to know an unbiased account of the sordid details of the dissolution of this particular friendship. Nor are we in a position to assess who treated who appropriately. Perhaps everyone involved behaved badly at one time or another, and we’d probably all be better off to have been spared hearing about it — except that it raised an important question of law.
Whether Ms. McKennitt likes it or not, Ms. Ash is indeed entitled to publish a book saying that she doesn’t particularly like Ms. McKennitt. That’s why McKennitt was not entitled to ban the book entirely, however much its contents and potentially retributive intent may have offended her. But the court chose to set some limits as to the types of Ms. McKennitt’s private details Ms. Ash is entitled to reveal and sell for her own personal gain. Whether Ms. Ash likes it or not, there is (at least currently) legal protection for that privacy. It will be interesting to see how much of this court decision holds up over time, and how narrowly that protection can be defined, in this age of a hungry public and media feeling that they “own” performers and have the right to know everything about them because the performers lay their music, painting, performing or other artwork before the public. But aside from the legal point, it’s true that there remains a moral question as to whether “retribution” should be pursued or encouraged. Take a look at what Ms. Ash states in the Daily Mail today — her claim that the book on McKennitt “was complimentary about her, even glorified her” doesn’t quite jive with the portrait she paints in the rest of the article, or with the response you had in reading the book, so there’s a certain amount of disingenuousness to Ash’s tone that weakens her case. Everyone involved should move on to more constructive uses of their time. The best place for dirty linen is not out on the line. While some may “profit” from it (like publishers or TV stations eager for sales/ratings) in the short term, society as a whole does not benefit from it.
McKennitt may of been in the wrong in trying to block that book from being published, but I consider the fact that Ms. Ash would so willingly violate a written business agreemant to reflect very poorly on her. I only hope that this will make other people in future very weary from associatting with the likes of her. I certainly would not be overjoyed by the idea of spilling personal details to someone who’d happily publish the details in a book for all to read. She violated her word, not only as a business woman and a friend, and I hope the impact of that affects her career.
Fact: There is no spite.
Fact: McKennitt and Ash had a fall-out FOUR years prior to the book coming into view.
Fact: Ash was no longer bound to “legal confidences” as there was no contract between them. The contract had expired well before 6 months ensued after their falling out.
Objectivity is called for here. Not ” fan-fanatic emotional hoopla”. Get it straight people. This is terrible PR for McKennitt. She just doesn’t see it yet. Just because McKennitt won a court-case, doesn’t seal this as truth etched in stone forever.
I’m very disappointed in McKennitt. A sharp-witted lady that should know better.
McKennitt has lost my respect. I won’t buy her music now. I’m writing to my local PBS stations in MA. and CT. to advise them not to carry anymore of her programs…which I, as a supporter of PBS, help fund. If I see her again on PBS, I’ll cancel my monetary support. Folks we have to act in the face of what McKennett has done.
McKennett have proven herself to be phony and dangerous and we must not let her ruin anymore lives or have the truth about her buried again. It’s horrible enough that she and her shyster lawyers have ruined the financial and personal lives of Naima and Tim. Anyone who attacks that hard has lots to hide.
I don’t know all of the facts of the Loreena Mckennitt/Niema Ash conflict but I feel inclined to provide an opinion. First of all, I’ve seen many comments reflecting the belief that in seeking legal action, Loreena Mckennitt has ruined the “financial and personal life” of Niema Ash. Perhaps this was a result of the situation, but it was her choice to write revealing things about Loreena Mckennitt. She should have expected that Mckennitt would have felt this was a violation of her privacy, as she did not get permission to reveal some of the content within the book. Niema Ash needs to take responsibility for her actions. One cannot just cash in on another persons life. Besides, if Niema Ash really wanted to be successful, she could write about anything that she wants. She just happened to choose to write revealing stories about Loreena Mckennitt.
There also seems to be the idea that Loreena Mckennitt sought legal action to prevent “embarrassing stories” from being revealed. From what I know of Loreena Mckennitt, she is quite a private person which could explain why she would not want certain aspects of her life portrayed within Niema Ash’s book. This does not mean she has something really dark to hide, but probably just the reality that she does not want the whole world knowing about certain occurences within her life. I think many people would feel the same way.
I noticed that Susanne has pointed out that we must not let the truth about Loreena Mckennitt be buried again but what does she really owe us? She’s a performer. She doesn’t need to tell us about her whole life. What she is offering us is her music and somehow people seem to expect her to spill out her whole life as well. I don’t really understand how our society has gotten to the point of believing everyone owes them something. It’s not going to kill anyone not to know about Loreena Mckennitt’s life.
For those of you who have to a negative conclusion about Ms. Mckennitt based on Ash’s book, please desist. The Ash book is not ‘fact’, per se, but the opinions of an obviously disgruntled former employee and friend. How many people who have commented here have published the intimate details of their own lives, including the names and events that involve their close friends? For Susanne, if you are willing to remove your funding from PBS based on this book, please do.You are welcome to your opinion but I would caution you to get your facts from a more reputable source.
Ms. Mckennitt is within her rights to defend her private life and for Ash to portray herself as a friend is ludicrous. With friends like that…
Attacking an author as ruthlessly as LM has attacked Niema Ash suggests to me more than “privacy” issues. I suspect that if the book had been entirely flattering, no legal action would have been taken.
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