Winter Carols

Winter Carols is the sixth studio album by the group Blackmore's Night, released in the United Kingdom on October, 2006, and in the United States on November 7, 2006. It is a Christmas themed album. The cover artwork for this album, painted by Karsten Topelmann, is an adaptation of a street in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, in line with the band's heavy Renaissance influence. The same street is portrayed in the cover of Blackmore's Night's second studio album, Under a Violet Moon. In the cover of "Winter Carols" the street is painted as winter time, whereas Under a Violet Moon's cover takes place on apparently a summer night. While the selection "Winter (Basse Dance)" is credited to Ritchie Blackmore as composer, the first phrase comes from Gaspar Sanz's "Espanoleta" (written in 1674, this piece is familiar today from its adaptation by Joaquin Rodrigo for the second movement of his "Fantasía para un gentilhombre", which he composed for classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia in 1954) though Blackmore quickly goes off on his own from there. The songs no longer under copyright are credited only as "trad.[itional]" even when the authors are known.

In December 2006, Winter Carols entered at #7 on USA Billboard New Age Charts.

The album won the New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Award as the Best Holiday Album.

2013 Reissue
The album was re-issued in 2013 with an additional CD of live versions, along with that year's single – a reworking of the track Christmas Eve.

Personnel

 * Ritchie Blackmore – arrangements, guitar, mandola, nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, percussion
 * Candice Night – vocals, shawm, pennywhistle
 * Pat Regan – production, arrangements, keyboards
 * Sir Robert of Normandie (Robert Curiano) – bass
 * Sisters of the Moon: Lady Madeline and Lady Nancy (Madeline and Nancy Posner) – harmony vocals
 * Bard David of Larchmont (David Baranowski) – keyboards
 * Sarah Steiding – violin
 * Anton Fig – drums
 * Albert Dannemann – bagpipes, backing vocals
 * Ian Robertson and Jim Manngard – backing vocals