Blackmore’s Night Paris Moon
2-Disc DVD/CD set
Steamhammer/SPV
Available now

Imagine traditional renaissance folk music with the exceptional guitar stylings of one Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow fame, and you’ve got Blackmore’s Night. It’s one of those instances where you have a successful and talented performer — in this case, a rock guitar legend — who masters yet another art form or genre. In Blackmore’s Night, the guitarist puts aside his signature Fender Stratocaster (for the most part) in favor of acoustic guitars as well as instruments like the mandolin, the mandola, and the hurdy gurdy.

Now, I’m about as “rock” as you can get, so a decade ago when I found out that Blackmore was going renaissance, I thought he was insane. I couldn’t understand why he’d give up playing major arenas with Deep Purple in favor of small venues, restaurants, and ren faires for his rock fans that might not “get” his new endeavor. But I’ll be honest, after hearing Blackmore’s Night and seeing them live a few times, I have to say, I’m with Blackmore, because I enjoy his current band much more than I ever did Deep Purple.

While Blackmore is an international star, it’s really singer Candice Night who shines at front and center stage, as evidenced in the band’s latest live DVD Paris Moon, recorded at France’s famed Paris Olympia in 2006. With long blonde hair, flowing skirts, and tambourine in hand, Night channels her inner Stevie Nicks as she sings then twirls around in her ren faire garb. Although Night has the Nicks “witchy poo” looks and mannerisms down, she has none of Nicks’ signature rasp. Instead, Night’s voice is angelic with enunciated lyrics in tunes like “Past Times in Good Company,” “Under A Violet Moon,” and “Play Minstrel Play,” and blusey rock when performing classic rock covers.

And that’s what’s really cool about the Blackmore’s Night live show: Along with the ye olde folk music — complete with bagpipes, pennywhistles, and various Renaissance woodwinds — comes covers of Blackmore’s previous bands (the David Coverdale-era Deep Purple song “Soldier of Fortune”), as well as other classic rock tunes (Jethro Tull’s “Rainbow Blues”) and even rock folk classics (Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust”). A real treat comes near the end of the show when Blackmore breaks out the aforementioned Fender Strat for “Ariel,” a number which could easily be mistaken for an old Deep Purple or Rainbow offering.

What I find amusing is that for the past three decades, Blackmore has been known to have a huge ego, yet in Blackmore’s Night he not only let’s Night shine in the spotlight, but he also allows the other band members to showcase their talents (”Minstrel Hall” and “Durch Den Wald Zum Bachaus”). Unfortunately, sometimes Blackmore in so far in the background it’s hard to hear his playing, which I found was the case in the first few songs of the concert.

But, it’s definitely Blackmore’s band far more because of his songwriting than anything else. When introducing “World of Stone,” Night — who writes the lyrics — explains Blackmore’s songwriting process for their band. She teases that he simply takes songs that are centuries old and puts them in the “Blackmorizing Machine.” Later on in the concert, she also explains that Blackmore wrote some of the songs after traveling around trying to absorb all the renaissance energies and medieval spirits.

Now, how the person in a bunny suit with a glass of wine who walked across the stage during one of the songs fits into this renaissance-rock hybrid concept, is a mystery to me. That was just too bizarre and while I probably shouldn’t be focusing on that too much since this concert is truly wonderful, that bunny suit guy just kind of blew my mind.

Otherwise, I love how the concert was shot. There’s several cameras on the band and the cut-aways are not quick (finally, a music video NOT influenced by today’s attention-deficit MTV audiences). Most importantly, the camera people know where to aim the camera.

Aside from the 20-song concert contained on the DVD, this set also includes a CD with 9 live tracks from the show, as well as a studio version of “The Village Lanterne” and the radio edit of “All Because of You.” The 2-disc set also contains a booklet with lyrics and credits, packaged together in an attractively designed sleeve made to resemble an antique book jacket.

Included with the DVD is a CD containing nine tracks from the concert, as well as a studio version of “The Village Lanterne” and a radio edit of “All Because of You.” There’s also a “Bonus Vision” section that has a photo gallery slideshow and a very short (9-minute) documentary that’s mainly what appears to be old footage from an interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night (looks kind of like the VH1 “Where Are They Now” segment they aired with them many years ago).

The DVD has several sound options: 5.1 Dolby Digital, 5.1 dts, and 2.0 Dolby Stereo. I had my set on 2.0, and while the sound quality of the music was great, I thought the volume levels were annoying at times. Whenever Night would talk to the audience between songs, you could hardly hear it, but then when a song came on, it’d be too loud (much like when commercials that come on TV are blasting in comparison to the show you’re watching).

Otherwise, Paris Moon is the perfect addition to the Blackmore’s Night collection and an excellent offering of the band’s live repertoire.

Web sites
www.blackmoresnight.com
www.myspace.com/blackmoresnight1

Paris Moon e-card:
www.spv.de/blackmoresnight/dvd

“Village Lantern” Video Stream (Quicktime):
www.rivedata.com/post/BN/BNVillageLanterneDVDT AG.mov

Blackmore’s Night “Christmas Eve” video:
youtube.com/watch?v=rWaetIbRd-8