Singer and instrumentalist Candice Night is a vibrant presence, a woman who is clearly living in concert with the creative energy that thrums through the air that we all breathe, and who courageously steps through the doorways that open before her, convention be damned. She speaks of albums as chronicles of the life being led, inspiring her art: music is memory. Candice’s three solo albums serve as a road map through her life; her most recent release, Sea Glass, is clearly the work of a woman who has been, as she sings, “shattered, scattered, [and] lost upon the sea” and discovered beauty in that journey. LadyFaire Magazine was fortunate to sit with Candice for an hour of simply gorgeous, creative, insightful conversation. 

A Long Island native, Candice grew up in a home where music was an undeniable presence.  Her parents were not “musicians” in the formal sense, but danced in the kitchen and sang in the car in a way that infused their home with joy. As a teen, music was Candice’s great escape; she was likely to be tucked in her room with headphones while her peers partied. Her degree in communications led to an internship at a radio station, putting her in the path of Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist for the famed rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. The two met at a charity soccer event, becoming friends then romantic and creative partners. 

Sea Glass was developed in the thick of the Covid pandemic, when isolation was a necessity. Like so many of us, Candice rediscovered the healing touch of Mother Nature. Wanting to redirect her young children from omnipresent tech screens, she took them to the beach, where joyful treasure hunts produced sea glass, rare baubles created when old glassware is polished by decades, even centuries, of tumbling, polishing, and chemically evolving. Those gathered bits of sea glass became an analogy for how life tumbles us and smoothes our rough edges, creating something beautiful if we allow it to, informing the title track, written by Candice, of the new album: a nearly-seven-minute song with a melancholy air accompanying lyrics like “I used to to be magical…thought I was unbreakable, but then I was shattered, scattered, lost upon the sea.” The song’s story has a happy ending- the tumbles in the sea transform the broken spirit to glittering emeralds and a hand outreached to share love and support to others being tossed by their own seas. Candice says “it’s up to us to find these pieces of ourselves, we have to hold them up to the sun.” 

Other track highlights, all but one of which were written by her, include the rollicking country-rock celebration of independent sisterhood, “Angel and Jezebel,” She composed “Promise Me,” in a collaboration with her daughter, and “The Last Goodbye,” on which husband and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore accompanies. Her cover of the oft-recorded jazz classic “Nature Boy” stands among the great covers, not jazzy, but soft and lyrical, underscoring Candice’s beautiful voice with harp, piano, and other strings. This album has aptly been called “a journey across time and tides” by the writers at RockPoser. 

The songs “When I Want to Fly” composed in partnership with Sergey Sedykh and “Dark Carnival” evoke the spirit of the Renaissance. The tunes showcase Candice’s affinity for early music and the world of Renaissance and Fantasy Faires as well as her talent as an instrumentalist (she plays multiple medieval-era woodwinds, including the shawm, rauschpfeife, cornamuse, and gemshorn).  

Asked if she perceives an overlap between fans of Ren Faires and fans of her solo work and the music of Blackmore’s Night, she believes the fans are “just friends they haven’t met yet;” the band members encounter these fans at their own concerts as well as the faires they love to attend. She describes “going through the veil of that world” with respect and affection and speaks of multi-generational families who attend concerts dressed as fairies and jesters, knights and princesses; avid faire-goers will recognize that dynamic at a festival, too. Referencing the playwright William Shakespeare, Candice believes that when we wear costumes or masks, we are able to reveal the truth of who we are: “If you could choose to be anyone in any time, who do you see yourself as? It’s so freeing!” 

At LadyFaire, we agree. The imagination, play, and creativity that thrive so abundantly at the Faire also inspire musician Candice Night. She’s walking life’s path unmasked and unapologetically her own woman; we believe that’s a magic that can flourish in all of us. 

Find Sea Glass at the LadyFaire Spotify channel:

Kim Bryant is a veteran performer, educator, and writer. With 25 years teaching experience, an adjunct professorship in Theatre, and twenty years in the festival world, she brings a wealth of experience to LadyFaire Magazine. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Lubbock Christian University, a Master’s degree in Theatre from the University of Houston, and a Master’s degree in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University. Kim has studied at Actor’s Studio of Chicago, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, and at New York’s Lincoln Center, and currently works in leadership for Disney Live Entertainment.