''Stranger in Us All'' is the eighth studio album by the British

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

, released on 11 September 1995 by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. This was the band's first studio album in twelve years, and originally intended to be a solo album by Blackmore, but due to pressures from BMG, it was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, which saw him putting together a new line-up featuring himself and four then-unknown musicians: vocalist

Doogie White Douglas "Doogie" White (born 7 March 1960) is a Scottish rock vocalist who currently sings for La Paz. He has also notably sung for Rainbow (rock band), Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Praying Ma ...

, bassist Greg Smith, keyboardist Paul Morris and drummer John O'Reilly. As Blackmore decided to pursue different musical styles (forming

Blackmore's Night Blackmore's Night is a British-American neo-medieval folk rock band formed in 1997, consisting mainly of Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic guitar, hurdy gurdy, mandola, mandolin, nyckelharpa, and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocals, lyr ...

with his companion Candice Night), ''Stranger in Us All'' was his final recording as a rock artist for two decades, until he put together a reincarnation of Rainbow in 2016 and released a series of new singles. The album takes its name from a line in the song "Black Masquerade". Released during the

post-grunge Post-grunge is an offshoot of grunge that has a less abrasive or intense tone than traditional grunge. Originally, the term was used almost pejoratively to label mid-1990s alternative rock bands such as Bush (British band), Bush, Candlebox, Colle ...

scene of the mid-1990s, ''Stranger in Us All'' failed to measure up to the critical and commercial acclaim of previous releases and was not particularly well publicized. However, it achieved modest success, particularly in Europe and Japan.

Promotion

Much of the album was featured in the band's live concert sets. Drummer John O'Reilly was replaced for the tour by the returning Chuck Burgi. John Miceli joined the band for the U.S. shows, from February to May 1997, plus one in Denmark. A live performance recorded at Philipshalle Düsseldorf for German TV show Rockpalast on October 9, 1995, was released on the DVD ''Black Masquerade'' in 2013. A few songs off the album were played live by the band Over the Rainbow in 2008 and 2009, as the line-up featured Greg Smith and Paul Morris, who played in Rainbow in 1995. The songs have been also performed occasionally by

, for example in 2004 with a band called White Noise, and 2010 presentations with Rata Blanca. An official DVD recording of White Noise titled ''In the Hall of the Mountain King'' was released in 2004. The song "Ariel" was performed live by

on their 2007 '' Paris Moon'' tour.

Track listing

*Track 10 was originally recorded by

The Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ...

on the album '' Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds''. The song was previously covered as an instrumental by the Dio-era Rainbow on '' Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow'' and with vocals on '' Rainbow on Stage'' and other live albums.

Personnel

Rainbow *

- lead and backing vocals *

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English lead guitarist. He was a founding member and the guitarist of Deep Purple, one of the pioneering bands of hard rock. After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore formed the band Rainbow ...

- guitar, producer * Greg Smith - bass, backing vocals * Paul Morris - keyboards *John O'Reilly - drums Additional musicians * Candice Night - backing vocals *

Mitch Weiss Mitchell S. Weiss (born 1957) is an American investigative journalist, and an editor at ''The Charlotte Observer''. He won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, with Joe Mahr and Michael D. Sallah. Life Weiss is a native of New Yo ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

Production * Pat Regan - producer, engineer, mixing * Fran Flannery, Jesse Henderson, Ed Miller, Steve Moseley, John Reigart, David Shackney, Steve Sisco and Dug - assistant engineers * Vlado Meller - mastering at Sony Music Studios, New York

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

Heavy Harmonies page
{{Authority control 1995 albums Rainbow (rock band) albums RCA Records albums