She is self-managed, self-produced and head of her own record label - Quinlan Road. In a recording career spanning three decades, McKennitt's “eclectic Celtic” music has won critical acclaim worldwide and gold, platinum and multi-platinum sales awards in fifteen countries across four continents. Her most successful record is 1997's "The Book of Secrets", which spun off the single "The Mummers' Dance", a surprise hit on American Top 40 and alternative rock radio.

McKennitt blends world-music with folk, Celtic and exotic Mediterranean sounds using instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, kanoun, uilleann pipes, Turkish clarinet, bouzouki and nyckelharpa alongside traditional instruments like guitar, drums and bass and the harp, piano and accordion, the three instruments she plays.