Deep Purple

Here’s a reconstituted ’70s classic-rock group with an otherwise engaged leader. Deep Purple’s grumpy guitar hero, Ritchie Blackmore, probably hasn’t even played the “Smoke on the Water” riff around the house since 1993, but clearly, Purple is the headliner. Besides the added value of having Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse filling in for Blackmore onstage, the Deepsters are three-fifths of the Made in Japan lineup that produced all their great hits. (Roger Glover, Ian Paice and Ian Gillian — when all the Ians are involved in Deep Purple, it’s generally a good sign, sorta like when all the Björns show up at a Blue Swede reunion.) Thus, fans can reasonably expect anything from In Rock to Burn to sound genuine, unlike the notoriously shoddy 1980 Rod Evans-led Deep Purple, who, by rights, could only in good conscience sing their earliest hits, like “Hush” and “Kentucky Woman,” with any credible authority.