Customer Reviews

Winter Carols

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

1- Hark The Herald Angels Sing/Oh Come All Ye Faithful- I love the drums and horns that start this off and reappear on occasion throughout the piece. It gives a majestic regal feel to the piece. The soft guitar work and strings weave wonderfully into Candice Night's warm and blissful voice. Ritchie puts a nice bit of electric guitar into this "medley" that mixes with quick drums for a rollicking feel in the second piece. The backing chorals are beautiful. I find it puzzling that Christ is not mentioned by name in either tune , (Christ is born in Bethelem is replaced with Peace has come to Bethlehem in"Hark" and in "Faithful" "Christ the Lord" is instead "He is the Lord" ). Still the instrumentation and splendid singing make for an arresting piece.

2. I Saw Three Ships - I was quickly drawn in by the festive of this piece provided by the old-time period style percussion and instrumentation. As always, Candice's Night's voice invites the listener to bask in the joy of the piece and the season. The hand-claps are a nice occasional percussive touch, and I love the flute in here too. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar put a smile on my face.

3- Winter (Basse Dance) - Here we are invited to stand amidst the first gentle snowfall of the season and rejoice in the beauty of God's creation, and the company of good friends in an era long past. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar melodies mate exquisitely with soft percussion and yearning strings to take us on a beautiful and nostalgic journey into that era. This is among the loveliest cuts on this CD, and is among my favorites on the disc.

4. Ding Dong Merrily On High- I admit, I found the title humorous, but this is my first exposure to this song, and I am glad I've had it. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar and Candice Night's voice blend beautifully and sparkle with warmth and reverence. I LOVE the touch added by the church bells, but the best part, the highlight is the backing choral singing and the harnony vocals by Lady Madeline And Lady Nancy, the "Sisters of the Moon" The church bells and organ at the end provide a beautiful close to this piece.

5. Ma-O-Tzur- This is a lovely song. A 'simple' but arresting tune, crafted of exquisite soft guitar melody mated with beautiful strings, and the soothing voice of Candice Night singing first in what sounds like Hebrew, and then in English. BEAUTIFUL!

6. Good King Weinceslas- A soft yet primal drumming combines with Candice Night intoning a lyricless melody to start us off, dancing with beautiful soft guitar and tambourines. This has the feel of a warm but adventurous ballad. It's the first time I've heard this song but I love it. The appearance of what sounds like a flute or other period woodwind insturment is really nice too, as is the heart-stirring string work.

7. Lord Of The Dance/Simple Gifts- A beautiful tune comprised of horns, percussion and guitar, this seems to speak from the Lord Jesus Christ's point of view. The lyrics seem to encourage enthusiastic participation in the "dance" of life with simplicity, humility and love. The handclaps and harmony vocals are very nice and add to the festive feel of this piece.

8. We Three Kings - Plaintive strings, mandolin and guitar combine with exotic percussion and Candice Night's exquisite voice to relate the tale of a royal trio as they make the journey to see the newborn Christ Child Jesus . I love the harmony vocals in this, and the horns lend it a fitting regality, given its subject. The appearance of the cello is very welcome as well.

9. Wish You Were Here - This is a heart-stirring ballad of longing and love. Comprised of lovely guitar and strings, drums and Candice Night bewitching voice, this one gets to me quickly upon each listen. Ritchie Blackmore gives it a touch of electric guitar wizardry, and the Sisters of the Moon provide absolutely great harmony vocals in spots.

10. Emmanuel - A rendition of "Oh, Come Oh Come Emmanuel", Blackmore's Night give this a dignified and beautiful treatment. Candice Night's exquisite vocal singing is coupled with ethereal guitar work that glows with tender reverence. The flute in the middle can bring tears to the eyes, especially with the way the guitar dances and glides underneath it. The cello makes her prescence known very softly, and she sings beautifully as well, even though she sings in what is almost a whisper.

11. Christmas Eve- This is yet another festive tune. It is crafted with great guitar work, beautiful flute, and the lovely voice Candice Night is known for. It invites reflection on childhood innocence and wonder. The harmony vocals are exquisite. The handclaps are a welcome touch and call to mind images of a festive dance and smiling faces as we gather with those we love. I love the church bell's appearance along the horns, organ and keyboards. If I had to use three words for this song, I would say "joyous", "lovely" and "warm". I even love the sleigh bells present at the end.

12. We Wish You A Merry Christmas - This tune is sadly rather short. Despite that, it is beautiful. I admit that I was surprised to see it on the playlist, and the first word that came to mind was "childish". I was gladly proven wrong however. The mix of percussion, flute and other period instrumentation gave the song a dignity and a warmth that brought a smile to my face. The harmony vocals are exquisite, and the blend of the trio of voices carry the song terrifically. This brought back to my heart the joy of childhood and taught me that it is indeed good to remain happy and young at heart no matter what you face in your life.

In closing, you cannot go wrong with Winter Carols if you are a fan of Blackmore's Night. Go ahead, and take the journey back in time to celebrate the holidays in a time where the love of God and family and friends meant more than buying the most expensive presents and owning the fastest car and the biggest house on the block. You won't regret this purchase. I loved it all the way through. Peace, and love to all who read this.

Thanks to Amazon.com, I was able to find the new holiday album, WINTER CAROLS, by one of my favourite artists and one of my favourite bands...Blackmore's Night.

I looked everywhere for it, from my local record store to places like Barnes & Noble and Borders...both usually having Blackmore's Night albums in stock.

I have all of their CD's, and WINTER CAROLS is just another quality album among their masterworks. I was so pleased with their last original album, VILLAGE LANTERNE, that I knew this was going to be a sure thing.

All of the songs are beautiful, with that Renaissance sound that Mr. Blackmore has perfected. With such classics as "Hark The Herald Angels Sing," "Good King Wenceslas," and "We Three Kings," it makes the holidays much brighter and jollier. My favourite track is the majestic "Emmanuel." And of course, there are a few originals, most notably the wonderful "Christmas Eve."

If you have the Blackmore's Night collection, you HAVE to have this one...

This album has it all - dazzling guitar playing, lush orchestrations and beautiful singing, all performed in a style truly reverent to to the olde tyme feeling that these traditional songs deserve. I am not a huge fan of most present day Christmas albums precisely for this reason - too often the traditional feeling is lost by adding cheesy synthesizers, programmed drum machines and other such modern-day hokum. Blackmore's Night has wisely avoided this trap and has resultingly created a splendid album that will mentally transport the listener to a starlit, snow-covered countryside on a cold Winter's eve. I also like the fact that Blackmore has chosen several Christmas songs that are not widely known, such as "Ma-O-Tzur", "I Saw Three Ships", "Ding Dong Merrily on High" and "Lord of the Dance/Simple Gifts", so that we are not being barraged by the same songs being performed by all the other artists who are performing Christmas songs out there. While every Blackmore's Night CD is of uniformly high quality, there are always 2 or 3 songs on each album which jump out as instant classics. Winter Carols is no exception. "I Saw Three Ships" and "Lord of the Dance/Simple Gifts" not only rank right up there with the best Blackmore's Night songs, but are rapidly becoming two of my all-time favorite Christmas songs. That is how excellent they are. Both have such infectious, catchy melodies that they will swim around in your head for hours. I can just see minstrels dancing around the medieval courtyard every time I listen to them. "Emmanuel" is another standout, highlighted by Blackmore's fluid guitar playing and, during the last half of the song, droning cellos which will leave you begging for more. You can just feel the chill in the air as you listen to "Winter", accented by Blackmore at his acoustic best and powerful strings. A special commendation must be given to the Sisters of the Moon - their backup vocals in "Ding Dong Merrily on High" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" are sung in such a high range that it truly does bring to mind a choir of heavenly angels. "Christmas Eve" (a Blackmore's Night original?) with its church bells, horns and sleigh bells, is as good a modern day carol as I have heard. What more can I say? Throw a few logs on the fire, get a glass of your favorite brew, and take a journey to the days of olde on a starlit, snow-covered rural winter's night...

What can I say, Winter Carols is a marvellous Christmas album. I own it for 2 weeks now and enjoy it more and more. Needless to say that the music is just beautiful ...as everything Ritchie Blackmore puts his finger in. Put the record on and feel the magnificent atmosphere of a Christmas Eve. Imagine yourself cosily sitting by a crackling fireplace, a Christmas tree is also near; you're watching through the window how snow is falling, at the dancing snowflakes in the air... You feel like an innocent child again. And time is magically standing still...

And now I'll try to describe Winter Carols track-by-track. Let me first make a note that I don't know any traditional song from the album except We Wish You A Merry Christmas so to me a comparison with originals is senseless and I take all the traditionals just as they are on Winter Carols.

-Hark The Herald Angels Sing/Come All Ye Faithful
The cd starts a bit pompous in my opinion but that's ok because it's supposed to be a hymn. The acoustic parts are very inviting. Yes Ritchie plays on his strat here and even with a solo, amazing as always. The speeded up second part of the track is great, too.

-I Saw Three Ships
Nice joyous song, immediately puts a jolly smile on my face. The smart guitar touch in the end makes the smile really wide.

-Winter (Basse Dance)
The only instrumental here, originally written for the album. Ritchie's music fits the title perfectly. How to describe it? As for any instrumental played by Blackmore there is one way: take a listen to this brilliant piece of music and create your own pictures in your mind.

-Ding Dong Merrily On High
The whole song is so attractive, its best moments are "Gloria" lines, they are sung gorgeous. The track has something from the baroque style sounding. One of the absolute highlights of the album.

-Ma-O-Tzur
A soft song with a verse sung on Hebrew with Candice's bewitching vocals.

-Good King Weinceslas
Make a captivating journey through the track. Hear how it starts from percussion and Candice's mysteriously singing voice and then how the song is developing by adding new instruments, becoming more and more intense until the culmination and finally fading with Candice singing using unusual for our ears scales again. Another highlight.

-Lord Of The Dance/Simple Gifts
Cheerful and inviting to dance song, I bet your heels will start tapping!

-We Three Kings
It's a mystical song which haunts you. All you need is to dissolve in the flow of the music and follow it, and you'll be transported to another dimention.

-Wish You Were Here
Personally I wonder why it has landed up on a Christmas album, it looks kind of out of place here. But I love the song and I like how Ritchie and Candice treat this beautiful ballad with lovely singing and delicious guitar parts. The major difference from the Shadow Of The Moon version that I can hear is a new drum line added to the mix and probably some backing vocals, everything else is kept the same.

-Emmanuel
And one more mysterious acoustic track. Calm and relaxing, with a touching flute solo, it will bring you warmth of a brightening fireplace.

-Christmas Eve
Written by Ritchie and Candice, this bright and sparkling song brings a fountain of positive emotions, a true festive feeling and makes you feel like a happy child again.

-We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Very uplifting ending of the album, it keeps that jolly childish feeling of the previous track. Harmony vocals by Sisters Of The Moon sound so astonishing here. This song deserves to be longer.

Overall impression - it's a great album for the Christmas time. Compliments to Candice, her singing is wonderful.
Talking about the best songs, it's hard to decide, because there are no weak tracks. By now among my most favourites are Ding Dong Merrily On High, Good King Weinceslas, We Three Kings, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and the instrumental followed by Christmas Eve and the other songs.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Amazon was offering this magical work some three weeks before its international release...but I'm not complaining!

Ritchie, Candice and the gang are in top form here -- far from a slapped together compilation of traditional Christmas favourites, this album has every bit of the careful attention to detail that make their works such a treat to experience. Happily, while many of the old stalwarts are included, such as We Three Kings, Hark the Herald and Emmanuel, to name a few, they have included a few of the more rarely heard holiday songs, Lord of the Dance (no relation to the musical) being a particularly rousing example.

For those few naysayers who have in the past brought Candice's vocal abilities into question, let me say this: this album will put any lingering doubters to shame. Truly a vocal tour-de-force, Candice's rendition of We Saw Three Ships is filled with such enthusiasm that it quickly becomes contagious. Her beautiful soft singing of Ma-O-Tzur, in particular, will evoke goosebumps on any who are fortunate enough to be listening. To the so-called pundits, this girl can sing!

Perhaps the only (minor) nit I have with the album is the relative scarcity of purely instrumental songs, but this being a Christmas album I suppose that's to be expected. Ritchie is at the top of his craft here, so instrumentals from this maestro are always a treat -- but then, we'd also lose out on Candice's lovely voice. So, all in all, I think they've achieved a fine balance.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised that Ritchie would have a go at a Christmas album, but then his creativity with established works in the past has been nothing short of brilliant, and it's no different here.

Now if only they'll have a concert here in the Great White North...

This is an excellent album for anyone who is getting sick of the more traditional Christmas music. Blackmore's Night does some very original-sounding renditions of Christmas songs with great instrumentation. The ocharina on "I Saw Three Ships" is particularly enchanting. This album includes "Wish You Were Here," which was a pleasant surprise. I lent this album to a friend and didn't get it back, which I would take as a positive endorsement...

Neither, actually, but the cover shows a German townscape covered in snow (obviously from the days before global warming) while Ritchie Blackmore, the main musician here (he plays guitar, mandola, nyckelharpa, hurdy gurdy and various percussion), made his name originally with heavy rockers Deep Purple. The music here is very different from Ritchie's earlier music with Deep Purple and (later) Rainbow. I think it is essentially a folk album, rooted in the medieval era while sounding contempory, yet I found it in the mainstream pop-rock section of my local store. I also learned that the album made the top 10 of the American Billboard new age chart. So classify it however you want, but this is Christmas music of the highest quality. Candice Night (a wonderful singer) provides all the lead vocals and some of the harmonies and also plays shawns, pennywhistle and recorder. Producer Pat Regan plays all the keyboards.

The song selection is very British, including as it does I saw three ships, Ding dong merrily on high, Good King Wenceslas and the folk song Lord of the dance (great to see that one, even if it's not actually a Christmas song as such - it can be interpreted as one), finally closing with We wish you a merry Christmas. More familiar to American ears will be We three kings, Emmanuel and the opening medley of Hark the herald angels sing and O come all ye faithful, joined together by a great instrumental bridge.

Ritchie wrote a couple of tracks - the instrumental Winter (basse dance) and the outstanding Christmas Eve, which was actually released as a single in 2005. The other two songs are covers but they're new to me. Wish you were here (another non-Christmas song that fits in well) is the Rednex song, not the equally brilliant Barbara Mandrell song of that title with which I've long been familiar. I don't know where Ritchie found the traditional Ma-o-tzur but I'm glad he did.

I found this to be a very upbeat album and enjoyed every minute of it. I had no real idea what to expect when I bought it but I sensed that it was likely to be special and it is. I've heard plenty of Christmas albums and this, while not my favorite, is certainly among the best. And as for Blackmore's Night, I'll certainly have to investigate their music further one day.

Although I am a big Blackmore's Night fan, you don't have to be a BN fan to love this cd. I have played this cd when my in-laws were around at Xmas and Thanksgiving. They made comments on how beautiful the music was and would sing along to the songs they knew.

Candice's voice is simply beautiful and blends in so well with the musical arrangements played by the band. I cannot say enough about how great this music is. I only hope that they will come out with another Xmas album in the near future. This is by far my favorite holiday album ever.

We accidentally stumbled across this cd and only wish that we could see Blackmore's Night in Canada. We find their music enjoyable and refreshing. We will definitely be looking to add more of their works to our collection.

I am a new listener to Blackmore's Night. Recently I was looking for some Christmas music for my iPod when I discovered Blackmore's Night's Christmas album WINTER CAROLS. What a treasure WINTER CAROLS turned out to be for me. Whenever I think of Ritchie Blackmore, I think of his hard rock work with Deep Purple. Blackmore's Night is such a contrast to his hard rock days in the '60s and '70s. I immensely enjoyed listening to Candice Night's delicate vocals set to Ritchie's acoustic compositions. There is not a single song on the cd that I did not like. This cd really puts the holiday spirit in me. I rarely buy Christmas cds but I really think WINTER CAROLS is one of the best Christmas cds I have ever heard.