Candice was a Rainbow fan, and first encountered Ritchie Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989, while she was working for a local New Yorkradio station. The two started living together in 1991, and discovered they both had a passionate interest in Renaissance music. During the reformed Rainbow's recording of the album Stranger in Us All in 1995, on which Night contributed some of the lyrics and backing harmony vocals, the duo were already gearing up their debut album. In 1997, the project started as being a pun of their own names, which would consist of themselves plus session musicians.
1997 to 2005
Their debut album Shadow of the Moon was a musical success and featured Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull on flute for the song "Play Minstrel Play". In subsequent albums, particularly Fires at Midnight, there was an increased incorporation of rock guitar into the music, whilst maintaining a folk rock direction. Over time, Night has increasingly participated instrumentally as well as singing the vocals, and is competent in a wide variety of Renaissance instruments. The group performs at Renaissance fairs and Renaissance festivals, as well as in stand-alone concert tours in appropriate venues including 'castle tours' of Europe, where they perform in historic surroundings for an audience dressed largely in period costume. The duo has been successful enough to inspire a number of international tribute bands including: Renaissance Night, the Italian Morning Star and the Midnight. They have also performed the music for MagiQuest, a live simulation game.
2006–present
In 2006, Night performed a duet with Andi Deris on Helloween's "Light the Universe", which was released as a single in certain countries and is available on their album , released in the same year. On June 27, 2008, the duo released its seventh studio album called Secret Voyage, a mix of medieval-sounding tracks and some contemporary ones. In addition to some covers of some traditional folk music and some originals, Blackmore's Night also performed a cover of a Rainbow song and an Elvis Presley cover. A new album titled Autumn Sky was released at the end of 2010 in Europe and in 2011 in the U.S. This was followed by Dancer and the Moon, in 2013, an album featuring covers of songs by Randy Newman, Uriah Heep and another Rainbow song. Their latest album, All Our Yesterdays, was released on September 18, 2015. The band are said to be working on material for a new album with a possible 2020 release date. On 31 May 2020, band announced on their Facebook profile that new single "Nature's light" would be released on 19 June from the upcoming album with the same name, which is to follow later this year. However, due to complications caused by the pandemic, the release date was pushed back several weeks.
Personal life
On October 5, 2008, Night and Blackmore were married after 19 years together. This is the fourth marriage for Blackmore. Autumn Esmerelda Blackmore was born on May 27, 2010. Their son Rory Dartanyan was born on February 7, 2012.
