By Martin Popoff
"Well, we live on Long Island," explains Candice. "The view is absolutely beautiful here. We are surrounded by nature which is very important to us. Although we like to go once in a while to New York City, which is about an hour away - we like to prowl the streets of the East Village - it's never a place we would be able to live in; too much concrete, too much noise. I think your senses just get bombarded and overwhelmed. On one side of us we have a huge field and the woods are surrounding the field, and we tend to go out there and have Maypole parties and huge bonfires. All our friends we tend to bring to these parties are in the same mindset that we are. So many times when people come to our parties and just hang out in the woods with us at these bonfires, everybody brings their acoustic guitars or penny whistles or recorders or just a drum to bang on; everybody sings along. It's a very amazing thing, very otherworldly. And it's funny, there's this cliff that just kind of drops off. It's a very magical place. The backyard is actually right on Long Island Sound, so we have all these beautiful swans going by and owls flying overhead and the backyard is almost like looking out onto the ocean; very beautiful, very inspirational."
And, combined with a home designed with renaissance flair ("big, thick plush drapes, knights of armor, heraldic stuff"), said plot of the past becomes a perfect place to create Blackmore's Night albums, the third just out now, deemed appropriately Fires At Midnight.
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT - Ablaze On Long Island Page 3