Blackmore's Night

Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore shifted his musical focus away from hard rock in the late 1990s and started concentrating on his love of Renaissance-era music. He formed Blackmore's Night with his fiancee, vocalist/lyricist Candice Night and recruited other musicians from around the world to combine elements of world music, Renaissance, new age, folk, and rock & roll. His acoustic guitar melodies and Night's clear, ethereal voice blended with a host of instruments such as mandolins, keyboards, pennywhistles, violins, tambourines, military drums, and hurdy-gurdys. Blackmore once described the band's sound as "Mike Oldfield meets Enya." ~ Bret Adams