BLACKMORE’S NIGHT – Dancer and the Moon – CD review

BLACKMORE’S NIGHT
Dancer and the Moon
Frontiers Records

Well, who would have thought that Ritchie Blackmore would stick at the one thing for 16 years. After all, he was a tad on the unstable side in his younger days, as he bounced from Deep Purple to Rainbow, from prog to hard rock to AOR, back to Purple and Rainbow. But he has, and here’s the latest in in the Blackmore’s Night chronicles.

Strangely enough for a fella knocking on the septugenarian door, this continues his ever slow drift back towards the world of rock. Which may explain the inclusion of Uriah Heep’s ‘Lady In Black’ and a revisit to the Rainbow gem, ‘The Temple of the King’. There’s also another cover in the shape of Randy Newman’s ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’, but if you think he’s run out of hey nonny no, then you’re wrong, as there’s still room for ten originals, including two instrumentals.

However, this eighth album sees a marked reduction in the renaissance, despite the presence of nickelharpe, mandola and hurdy gurdy, and much more of a soft rock, Fleetwood Mac vibe. Which is a good thing. From the opening out and out pop of ‘I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today’ through the Russian influenced ‘Troika’, on the woodwind enhanced ‘Lady In Black’, through the folky ‘The Last Leaf’, this is much more of a MOR record than anything else, albeit a very well played one.

Best of all is ‘The Moon Is Shining (Somewhere Over the Sea)’, which sees Ritchie attack his electric guitar in a manner that takes you back over 30 years, and then there is some lovely bluesy guitar on the closing instrumental tribute to the late Jon Lord, ‘Carry On… Jon’. As Blackmore’s Night albums go, this gets as close to satisfying Ritchie fans of yore as you’re likely to get at this stage of the game. As such, this is the one to get if you’ve been avoiding his latter day career.

It’s also out as a limited edition double CD which includes an interview, as well as acoustic versions of ‘The Spinner’s Tale’, ‘Somewhere Over the Sea (Moon Was Shining)’, ‘The Ashgrove’ and ‘Queen for a Day’.

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