Blackmore’s Night – Dancer and the moon

blackmores night - dancer and the moonBlackmore’s night is the band led by former Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and his singer wife, Candice Night. The band has now been going for 20 years, and play a folk and rennaisance music with some rock mixed in – a combination that works extremely well. As well as the usual instruments you’d associate with rock – guitars, bass, drums, the band use a range of other traditional instruments including Nickelharpe, Mandola, Hurdy Gurdy, French Horn and various medieval woodwinds.  These help give the music it’s distinctive sound.  It’s music that has won the band fans from both the folk and rock communities as well as from the rennaisance scene in the US.  The band have won umerous awards and their music has been featured in a number of films and TV series.  ‘Dancer and the moon’ is the band’s eighth studio album.

Brief comments on a few tracks..

The album opens with a cover of the Randy Newman song ‘I think it’s going to rain today’.  It sounds great – Candice’s voice sounds beautiful and the song gets the album off to a good start

‘Troika’ has a real Russian feel to the music.  The Russian feel is then added to with the Russia inspired lyrics.  It’s a really catchy song and would probably be a great song for after celebrating with a load of vodka.

‘Lady in Black’ is the second cover on the album – the song is originally by Uriah Heep, but has been given a real medieval feel here which works very well.

‘Temple of the king’ is a song Rainbow fans all know and love – in fact most classic rock fans will know the song well.  It’s strange to hear the song without Ronnie James Dio on vocals, but I have to say I do love this version – right from the opening notes of the guitar the song is instantly recognisable.  Candice Night’s vocals are obviously very differnt to those of Ronnie James Dio, but work perfectly with the song.

‘The Ashgrove’ is a song that falls very much into the folk music category.

‘Somewhere Over the Sea (The Moon is Shining)’ features a superb guitar solo from Ritchie Blackmore

A track that deserves a special mention is the last track on the album, the instrumental ‘Carry on..Jon’.  It’s a tribute to Ritchie’s former bandmate Jon Lord, and is mainly played on electric guitar with some soft accompaniment from the drums and bass.  It’s a beautiful piece of music – really stunning guitar-work carrying so much emotion in it, and then when the Hammond organ kicks in three quarters of the way through the song then a real Deep Purple feel comes into the song, partly from simply using the Hammond with its iconic sound that is so associated with Deep Purple, and partly from a few short sections that sound to have come from various Deep Purple songs.  I’m a big fan of Candice’s voice, and generally not a fan of instrumentals, but this for me is just a superb track and my favourite on the album.

An excellent album.
‘Dancer and the moon’ will be released in Europe on 14th June (11th June in North America).

Track listing:

1. I Think It’s Going To Rain Today
2. Troika
3. The Last Leaf
4. Lady In Black
5. Minstrels In The Hall
6. Temple Of The King
7. Dancer And The Moon
8. Galliard
9. The Ashgrove
10. Somewhere Over the Sea (The Moon is Shining)
11. The Moon is Shining  (Somewhere Over the Sea)
12. The Spinner’s Tale
13. Carry On… Jon

Blackmore’s Night are:

Ritchie Blackmore- Acoustic And Electric Guitars, Nickelharpe, Mandola, Hurdy Gurdy, Tambourine
Candice Night- Lead Vocals, Harmony Vocals, All Renaissance And Medieval Woodwinds
Bard David Of Larchmont – Keyboards And Background Vocals
Lady Kelly Dewinter – Harmony Vocals, French Horn
Earl Grey Of Chimay – Bass And Rhythm Guitar
The Scarlet Fiddler – Violin
Troubador Of Aberdeen-Percussion

About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.