At age 70, Blackmore’s urge to rock can be heard on All Our Yesterdays, the 10th studio album from the group Blackmore formed with Candice Night in the late ’90s. That desire is most obvious on the instrumental “Darker Shade of Black,” when Blackmore cuts loose with a beautiful old-school solo that merges with organ and violin.The latest album from Ritchie Blackmore’s renaissance act Blackmore’s Night was released amid reports that the guitarist—who (in)famously shunned his rock ’n’ roll past with Deep Purple and Rainbow for two decades—will return in 2016, albeit temporarily, to the sound that made him famous.
There’s plenty of charming medieval material here, too, performed by musicians playing the hurdy-gurdy and mandolin, along with frustrating covers made famous by Linda Ronstadt (“Long, Long Time”) and Sonny & Cher (“I Got You Babe”).
