The Ghost of a Rose which is the Blackmores Night album I ordered was waiting when I got home from working at the museum all day. It is wonderful to my old ears. It's just sweet music to me.

Your Valencias will love this album. You might not but they will. The vocals are by Candice Knight and she sounds a little like Joan Baez wihtout her shrillness which I didn't like. There are some folk/rock tunes but mostly smooth melodic music.

Blackmores guitar work is similar to Gilmour in that he doesn't beat you up with flash & speed. He just plays good solid music that pulls you in and you find yourself waiting to hear the next instrument that joins in. Also I found myself trying to guess what the next song would be like.

I found a new cd on Amazon for 13.00 and it was produced by Blackmore so it's recorded properly and not at 100% modulation like some rock albums.

I included the url for anyone who might be curious about what happened to the several times lead guitarist for Deep Purple His music doesn't sound anything like what Deep Purple became from the mid 70's on. If you follow Deep Purple and are familiar with their album The Book of Taleisyn gives a hint as to what he does now on the title cut and a couple of the other renaissance type songs. They are no where as good or well constructed as what he does now.

• Ritchie's site