Archive for the ‘Press’ Category

SINCE Led Zeppelin split in 1980, Robert Plant’s road has constantly been the one less travelled. Not for him the cash cow tours of Rod Stewart or Elton John.

Rather, the golden-locked rock god, below, has attempted to maintain contemporary relevance by his forays into everything from world music to synth pop.  Such excursions haven’t always been successful, but it doesn’t take a great leap of faith to declare that Band Of Joy (which reprises the name of his first pre-Led Zep band) is some of his best work since his Seventies heyday. (more…)

**** / 5  - The Grade I-listed One Mayfair was built in the early 19th century as St Mark’s Church, to service the needs of an aristocratic clientele away from their country seats. Restored following its deconsecration in the Seventies, it makes the perfect venue for a secret gig by one of today’s rock aristocracy, Robert Plant CBE, up in London from his Worcestershire home to launch his first album with his new group Band of Joy.

“Welcome to church,” says Plant. “It’s time to be christened in the New Way.” For Plant, the New Way is actually more the Old Way. The band is named after the first group he ever formed back as a Black Country hippie in the mid-Sixties, and the music it plays harks back to an era far older than that, when downtrodden blacks and poor dirt-farmers sought to scratch a living from the empty teats of the American Dream in the early decades of last century. There are more recent songs in tonight’s set – Richard Thompson’s “House of Cards”, Low’s “Monkey” – but they sound ancient as time itself played by Plant’s all-American band led by the guitarist Buddy Miller. (more…)

Robert Plant played an intimate warm-up show in London last night as he prepared for tonight’s gig at the Forum.

Taking the stage with new ensemble Band Of Joy, the one-time Golden God and his team of Nashville sessioneers ran through a short set of songs taken from Plant’s latest solo record. Now 62, he remains in fine form; the permanent glint in his eye evidence of just how much he’s enjoying this latest musical adventure.

The material - a downhome set of folk-blues reinterpretations, country rarities and reawakened spirituals - is rooted in the dusty americana that served him so well on 2007’s Raising Sand, except here the twinkling mandolins and plucky banjos play an even larger part in the mix. Unsurprisingly, the band are super tight, delivering the likes of Townes Van Zandt’s bittersweet Harm’s Swift Way, Richard & Linda Thompson’s House Of Cards and the hushed groove of Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down with rustic cool. (more…)

Robert Plant has found a way to frame his talents as a frontman in a new musical context with The Band of Joy. Rating: * * * *

Warming up for his UK tour, Robert Plant played a secret gig in a converted church in London’s West End. “It’s nice to play in one of the Houses Of The Holy, now sadly obsolete and available for receptions of all kinds,” the singer joked. (more…)

It began, as so many great things do, over beers in an Irish pub more than a dozen years ago. That’s when Robert Plant and Buddy Miller first met and began talking — about music, of course. The topic, of all things, wasn’t blues or country but late 1960s West Coast psychedelia.

“To my surprise, he jumped right into a conversation about Love and Moby Grape,” Miller recalls, “a lot of the bands I grew up on. We talked for a long time. I guess he took my name away from that.” (more…)

It could be the super-sized buckets of wine handed out at the bar but there’s a real sense of anticipation for this “secret” gig to unveil Robert Plant’s latest incarnation, as singer in moody blues and folk band Band Of Joy.

Now 62, the lion-maned wailer has resisted the $200 million temptation of a full Led Zeppelin reunion tour in favour of a deeper exploration of the Americana style and sounds of his Grammy-winning Raising Sand album with Alison Krauss. (more…)

Robert Plant unveiled his new ‘Band of Joy’ album at a secret gig in the intimate environs of One Mayfair — a former church — in London on the evening of Weds, Sept. 1, with a half-hour set that displayed his ongoing love affair with American roots music.

Eschewing the bombast that made his name with Led Zeppelin, Plant tapped into a vein of American music that was entirely befitting of a man of 62 years of age. Joined by the Band of Joy — singer Patti Griffin, guitarists Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott, bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino — Plant deftly displayed why a Led Zeppelin reunion. His performance conclusively proved that he remains one of the finest interpreters of other people’s material since Johnny Cash shuffled off this mortal coil. (more…)

Robert Plant  songs have proven to be a collection of amazingly tasteful and constantly exploring efforts. Over the course of 30 years and more than a dozen studio albums, the former Led Zeppelin  frontman has created innovative mixes of rock, blues, country, folk, pop and world music, both alone and with a diverse list of musical collaborators. Okay, so we’re gushing. But here’s our list of the Top Robert Plant Songs. (more…)

Robert Plant takes a road trip through all sorts of roots music on “Band of Joy” (**** out of four stars, out Sept. 14), his first album since “Raising Sand,” the Grammy Award-winning collaboration with bluegrass queen Alison Krauss.

The Led Zeppelin front man went into the studio with Krauss to begin recording a follow-up to “Raising Sand,” but the magical vibe the two created the first time out simply wasn’t there. Plant’s Plan B was to work with Americana stars Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin instead, and the results are spectacular. Miller’s dexterous guitar playing melds folk, soul, rock and country in equal measures, and Griffin’s impassioned vocals work extremely well with Plant’s. Another key player on “Band of Joy” is multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, who sweetens everything whether he’s on mandolin, banjo, accordion, pedal steel guitar or something else. (more…)

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Robert Plant may seem an unlikely Americana artist. But the educated know the original Band of Joy — which he and future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham played in, as well as Zep — was profoundly influenced by what drifted across the pond.

Plant’s latest solo album, “Band of Joy,” follows in the fertile vein of 2007’s Grammy Award-winning “Raising Sand” with Alison Krauss. The new set incorporates an edgier, resonant kind of ambience from producer Buddy Miller, a more aggressive female vocal foil in Patty Griffin and (on several of the 12 tracks) a greater ensemble attitude. (more…)