The re-release of this Deep Purple oldie marks the beginning of Eagle Rock's ambitious reissue campaign that'll put 10 of the band's albums back on the market in re-mastered form.

If you're familiar with the way this Mark III version (Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice) of Purple sounded on the Made in Europe release then you also know what this album sounds like; this is one of the three shows that Made in Europe was cobbled together from.

The band's new album at the time was Stormbringer and three songs from that record are performed: "The Gypsy," "Lady Double Dealer" and the title cut.

The rest of the set, spread over 2-CDs here, consists of a few tunes from Burn and Machine Head biggies "Smoke on the Water," "Space Truckin'" and "Highway Star." This show is also the last one Blackmore played with the group.

A bonus track features an interview with Coverdale where he talks about how he joined the band, how the group held séances while rehearsing in a castle and why Purple liked recording in Montreux, Switzerland, which contrary to what you might expect from the rockers, was for the peace and quiet.

Blackmore's Night
A Knight in York – Special Edition
UDR

If you aren't familiar with what former Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has been up to for more than a decade now, A Knight in York offers a good opportunity to catch up.

Blackmore's lovely wife Candice Night front's the band of roving minstrels, singing and playing the fair maiden through a set of British folk song-inspired tunes with a definite medieval bent.

Night's voice is strong and emotive, perfect for the Renaissance Fair-style songs performed here and it doesn't take too much imagination to drift off to Camelot as she sings.

Blackmore's playing, on acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and even hurdy-gurdy, is suitably delicate for this type of music and delivered with precision but without flash.

Some songs could be described as prog and on the rollicking set opener "Locked Within the Crystal Ball" pianist Bard David of Larchmont (backing band members all use stage names representative of the era) throws in a few Jon Lord-style riffs but that's as close as this show gets to rock'n'roll.

For those already familiar with Blackmore's Night, the 14-song set list draws mostly from just two albums; five songs from Secret Voyage are performed as are "Journeyman," "Darkness," "Dance of the Darkness" and "All the Fun of the Fayre" from Autumn Sky. The show ends with a quiet cover; the Bee Gees obscurity "First of May."

This 3-disc special edition of A Knight in York includes the show on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.