Blackmore's Night Brings Folk Feel to Christmas Classics

"Here We Come A-Caroling," the excellent new Blackmore's Night Christmas EP of traditional holiday songs performed in a renaissance/folk style makes perfect sense, both in theory and, in this case, execution.

It makes sense that Blackmore's Night would turn in a superb rendition of classics rearranged in a folk manner. After all, the husband-and-wife team of legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and award-winning singer Candice Night has been performing renaissance and folk music for nearly 25 years now, and the genres are perfectly suited to gentle Christmas ballads.

On the 4 song mini-album, Night's ethereal, tender vocals, and Blackmore's rich, understated instrumentation bring warmth and peacefulness to the title track as well as "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Silent Night," the latter of which especially benefits from Night's dulcet tones.

Night is an exquisite singer, Blackmore a masterful rearranger. His guitar and mandola (of the mandolin family) work is rich and ornate; the perfect accompaniment to Night's lovely, reassuring vocals. Beautiful isn't a word that you'd usually associate with the hard rock icon's (Deep Purple, Rainbow) music, but it definitely fits the bill here. Night also adds to the folk/renaissance feel by playing the recorder and shawm, the latter a double-reed woodwind instrument that dates to the 12th century and was especially popular during Renaissance and medieval times.

Blackmore's Night do a splendid job on "Here We Come A-Caroling." So throw some logs in the fireplace, pour a mug of hot chocolate, watch the snow fall softly outside and cue up this disc for a tranquil getaway that we could all particularly use right now.