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Crystal balls, secret voyages, kegs & Elvis!

You’ve got to love an album which starts with a song called “God Save The Keg,” an instrumental piece that flows from the tap straight into the energetic and catchy “Locked Within The Crystal Ball.” When the piece slows in the middle for the guitar solo, former Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, plays a signature piece that has his style emblazoned upon it like a shining star as Blackmore’s Night follows it on a Secret Voyage.

The album is already topping the New Age charts, as well as cresting the waves in this beautiful gatefold CD cover with its dark and magical imagery, reminiscent of The Flying Dutchman. The disc is filled with a dozen songs and a music video for “The Village.”

“”Gilded Cage,” “Rainbow Eyes”, “Sister Gypsy” and “Empty Eyes” are amongst the more balladesque and classical sounding songs, highlighting the songbird voice of Caroline Night. “Rainbow Eyes” may seem familiar to some Rainbow fans as it originally appeared on their Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll (1978) album, the last to feature Dio before he went solo. (Interesting note: Serbian hard rock / heavy metal band Osvajači recorded a cover version of the song “Rainbow Eyes” titled “Tragovi” on their 1999 album Vrelina.)

“Toast To Tomorrow” is a fun, rambunctious jig that one would expect to hear in ye ol’ tavern of days gone by. I can see this one being a crowd favorite at a live performance.

It is followed by the classical guitar musings of “Prince Waldeck’s Galliard.” Although it is an extremely gorgeous piece of music, I’m not sure where the title comes from. “Galliard” means a lively dance, generally in triple time. This piece definitely isn’t lively dance music.

The group does an interesting pop version of the Elvis song “Can’t Help Falling In Love” just in time for the anniversary of the King’s death (?). What would a 73 year old Elvis think of the Celtic Rock version of the song? Maybe the Enquirer will let us know.

“Peasant’s Promise” is a song that is driving me crazy. The melody is familiar and is derived from an old folk tune, but there is some other modern day song that it reminds me of and I can’t pinpoint it. Regardless, it’s a nice acoustic piece with a lot of percussion backing the piano and woodwinds.

“Far, Far Away” is a beautiful fairy tale, as the title would suggest. The melody is very traditional and would fit nicely in a movie such as Ever After or The Princess Bride.

The video for “Village Lanterne” is very cool. The video doesn’t pop up in your iTunes or on your DVD menu.  The imagery has Night singing amongst the Band of Minstrels, as well as doing a lot of swimming in her gown and singing underwater. There are also some scenes of knights battling as the story moves along and the magic of the lovely star comes to light. [You will need to click on the file from the CD within the computer.]

If you visit the official site at http://www.blackmoresnight.com/videos.htm, you can see the new video for “Locked Within The Crystal Ball.” Maybe it wasn’t finished in time when the CD went to press. Blackmore, as usual, hides in the corners and leaves the focus on Night and the rest of the band.

A little side note, but it’s rumored that Night & Blackmore will be married sometime this fall. I wonder if they’ll play their romantic CD, Beyond the Sunset – the romantic collection.

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