Blackmore’s Night has a Renaissance faire reputation, but when listening to the opening track of their latest, “Once Upon December,” I kept hearing melodies from Jewish Eastern Europe. I found that the song’s source is roughly midway between Old England and the Pale of Settlement—it’s Ritchie Blackmore’s arrangement of an Italian traditional tune.
Blackmore will be remembered for the primal thunder of “Smoke on the Water,” but he was never one to sit still. A classical guitar student before turning to rock and joining Deep Purple, Blackmore brought unusual facility to the instrument and continued in his hard rock guitar maestro role with his next band, Rainbow.
And then, he shifted dramatically with Blackmore’s Night, a collaboration with dulcet voiced Candice Night. Or was it so dramatic? The medieval undertow of ‘70s metal can certainly lead to territory not far removed from Pentangle. Most of Nature’s Light is folk rock-ish, but there are tangents, including the bluesy “Der Letzte Musketier.” The album’s moody organ-based instrumental began to remind me of Procol Harum. When I looked at the CD’s booklet, I found the inspiration of that ‘60s classical rock band in the song’s title, “Darker Shade of Black.”
