Ever since their one-off concert at London’s O2 arena back in December 2007 to honor the late Atlantic Records founder and president Ahmet Ertegün, Robert Plant has been shooting down Led Zeppelin reunion rumors left, right, and center. While fellow bandmates Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) have been enthusiastic to the point of hinting at a new Zep album and a monster tour to follow, Plant has been considerably less so. He prefers to leave the brilliant O2 concert stand as the band’s legacy and turned down a reported $200 million deal due to commitments he had with bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss to tour in support of the their critically acclaimed album, 2007’s Raising Sand.
With that tour long behind him now and plans for a follow-up to the duo’s Grammy Award-winning collaboration temporarily on hold while Krauss is off recording and touring with her own band, Union Station, Robert Plant returns this summer with a new band and his first album in nearly three years. Calling the persistent reunion buzz surrounding Led Zeppelin “frustrating and ridiculous,” Plant is moving forward with the resurrected blues outfit Band of Joy. (As Zep fans will recall, Plant and drummer John Bonham got their start in Band of Joy back in the late ‘60s before hooking up with Jimmy Page and going on to form Led Zeppelin.)
For his newest incarnation of the band that first set tongues wagging about the "young man with the powerful voice," Plant and co-producer, legendary Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller, assembled a topnotch cast of American folk musicians who lend their talents to the project. Miller was part of the Raising Sand touring band and has played lead guitar and provided backing vocals for artists like Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Lucinda Williams. "I'm working with arch-bishops of good taste," the charismatic singer says of the lineup which, in addition to Miller, includes Nashville's most in-demand bassist Byron House, who has performed or recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dolly Parton and the Dixie Chicks among others; multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott on mandolin, guitar, accordion, banjo, and pedal and lap steel guitars; alt-country singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, who put her own career on hold when Plant requested her "Shangri Las-type vocals" as foil to his lead; and Griffin's drummer/percussionist/vocalist Marco Giovino.
Band of Joy cut their debut album in December 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee, recording 24 songs in the days leading up to Christmas. Plant then pared the bunch down to the dozen that made it onto the self-titled Band of Joy. The album is an eclectic mix of Americana roots music that picks up where Raising Sand left off, though taking its predecessor's raw organic sound in a somewhat rockier direction with reinterpretations of Townes Van Zandt's hard-driving "Harms Swift Way" and "Silver Rider" and "Monkey" by the Minnesotan indie trio Low. Also included are spirituals like "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and "Cindy I'll Marry You Someday" and covers of Mexican-American roots-rockers Los Lobos' "Angel Dance" and the Kelly Brothers' 1960s soul classic "Falling In Love Again."
Plant credits Buddy Miller for giving Band of Joy its soul, citing Miller's musical sensibilities that range from mid-Fifties rockabilly to country to Memphis soul and R&B. "It's been a blast working on these new songs...and I'm enjoying such creativity and vitality," Plant says. "It's been a remarkable change of direction for all of us and as a group we all seem to have developed a new groove."
Robert Plant and the Band of Joy kick off the first leg of their tour with 12 dates beginning July 13th in Memphis and wrapping July 31st in Miami. A second leg is scheduled for fall with four UK dates already announced beginning in September. The album Band of Joy hits stores September 14th.
And as for that Zeppelin reunion, well, anytime Robert Plant is between projects you can expect rumors to fly. Despite enormous public demand, however, Plant remains reluctant to revisit Zeppelin's past and continues to keep his focus on the future and his evolving musical tastes, saying that he has no desire to "tour like a bunch of bored old men following the Rolling Stones around." In a radio interview he cited fear of letting fans down as a major factor for not reuniting Zeppelin. "The disappointment that could be there once you commit to that and the comparisons to something that was basically fired by youth and a different kind of exuberance to now, it's very hard to go back and meet that head on and do it justice."
Mercifully, all talk of Page, Jones, and Bonham forging on with a new lead singer has at last been put to rest. The trio had been writing and recording material since the O2 performance and had tried out a few vocalists who they thought might step in for Plant. Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, with his four-octave vocal range, was rumored to have the job, but according to Jimmy Page's manager, "The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue."
So if you're still holding your breath for Led Zeppelin to regroup and triumphantly tour the world (as I am), you should probably exhale now. With Robert Plant tossing around adjectives like "invigorating" and "rejuvenating" to describe his latest endeavor, it may be awhile. But hey, crazier things have gone down. I have a copy of "Chinese Democracy" sitting in my music library by golly.
