Candice Night, who never sang professionally before meeting guitar guru Ritchie Blackmore, discusses her improbable blossoming with one of rock’s most eclectic bands
By JOHN COLLINGE, Progression Editor

What a joy, it might be, to live a simpler, more rustic existence — to return to a time when an idyllic life through hard work and good times was infinitely more possible than in today’s culturally confused, technology-propelled rat race.

Such is the illusion conjured by Blackmore’s Night, a group that transports listeners back to the merry world of medieval life with a sound that is festive, celebratory, and ethnically diverse, while always maintaining the option to rock hard. Led by vocalist Candice Night and ex-Deep Purple/Rainbow guitar god Ritchie Blackmore, the group vividly captures the charm and good cheer of Renaissance times while blending its reverent passion for a bygone era with the ability to transcend style and genre. The result, as evidenced on the diverse new album, The Village Lanterne, is music that sounds soothingly timeless, refreshingly modern, and uniquely progressive.

“When we started this project,” says Blackmore, “people would say, ‘You must be crazy. Why would you want to get involved in medieval Renaissance music?’ But we did it because it was a labor of love. To me, it was time just to play something that I felt was 100-percent honest. It was just something I had to do. It was in my blood. I’d always listened to Renaissance music, and this was the first time that I could actually get involved in playing it. And Candice’s voice lends itself to those particular melodies. It all seemed so right. It was very natural.”

The music of medieval times is extremely difficult to recreate. Many of the songs created half a millennium ago were improvised by bards that traveled from town to town, by farm laborers needing to pass the time in the fields, and by musicians accompanying the many impromptu dances and festivals of the day. It was music created to elevate the quotidian moments of everyday life. As such, many of the songs of that era passed away with the men and women who created them.

The evanescence of much of the medieval musical heritage is all the more reason to be thankful for the existence of Blackmore’s Night. Like the most fervently inquisitive scholars, Night and Blackmore have immersed themselves in the study of the customs, mores and culture of the Middle Ages. Not happy to just dutifully perform the already existing songs their research uncovered, they decided to channel their interest into creating an entirely new repertoire that has enabled them to bring their love of this music to new audiences all around the world.

Stepping forth as the spiritual catalyst of this heady brew is the dulcet-voiced Night, whose growing mastery of arcane Renaissance instruments such as shawms, chanters, rausch pfife, and hurdy-gurdy, has broadened the band’s sonic palette. “I now have quite a collection!” she says proudly. “The sounds are incredible — they’ve added a whole new dimension to the music.” The uncommon blending of Blackmore’s virtuosic guitar playing with the earthy sounds of instruments from centuries past turns every track on Lanterne into a sprightly, sumptuous reverie.

Take one listen to original Night/Blackmore compositions like “25 Years,” based on an old Balkan folk song, and “Village Lanterne,” inspired by the legend of Siegfried (the basis of Wagner’s Ring cycle), and behold Night at the peak of her abilities, melding vocal technique with heartfelt emotional gravity. And in the singer’s adept hands, the Joan Osborne hit “St. Theresa,” powered by Blackmore’s insistent axe work, becomes a rock tour-de-force, suggesting a whole new genre of music in the process. “Renaissance-and-roll”? Perhaps. But maybe “Now Age” sums it up better, encompassing as it does the primordial feeling of a past age with the drama of contemporary life.

Read the rest of this story in issue 50 of Progression - subscribe today!