BLACKMORE'S NIGHT

Another good release with a fantastic voice and non-obtrusive guitar, mainly acoustic, sometimes electric. This music is intended for calm and non-challenging listening and the purpose is fulfilled well. Cover songs could be disposed off and I would welcome more renaissance oriented music such as "Fayre thee well" in all its acoustic instrumental beauty.

Increasing Celtic influence is audible throughout the album as manifested on the title track with a good melody and breath-taking electric guitar solo. "The storm" is another highlight with its appealing melody and acoustic guitar runs. If you listen closely, you will find some winter-oriented tracks which makes it suitable for pre-Christmas listening.

The album of full of expectations and Blackmore's and his future wife handle them quite well except that die-hard fans won't hear any electric guitar.

There are a few covers but chosen well. "Wish you were here" is thankfully not a nod to Pink Floyd but a cover of a wonderful melancholic track from Sweden. In comparison with later albums, there are little drums and percussions, which is good to focus on classical music and Celtic tracks. "Ocean gypsy" has litle to do with Gypsy Music but reveals sublime guitar and excellent melody sung by Candice. Of course, traditional English track interpretations such as "Minstrell hall" cannot miss here."Writing on the wall" with its cheap electronic disco beat is regrettable.

On Ghost of a Rose, Blackmore and Night try to more fully integrate electronic sounds into their medieval folk style, with mixed results. The drum machine doesn't add a whole lot to their cover of Diamonds and Rust, but on the whole that cover feels misjudged to me - it doesn't feel like it hits anything not covered either by the Joan Baez original or the Judas Priest update. On the other hand, the synthesisers are used to good effect on the opening Way to Mandalay - but that's the best bit about the song, which is otherwise a smooth, poppy number that is slightly too Ren Faire to actually be pop but is a little too pop to scratch the medieval folk itch, leaving me wondering just who, exactly, this album is supposed to please.

The second Blackmore's Night album doubles down on the Ren Faire medievalisms whilst smoothing out the harder edges of the previous album, yielding an overall more sonically consistent sound over the course of the album which somehow manages to feel poppier and more accessible without being appreciably more commercial. It's still all quite pretty, but it feels like it lacks some of the imaginative departures of the previous album, and feels like a piece knocked out in response to the success of its predecessor. Certainly, there are stronger live performances of this material which inject a bit of life into them that the studio album sometimes lacks.

Blackmore's Night is a project which seemed to inspire a bit of cynicism when it first emerged. After all, you have Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow fame teaming up with his much younger partner, Candice Night, to play some folk rock in a medieval-ish sort of Renaissance Fayre style which they're clearly both quite keen on. All the signs of a vanity project are there - and yet, the signs prove false, because as far as medieval-tinged folk-rock goes this is actually pretty good.

Blackmore's guitar work and the backing of his fellow musicians are solid through and through - naturally, thanks to his illustrious career and extensive connections, he's able to bring together a team who really buy into the project, including a guest appearance from Jethro Tull's own Ian Anderson. (Part of me yearns for some sort of joint Blackmore's Night-Jethro Tull concert, perhaps concentrating on material like that on Minstrel In the Gallery or Songs From the Wood on the Tull side of the equation - how magical would that be? Either way, Ian is an apt choice of guest, because if your fancy is tickled by Tull's occasional trips into medieval and renaissance aesthetics this project might speak to you)

However, it's Night herself who is the real revelation here. Any sexist assumptions people might have had - "she's just a pretty face", "she's just a trophy wife", whatever - are blown out of the water here, because she reveals herself to be a more than capable frontwoman whose grasp of the material is shown in her performance The album includes a cover of Renaissance's Ocean Gypsy which Night absolutely nails, for instance - and which also sits very naturally with the rest of the material here.

Not content to merely regurgitate traditional-sounding material in a traditional style, the group experiment here and there with working electronic elements into the mix, an experiment which is startling on first hearing but seems strangely natural afterwards. On the whole, this is an extremely strong debut album and a great statement of intent for the project. It's cheesy as hell, though, and though it stands up to repeated listens better than their subsequent albums that isn't really saying much.

2001 saw an ever so subtle change in the Nonny-Non direction taken by Blackmore, in cahoots with his partner and now wife Candice Night, since leaving Deep Purple, in that this album, as witnessed immediately by the opener, a fine rocker, featuring blinding axe action, showed a willingness to blend his obvious love of the Renaissance influenced folk with his more immediate past as a rock icon, nay God.

There is, therefore, an immediacy and urgency in the guitar playing, and whole feel of the album's production, that is rather more intense than in the two predecessor albums (not that there was anything wrong with them. Quite the opposite). This is witnessed by another belter, featuring the type of Rainbow and Purple licks beloved of old, on I Still Remember.

The core of the album is, though, still that blend of classic folk and progressive tinged rock, and they do not disappoint on this level, either. There are a whole seventeen tracks here, so a discussion of each would take up far too much of mine and reader's time, but fine examples of the type of folksy tunes which bring a smile to me when listening, imagining a fine boozy winter's evening in a traditional tavern, are Home Again, which must have been a rage when performed live, and the quite exquisite, Celtic fused, gentle ballad Mid Winter's Night.

The longest track here is the title track, running in at over seven and a half minutes long, and it is a joy, commencing in a deeply pastoral vein, with the pace picking up with the traditional musicians joining forces with the drums and bass to create a fast paced, toe tapping fest, before Ritchie kicks in with a quite phenomenal electric guitar solo, before the close of a rousing vocal and instrumental choral singalong. Feel good music, if ever I heard any.

In amongst the more traditional BN songs, Storm being as good as an example as any with a fast paced Blackmore acoustic guitar lead in tandem with a thoughtful Night observatory vocal, there are a couple of very decent acoustic guitar solo tracks, my favourite of which is Praetorius (Courante) which has a lilting recorder as accompaniment, and the obligatory cover, in this case Dylan's The Times They Are A'Changin, which is okay without being anything special, and a stunning rendition of classic English flugal horn music on Waiting Just For You.

Therefore, there is quite a bit going on in this album, and certainly do not take any notice of those who try to fool you with the line that Blackmore "gave up doing rock" post Purple. It simply isn't true, and, in fact, there are a good many of us who would argue that what followed with albums such as this was, in fact, a damned sight more interesting, and certainly a great deal more fun.

Four stars. An excellent addition to any music collection.

I must say this is a mixture of stuff that is very dishy and other that is more ingratiating and too languorous. Blackmore's Night is the band of former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and his wife Candice Night. Until this day have they done nine records and here it's classified prog folk. I would also say a part of this music is prog folk, the majority though is some form of folk pop. Ritchie Blackmore plays all instruments on this record, so the music must be quite computer made.

The best tracks of this record is instrumental and has a deep medieval feeling, constant and mighty and makes me shiver such as "Minstrels in the hall" and "Galliard". Blackmore proves here what a great guitarist he is and those tracks are also very folky and still proggy. Many tracks with Night's vocals though are little too popular sounding even if the result is professional and nice. "Troika" takes place in Russia and is a great example of good vocals and an appealing pop approach. The closer of the record: "Carry On...Jon" is a fantastic track, instrumental and ties the music to Blackmore's earlier adventures in Deep Purple. "The Ashgrove" is a traditional English folk track and the rest is enjoyable, but quite mainstream and a little to catchy.

This record has a lot of great material and I am glad I discovered it. Sure though is that this band dwells in the surroundings of the prog, a nice disc but not a classic.

Lady In Black

After the disaster that was 2010's Autumn Sky, I was somewhat reluctant to give my attention to this new album by Ritchie and Candice. But something about the sleeve picture intrigued me enough to give it a chance and it turned out to be a vast improvement over its immediate predecessor. Indeed, I would say that Dancer And The Moon is definitely one of the better albums from the group's 15 plus year career.

The album opens with a couple of rather typical Blackmore's Night numbers. These are not bad, but unimpressive. From the third track onwards, however, the album is consistently enjoyable. Two tracks that are bound to catch the eyes of Prog fans are the interconnected Somewhere Over The Sea (The Moon Is Shining) and The Moon Is Shining (Somewhere Over The Sea). It is not exactly Prog, but it is closer than what we can normally expect from this group and there are electric guitars and even hints of Rainbow.

There are three instrumentals in The Minstrels In The Hall, Galliard, and the closer Carry On...Jon. The first of these is a typical medieval style melody played on the lute (I think). The second is a bit more symphonic, and the third is, I assume, a tribute to the recently deceased Deep Purple-keyboardist Jon Lord. The sound here is indeed somewhat Deep Purple-like (in their most laid-back and bluesy moments), dominated by Ritchie's electric guitar and backed up by Lord-like organ. A fitting end.

A few of the song titles are bound to sound familiar including Lady In Black which is a cover of the well-known Uriah Heep number. It is somehow nice to see Blackmore pay homage to a group that (partly) competed for the same musical turf as Deep Purple in the 70's. Unlike many other covers recorded by Blackmore's Night, this one really adds something of value to the song. It has acquired a medieval flavour here to great effect. Another classic song covered here is Ritchie's own Temple Of The King that originally appeared on the first Rainbow album. I love the original version sung by Ronnie James Dio (who also passed away recently), and it would be impossible to improve on that, but the present version is not bad.

I've never been a big fan of Blackmore's Night, but Dancer And The Moon was a pleasant surprise

"Dancer and the Moon". With a title like that, I knew I was in for it. I took this album review knowing only that Blackmore's Night is a prog band, but I didn't know they are prog folk. Even more than that, I didn't know that this band's goal is to bring back an appreciation for medieval music. So, as you can tell, this band uses a lot of tambourines, flutes, pipes, and wild vocal passages. The vocalist is primarily female, though there are some male vocals strewn throughout the album.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some rockin' moments that feature some great guitar work that interweaves with the more eclectic instruments. These moments are few, though; and the majority of this album consists of vocally-driven tracks with some folksy accompaniments.

What's the verdict, then? Well, I LOVE prog rock with folk influences, but this medieval thing is a little weird at times. It often comes off as cheesy and corny, unlike the medieval parts on Pain of Salvation's "Be" or some of Kamelot's albums. The album is enjoyable, but it really requires that you be in a certain mood. Plus, there is little here to bring you back again and again. All in all, an okay album that medieval music lovers will like, but that type of person isn't very common. These musicians are masters of their genre: I'm just not so sure I care all that much.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen

Their latest studio effort to date, is one of the lowest points in the long career of the group. As if it wasn't enough with their previous cover of Wish You Were Here by Rednex (a very silly Swedish novelty group who puts Eurotechno beats to folky tunes and were very popular in the high school discos when I was in my early teens!), this album includes a further two covers of very questionable Swedish Pop acts. The album opens with one of these, a cover of a hit song by the Pop group One More Time (who more than once participated in the Eurovision song contest, competing for Sweden)! The other one is Journeyman, originally "Vandraren", by Nordman, another Swedish Folk Pop artist who had a big hit with this song sometime in the 90's. Non-Swedes who haven't heard the original versions on the radio might not appreciate the magnitude of the embarrassment involved in these choices of covers, but for me this is simply unbearable. I want to hide my face in my hands when hearing these commercial ditties performed by the great Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow fame.

The rest of Autumn Sky is not embarrassingly bad, but it is very predictable and at times dull. It offers nothing new over and above what they already gave us on their previous handful of albums, just more of the same. The Rock side of the band is almost completely extinguished here and the brief and discrete electric guitar solos are few and far between. Like most earlier efforts, Autumn Sky is filled of overproduced and streamlined Folk Pop and unexciting acoustic ballads. The result is glossy and void of substance.

By all means, avoid!