Review and More

Our Review

Back in the day, I always thought songs by the Moody Blues were the only true background for The Lord of the Rings. The Moodies had a sweet richness that could have passed for Elvish, I thought. Today, listening to folk duo Blackmore's Night, I thought the same thing about their songs. They have the hook-laden pop melodies, the instrumental richness, and a hard-to-define minstrel sound that makes them perfect background music for reading The Return of the King.

From the mystical medievalist cover art, I was expecting a sound somewhat more spare and Celtic-sounding than what I found. At its heart, Blackmore's Night is Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and vocalist Candice Night, although other instrumentalists are credited (keyboardist "Bard David of Larchmont", percussionist "Malcolm of Lumley" (Malcolm Dick), bassist "Robert of Normandie" (Bob Curiano), among others). Their style is pop with a Renaissance gothic patina, which reminded me vaguely of Enya's sound.

Beyond the Sunset, the Romantic Collection is romantic, but in a masculine way. While the songs are lyrically romantic and feature liberal helpings of acoustic guitar, they also have a heavy bass track and frequent riffing on electric guitar. Most of the selections were written by Blackmore. (One notable exception is Joan Baez's Diamonds And Rust.)

Also included are an EP of Christmas songs entitled Christmas Songs, which features a beautiful rendition of Emanuel, and a bonus DVD of videos for five of the principal tracks. While most of this music is not seasonal, it was very difficult to remove from the CD changer.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2004)

More

From the liner notes:

Minstrels:

Ritchie Blackmore
Candice Night
Robert of Normandie
Bard David of Larchmont
Malcolm of Lumley
Sisters of The Moon - Lady Nancy & Lady Madeline
Tudor Rose

Equipment: guitars - Alvarez Yairl electric/acoustic, Lakewood acoustic, Fender electric, Engl Amps, trace elliot Amps, Picatto strings, Newtone Acoustic strings, Audix microphones

Photography & Artwork:

Martin Rinderknecht, Jorg Kramer, Kathleen Kuhlman
RpunktDESIGN Werbeagentur GmbH www.rpunktdesign.de
Stonebridge by T.K.

Blackmore's Night

Beyond the Sunset,
The Romantic Collection
(Bonus DVD and CD)

Artist link

Track List