Early
When Night was working at a local New York rock music radio station, she was once a Rainbow fan and first encountered Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989. The two started living together in 1991 and she discovered that he had a passionate interest in Renaissance music.
During the reformed Rainbow's recording the album Stranger in Us All in 1995, on which Night contributed some of the lyrics and backing harmony vocals, the duo were already gearing up their debut album. Night's personality and singing ability made her the natural choice as frontwoman. In 1997 the project started as being a pun of their own names, which would consist of themselves plus session musicians.
1997 to 2005
Their debut album Shadow of the Moon was a musical success and featured Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull on flute for the song "Play Minstrel Play". In subsequent albums, particularly Fires at Midnight, there was an increased incorporation of rock guitar into the music, whilst maintaining a folk rock direction. Over time, Night has increasingly participated instrumentally as well as singing the vocals, and is competent in a wide variety of Renaissance instruments.
The group performs at Renaissance fairs and Renaissance Festivals, as well as in stand-alone concert tours in appropriate venues including 'castle tours' of Europe, where they perform in historic surroundings for an audience dressed largely in period costume. The duo has been successful enough to inspire a number of international tribute bands including: Renaissance Night, the Italian Morning Star and the Midnight.
They have also performed the music for MagiQuest, a live simulation game located internationally.
2006–present
Logo based on artwork of their albumsIn 2006, Night performed a duet with Andi Deris on Helloween's "Light the Universe", which was released as a single in certain countries and is available on their album Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy, released in the same year.
On June 27, 2008, the duo released its seventh studio album called Secret Voyage, a mix of medieval-sounding tracks and some contemporary ones. In addition to some covers of some traditional folk music (“Locked Within the Crystal Ball" is from the fourteenth century) and some originals, Blackmore’s Night also performed a cover of a Rainbow song (“Rainbow Eyes”) and a cover ("Can't Help Falling in Love").
On October 5, 2008, Night and Blackmore were married after 19 years together. This is the fourth marriage for Blackmore.
Autumn Esmerelda Blackmore was born on May 27, 2010. A new album titled Autumn Sky was released soon afterwards.Their son Rory Dartanyan was born on February 7, 2012.
To date they have released seven studio albums; their latest, Dancer & the Moon, was released on June 11, 2013.
In 2015 comes out "All Our Yesterdays", followed in 2021 by "Nature's Light".