Jam With Ritchie Blackmore

Volume 2 of Connoisseur Collection's 2 part series on Ritchie Blackmore's overall career. Where Volume 1 focused largely on Blackmore's '60s sessions and his Purple work from 1968 to 1974, Volume 2 is more of a grab bag which has a lot of variety. Originally intended mostly to cover the period from 1975 (Rainbow's formation) onwards, it actually covers from 1965 to 1984 with several memorable pit-stops in between. This great CD is bolstered by great liner notes and great pictures, including some magazine covers quite rare to find anywhere else. Anyone remotely interested in the heights to which Blackmore can reach will be rewarded here.

It's a long way from the simple and rather forgotten days of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's early dabbling in English skiffle to belting out some of the most memorable leads and riffs in hard rock. This well-researched collection traces the roots of a young "Man In Black" fingering the fretboard to nothing sounding that spectacularly different from his peers in the beginning to smoking the rest of the pack while fronting the multi-million-selling Deep Purple. Unearthed are four previously unreleased Deep Purple tracks, lost treasures that are worth the price alone, particularly the earliest recorded live version of "Highway Star," still in its infancy before being solidified in the studio on Machine Head.

The true power of music is impossible to define and yet we can all feel it when the sonic planets align. The magical impact of the finest rock'n'roll - that hazy but overwhelming blend of inspiration and perspiration - sustains us through dark times and fills our hearts with joy and strength. Music unites us, nourishes us and provides us with an emotional clarity that the rest of our turbulent lives singularly fails to offer. For those reasons and many more, we must proudly acknowledge and salute the true architects of the musical world that we call home. Above all else, Ritchie Blackmore is one of rock's greatest architects…

Perhaps the first example of "dragon rock" – a style perfected by bands like Iron Maiden and Dio in the early to mid-'80s – was Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, a rather pretentious 1975 collection from the guitarist's first post-Deep Purple project…