From the opening moments of “God Save the Keg” from Blackmore’s Night’s seventh studio album Secret Voyage, you realize that this is going to be a trip well worth taking. All the signs were there a long time ago when ex Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore formed his own band Rainbow. His fascination with medieval, traditional and classical influences came to the surface time and again on the first couple of Rainbow albums.
Looking back he had never looked at ease under the spotlight as part of one of rock's biggest bands. Onstage tantrums, walk outs, and public disagreements seemed to be part of his undeniable genius. Even within his own band, Rainbow, he struggled to find anything like a regular line up amid reports of sackings and people quitting citing him difficult to work with. All that has gone and now we see a vastly different and very contented man. No longer under the gaze of the mainstream rock media, he can now play the music that he wants to. Typically, of course, he plays it superbly.
At first people saw his departure as him putting two fingers up to the rock world in general. It is because Blackmore is regarded as one of the all time great rock guitarists, that the admirers from his past have refused to take this venture seriously or even try to understand his wanting to explore it. Time has proved otherwise and Blackmore’s Night, formed with his partner, singer, and multi instrumentalist Candice Night, have gone onto build a unique fan base and have released five studio albums of traditional and medieval music using traditional and medieval instruments.
Gone were the trademark Blackmore guitar solos and that incredible cleanness of sound and touch that only he could produce. Instead came songs and ballads about dance, camp fires, and maidens, that were even performed in traditional period costume.
Albums such as their first in 1997 Shadow of the Moon and the later Fires at Midnight released his fascination with Renaissance inspired music and instrumentation upon the world. Alongside Candice Night, they performed like travelling minstrels rarely paying any acknowledgment to his Deep Purple past. Secret Voyage is altogether darker and richer. Candice Night’s poetic lyrics create stories and images and, as you would expect, Ritchie’s playing is exemplary. As Blackmore’s Night has toured around Europe they have clearly absorbed from their admirers some of the traditional sounds from the various countries they have visited. Russia with “Toast to Tomorrow”, France with “Gilded Cage” and Germany with “Prince Waldeck’s Galliard”. In a strange departure along the albums journey a cover of Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” appears alongside a version of Ritchie’s own “Rainbow Eyes” from his Rainbow days. You cannot help but wonder if this is the version that he always intended for the song.
Article comments
1 - sharon arthur
b n please tour scotland again