by Thom Jurek

It appears that Ritchie Blackmore, legendary Brit guitar god, axe king of the glorious Deep Purple and Rainbow, is persisting in his attempt to reinvent himself as some kind of Medieval folkie. The fifth outing by Blackmore's Night is another tepid yet overwrought bag of originals, and a wretched cover of Joan Baez's classic "Diamonds and Rust." The issue here is not whether Mr. Blackmore and vocalist Candice Night have the chops. They clearly do. That they insist on using the recording studio to virtually sterilize all that made the music they hold so dear so vital and dangerous is the real problem. These songs, with their glossed-over edges and Ms. Night's completely rounded vocals, leave all of the dark passions they seek to reveal embedded in the songs themselves, like lovers in a cage, stranded. One listen to the early Steeleye Span recordings, or the Watersons "Frost and Fire,"" reveals in spades just how threadbare and empty of life this record is.