Upon pilgrim-hatted guitarist Richie Blackmore’s pilgrimage from Deep Purple, he found the perfect foil for his guitar acrobatics: a former doo-wop singer of diminutive stature but with a huge voice named Ronnie James Dio. Their second trip over the rainbow allows them (and a murderers row of rock ‘n’ roll pros) to exercise their most excessive impulses – live versions of these songs from the time ran towards feature-length. Indulgent, sure, but just as much so for the audience when the musicians reach an almost-operatic transcendence on classics like “Tarot Woman” and “Stargazer.”

– Jeff Treppel