Winter Carols, Blackmore's Night (Locomotive)

Sometimes you really lose track of your classic rock stars, or at least I did. Ritchie Blackmore, after leaving Deep Purple, went on to found heavy metal band Rainbow before landing with Blackmore's Night, which turns out to be an ensemble dedicated to antique English folk music with just the lightest of modern touches (drums, synths, etc.). Blackmore's chops on various guitars, mandola and other instruments are not in doubt, and vocalist Candice Night sounds just great doing this material. But this 2006 release is not in any way for rock fans. Two originals, "Winter (Basse Dance)," an instrumental, and "Christmas Eve," a vocal, are done in the antique style, to go with such classics as "I Saw Three Ships," "Good King Wenceslas," "We Three Kings," "Emmanuel" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," plus the opening medley of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful," the latter of which is the closest thing to a rock-sounding tune on this disc. Not a Mistletunes pick, but if you have any Dickens Village aficionados or Renaissance Faire fans in your circle, they might just find this a delightful change from the usual Christmas fare. UPDATE: Three of the songs from this disc, "Emanuel," "Christmas Eve" and "We Three Kings," appeared in 2004 on an EP, now out of print.