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Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (b. April
14, 1945, Weston-super-Mare, England) shifted his musical focus away from hard
rock in the late 1990s and started concentrating on his love of Renaissance-era
music. He formed Blackmore's Night with his fiancee, vocalist/lyricist Candice
Night (b. May 8, 1971, Hauppauge, Long Island, NY), and recruited other musicians
from around the world to combine elements of world music, Renaissance, new age,
folk, and rock & roll. Blackmore didn't exactly retire his Fender Stratocaster,
but he plays acoustic guitar almost exclusively in Blackmore's Night. His acoustic
guitar melodies and Night's clear, ethereal voice blend with a host of instruments
such as mandolins, keyboards, pennywhistles, violins, tambourines, military drums,
and hurdy-gurdies. Blackmore once described the band's sound as "Mike Oldfield
meets Enya."
Blackmore and Night met in about 1989 when Deep Purple played
soccer against employees of a Long Island radio station where she worked. Night,
a former model, studied communications at the New York Institute of Technology
and had her own radio show. Blackmore and Night discovered they shared a love
of Renaissance culture and quickly became a couple. The formation of Blackmore's
Night is tied to the efforts of his previous two bands. Blackmore left Deep Purple
-- again -- after 1993's musically disappointing The Battle Rages On... album.
Blackmore then revived Rainbow -- technically under the original
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow moniker -- with largely unknown musicians for 1995's
Stranger in Us All, and Night contributed lyrics for four songs. Blackmore didn't
really want to call it a Rainbow project, but record company executives insisted
the name recognition would make it easier to market the album. After Stranger
in Us All, Blackmore decided to actually record Renaissance-inspired music. He'd
loved the style for years, but he never really played it himself. |
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| "Blackmore
once described the band's sound as "Mike Oldfield meets Enya." |
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Once
he began playing the music at home, Night would casually start singing along.
This innocent, informal practice germinated into Blackmore's Night.
The debut album, Shadow of the Moon,
was released domestically in 1998. Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson contributes flute
on "Play Minstrel Play." Under
a Violet Moon followed in 1999, and since a full tour was planned Blackmore consciously
wrote more upbeat, stage-friendly music.
Bret Adams, All Music
Guide
 CDs
by Blackmore's Night
Visit
the band's Web site |
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