Back in September, Ritchie Blackmore announced that he will regroup with members of Rainbow and Deep Purple for four shows next year in Europe:

“I am doing four dates in June, which will be all rock," Blackmore tells Noisey. "I have the band basically together and it will be [the best of] Rainbow and Deep Purple. It’s just having fun but it’s only four dates in Europe. I don’t want to do anymore because I take what I’m doing now much more seriously.”

According to Germany's SWP.de, Blackmore has booked a show for June 18th, at the Monsters Of Rock festival in Bietigheim-Bissingen. 

Stay tuned for updates. Read Blackmore's interview with Noisey here.

For now, Blackmore is concentrating on Blackmore’s Night. The band released their new album, All Our Yesterdays, on September 18th.

Among the things informing the songs of Blackmore’s Night are sagas and symbolism. In the case of the supernatural “Will O’ The Wisp”, the rock-based song continues the band’s vision involving what singer and lyricist Candice Night describes as “nature and folklore from around the world.” “Will O’ The Wisp” from All Our Yesterdays now has a gorgeous new video to accompany and enhance it.

Spotlighted in the video and the lyrics are lights (the will o’ the wisps), an ancient rock, castle ruins, a forest, as well as the crescent moon. There is also a path. Candice saw that path as part of the “Will O’ The Wisp”’s folklore as she watched the Disney/Pixar film Brave with her children Rory and Autumn. Candice was entranced by an early scene in which the heroine, Princess Merida is led through the woods to a cottage by a will o’ the wisp, a light that floats over swamps and moors. “The visual was amazing,” she says. Beyond that, the soundtrack of Ritchie's music spoke to her to blend his music and her lyrics into this enchanting song.

The video enhances the lyrics’ ancient feel. In stark black and white, the only colour element is the title character, a small, light blue will o’ the wisp that leads Night through ruins and moors and wide open spaces that the Celts would have approved of. The wisps were symbolic and mysterious lights that led her through ancient stone circles to a destination that were ultimately change her fate.

With concepts for this epic video running back and forth for weeks, Blackmore’s Night admits they took “forever” to finish it, and at the end of the entire production, Candice, Ritchie and the band, pretty much, used symbolism of the path of a the light meeting a second light—two Will O’ The Wisps.

Candice is adamant about one thing, though. “The concept,” she insists, “is in the lyrics.”

All Our Yesterdays was released in a variety of formats: CD, CD/DVD, 2LP, Box Set and Digital. Pre-orders for the CD, CD/DVD and Digital versions are available on Amazon.com and iTunes.

Tracklisting:

“All Our Yesterdays”
“Allan Yn N Fan”
“Darker Shade Of Black”
“Long Long Time”
“Moonlight Shadow”
“I Got You Babe”
“The Other Side”
“Queen's Lament”
“Where Are We Going From Here”
“Will O' The Wisp”
“Earth Wind And Sky"
“Coming Home”

Details:

* CD/DVD Deluxe edition includes the full album plus a DVD with music videos for "All Our Yesterdays” and “Will O’ The Wisp,” plus an extensive interview with Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night on the making of the new album.

* 2LP vinyl edition with a gatefold sleeve

* Box Set Limited Collector’s edition includes CD/DVD deluxe edition, 2LP, tshirt (L size only), poster, lithograph

Blackmore’s Night vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Candice Night says, “There’s a theme to All Our Yesterdays’ chosen songs that focuses on the attitude of living in the present, and looking toward the future, because we are, indeed, enriched by our past. My main theme and inspiration has always been nature and folklore from around the world.”

Candice Night and Ritchie Blackmore’s lives and creative journeys have taken them through different characters and songs from a variety of times in history. That is part of the attitude in the song "Where Are We Going from Here,” about a traveling minstrel’s journey through life and age.

The title track (and also the first single and video), “All Our Yesterdays” echoes the sounds of Candice’s Russian roots, while a new song written by Germany’s George Hesse is an old-style, fiddle-driven instrumental with the Welsh title “Allan yn y Fan” (meaning “Out There”). Ritchie’s heritage includes family from Wales.

The album also includes stunning instrumentals: the acoustic guitar piece, “Queen’s Lament” and the dramatic “The Darker Shade of Black” that spotlights violin and guitar. Elsewhere on the recording, “Earth Wind and Sky” is a delicate ode to nature. “The Other Side,” a latter-day folk dance joins two jigs that Candice sings: “Coming Home” and the supernatural-themed, “Will o’ The Wisp”.

All Our Yesterdays gets further inspiration from Candace and Ritchie’s home town, where they take part in community folk nights during which the neighbours share guitars and songs, and sing melodies that have come from a variety of times in their own history. That’s how they fell in love with songs of various radio formats of years gone by. The album includes the Linda Ronstadt hit “Long Long Time” (penned by Gary White); the Mike Oldfield song, “Moonlight Shadow”, and an inspiring Maypole Dance treatment of Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe”.

Blackmore’s Night is a true musical and spiritual collaboration between vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Candice Night and her husband, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. The two met in 1989 when Deep Purple challenged Candice’s then radio station to a charity soccer match. In 1993 she sang on Rainbow’s Difficult To Cure tour. They co-wrote four songs for Rainbow’s Stranger In Us All and in 1997 they formed Blackmore’s Night; they continue to play Faire Festivals all over the world.

“Moonlight Shadow”:

“All Our Yesterdays” video:

"The Other Side":