originally appeared in sun-sentinel.com

by Benjamin Crandell

Just got off the phone with rocker Robert Plant, the one-time Led Zeppelin deity whose new outfit, Band of Joy, hits Bayfront in Miami on July 31. He hinted that the new band will be nothing like the mandolin wind –powered sound that carried him and Alison Krauss to multiple Grammy Awards. But more on that later…

What he wanted to talk about first was the state of English goalkeeping in the World Cup. While he was perfectly complimentary about the play of “your boys,” he was still seething about the “Hand of Clod” goal allowed by Robert Green against the U.S. And he seemed to have little confidence in Green’s successors.

“[Green] comes from a long line of English goalkeepers, a nest of very peculiar guys, who mesmerize the crowd before they self-destruct. You’d have to be either divorced three times over or mad to go between the sticks,” Plant said.

Of the evisceration of Green in the English press, Plant was sympathetic, but said it comes with the territory.

“Over here we have a media that makes princes and kings,” he said. “They create heroes and then reduce them, emasculate them at the drop of a hat.”

But Plant said support for the team remains at an all-time high.

“Everybody is driving around [London] with vehicles covered with the flag of St. George [red cross on a white field],” he said. “It’s all very strange, like some right-wing regime from 1962.”

Originally appeared in arktimes.com (Arkansas Times)

by Lindsey Millar

Thursday, in one of the season’s most anticipated concerts, Robert Plant, the iconic voice of Led Zeppelin, comes to Robinson Center Music Hall. After piling up Grammy gold last year for “Raising Sand,” his critical and commercial hit project with Allison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett, Plant’s headed to town with new collaborators in advance of a September 14 album release. He’s calling the group and the album Band of Joy, a name resurrected from his pre-Zeppelin band with John Bonham. This time around, his band mates include singer/songwriter Patty Griffin, producer and guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, bassist Byron House and percussionist Marco Giovino. The album, like “Raising Sand,” is another dip into the Great American Songbook, with songs ranging from “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” to Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance” to a pair of tracks from Minnesota indie rockers Low.

I spoke with Plant on Monday about shifting styles, Townes Van Zandt, Helena and more. ||Continue reading||

originally appeared on spinner.com

by Kenneth Partridge

Robert Plant’s next album, ‘Band of Joy,’ won’t be out until Sept. 14, but Thursday night at the Back Room, a clandestine bar in New York City’s Lower East Side, critics and industry folks were given an early listen. In case they weren’t sure what they thought, the man himself dropped by to offer his own review.

“It’s fantastic music, even though I say so myself,” Plant told the audience, minutes after the disc’s final track, ‘Even This Shall Pass Away,’ had finished playing.

The album, named for a pre-Led Zeppelin group Plant fronted in the late ’60s, shares much in common with ‘Raising Sand,’ the singer’s Grammy-winning 2007 collaboration with Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett. Lean and twangy, caked in Delta mud and brimming with bad mojo, ‘Band of Joy’ again finds the rock legend immersed in the mythology of the American south, drawing on classic country, folk and blues.

In recent years, Plant hasn’t simply reignited his passion for American music. He’s also rediscovered the value of playing with Americans.

“In 1966, I was 17, and I cut a Young Rascals song for Columbia Records, and it disappeared without a trace,” Plant said Thursday, explaining his aversion to jamming with Yanks. “It came out here [in the US] for about a second. And 41 years later, I finally decided it was worth working with American musicians.”

“Brits seem to have a way of harnessing and lassoing beautiful American music and usually shafting it very badly,” he added. “It took maturity and gray hair for me to realize that the essence of a lot of fantastic music may have come once from Europe, but it’s certainly been looked after better in the more obscure parts of the American psyche.”

Among the musicians Plant enlisted for ‘Band of Joy’ was acclaimed Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller, who served as co-producer. Plant called Miller a “curator of great music,” citing as proof his collaborator’s fondness for Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, pioneers of psychedelic rock, “that fantastic part of American music that we only really screwed very badly in England.”

‘Band of Joy’ also features Patty Griffin, a singer whose voice Plant didn’t initially know he needed.

“As this record developed, it took maybe 10 days before Christmas, and it was all very sweet and sounded like Moby Grape outtakes, and I was in absolute heaven,” Plant said Thursday. “I took it home and realized there was nothing on it that kicked up. So after Christmas, we went into overdrive and begged Patty Griffin to come sing that great Cocteau Twins-type, Shangri-Las-type vocal thing that gives the whole collection a new-yet-old look.”

With both Griffin and Miller, Plant felt the kind of chemistry he says is vital to any album.

“People say to me, ‘How do we know what you’re going to do next?’” he said. “I have no idea ever what I will do. I just know the first four hours when you meet musicians are the most crucial in your life. You know then whether there’s something really magical there, or whether you’re just churning it out.”

“And I could never go anywhere near that latter condition,” he said.

Originally appeared on Billboard.com

by David J. Prince, N.Y.

Robert Plant takes an eclectic dive into Americana roots music on “Band of Joy,” his first new album since 2007’s “Raising Sand.” The album was recorded in Nashville with an all-star group of musicians and is due Sept. 14 on Rounder Records.

“Band of Joy” was co-produced by Plant and the renowned guitarist Buddy Miller, and the group (also called Band of Joy) includes multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott (mandolin, guitar, accordion, pedal, lap steel and banjo lines), vocalist Patty Griffin, Byron House on bass and Marco Giovino on percussion.

“Band of Joy” finds Plant putting his unique stamp on a wide variety of source material, including versions of Los Lobos’s “Angel Dance,” Low’s “Silver Rider” and “Monkey,” and the Kelly Brothers’ 1960s soul classic “Falling In Love Again.”

Plant’s last album, 2007’s “Raising Sand,” featured vocal duets with Allison Krauss and was produced by T-Bone Burnett. That album won six Grammy Awards — including Album of the Year - and debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 2.

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy will tour the U.S. in July with additional dates to be added.

Here’s the “Band of Joy” track listing:

“Angel Dance”
“House of Cards”
“Central Two-O-Nine”
“Silver Rider”
“You Can’t Buy My Love”
“I’m Falling In Love Again”
“The Only Sound That Matters”
“Monkey”
“Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday”
“Harm’s Swift Way”
“Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”
“Even This Shall Pass Away”

originally appeared in Billboard.com business news

By Richard Smirke, London

Veteran rocker Robert Plant unveiled his new album project “Band of Joy” in London earlier today (June 1).

Speaking at a reception in events venue Il Bottaccio, Belgravia, which had been specially decorated as a rundown farm for the occasion, Plant introduced himself by saying: “I was in a psychedelic band and there’s never been a more surreal point than this one.”

Prior to the singer’s brief appearance, for which he claimed to have coincidently been passing, guests were treated to the first playback of Plant’s new record — the eagerly awaited follow-up to 2007’s “Raising Sand,” the artist’s multiple Grammy-winning album with Alison Krauss.

“Band of Joy” takes its name from the blues band that Plant fronted before he joined Led Zeppelin, although Plant is the sole original member to participate in this new incarnation.

As previously announced, Plant is set to tour “Band of Joy” later this year with a 12-city trek beginning in Memphis on July 13. Further dates are set to follow in the fall, according to a statement posted on the artist’s official website (www.robertplant.com).

Universal is set to drop the 12-track record internationally Sept. 13. Its U.S. release will be handled by Rounder, according to a statement on the artist’s website.

Commenting on the record, which was met with an enthusiastic reception from all present, Plant revealed that he recorded “24 songs in 15 days” for the record, adding, ” The enthusiasm and rebirth of everybody involved was fucking phenomenal. It stretched us all.”

Similar in tone and instrumentation to “Raising Sand”, “Band of Joy” includes a series of knockout vocal contributions from American singer-songwriter Patty Griffin. Buddy Miller, who also features on the album, co-produced the album.

Darrell Scott, Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino additionally star on the record, according to Plant’s web site, although at this stage Universal is remaining tight-lipped about whether any other guest musicians contributed to the record or on what tracks artists appear. Universal staffers at the launch also declined to confirm if Band of Joy was to be considered a solo project from Plant or whether it is a group endeavor with shared writing credits.

Billboard.biz, can, however, report that the new record forms a triumphant follow-up to “Raising Sand”, replicating the raw organic sound of its predecessor while, at times, pursuing a rockier direction.

Standout tracks include album opener “Angel Dance,” a driving blues number, “Silver Rider,” an epic duet (probably with Griffin), which alternates between quiet relaxed verses and an infectiously catchy rock chorus, and “I’m Falling In Love Again,” a beautifully soulful country ballad.

Elsewhere on the record, “You Can’t Buy My Love” delivers a foot-tapping cross between Johnny Cash and Hamburg-era Beatles, while “Monkey” momentarily harks back to Plant’s days in Led Zeppelin with its potent mix of feedback, grinding rock riffs and deep bass. The wonderful “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” meanwhile, is a blues number which pushes Plant’s still-powerful vocals to the fore.

The album closes with blues rock number “Even This Shall Pass Away,” which finds Plant singing, “What is wealth the King would say/Even this shall pass away” before culminating in an extended instrumental outro.

“‘Band of Joy’ was an appropriate title for an amazing group of people who had nothing to lose,” Plant told the assembled media audience before leaving the room, declaring: “I’m off to make another one.”

Press Release
Originally appeared on RobertPlant.com

JULY SHOWS TO INCLUDE MATERIAL FROM NEW ROUNDER ALBUM

Burlington, MA – Robert Plant has confirmed a 12 city North American tour. Beginning in July, this 1st leg of shows which will be followed by further dates in the fall will preview material from a new album. Featuring a diverse group of musicians - Patty Griffin, vocals, Darrell Scott, multi instrumentalist/vocals, Byron House, Bass/Vocals, Marco Giovino, drums and percussion/vocals, including co-producer Buddy Miller, guitar/vocals. The album is set for release on Rounder, late summer/early fall.

Kicking off in Memphis on July 13th (see full tour schedule below) the tour will feature Plant and the ’Band of Joy’ - the same musicians who also appear and play on the album.

Says Plant: “It’s been a blast working on these new songs…and I’m enjoying such creativity and vitality. 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.”

In recent weeks Plant has been in the studio working on the planned release, which will be his first since Raising Sand, the multi-platinum, 6-time Grammy® winning collaboration with fellow Rounder artist Alison Krauss. Krauss has most recently been recording with her longtime band Union Station, and will be touring with them this summer. The pair do not expect to announce a new album or tour in the coming year, though when asked about the collaboration, Plant says: “Oh yes, Alison and I get together quite often…and sometimes we dance.”

**On sale dates will vary throughout March & April.

Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy Tour Dates:

July
13 Memphis, TN - The Orpheum Theater
15 Little Rock, AR - Robinson Center Music Hall
16 Tulsa, OK - Brady Theater
18 Albuquerque, NM - Sandia Casino Amphitheater
20 Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theater
21 Tucson, AZ - Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater
23 Dallas, TX Meyerson Symphony Hall
24 Houston, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
26 Austin, TX - Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
28 Mobile, AL - The Saenger Theatre
30 Clearwater, FL - Ruth Eckerd Hall
31 Miami, FL - Bayfront Park Amphitheater

originally appeared on ClassicRockMagazine.com

Robert Plant will play a special charity show in London next month – and the only way you can get tickets is by bidding on eBay.

The Led Zep legend plays the Sound & Vision show in aid of Cancer Research UK at Abbey Road Studios on February 25.

Plant’s set will include support from American singer-songwriter Beth Nielson Chapman and the London Oriana Choir.

Plant said: “Performing at Sound & Vision is something I’m really excited about. Cancer Research UK is a very worthwhile cause, and when Bob [Harris] asked me to get involved I didn’t hesitate. My set is quite different from anything I’ve ever done before, as I’ll be performing with Beth and a full choir on stage. Cancer is a disease that affects so many people and Sound & Vision is a great way to raise money to fight it.”

Starting today (February 1) Plant fans wanting to catch the performance can bid for a chance to attend the sold-out event through the Sound & Vision eBay site. Fans can also bid for VIP tickets which include a meet and greet with the performers.

Other items up for auction include a guitar signed by all four members of The Prodigy, a Kaiser Chiefs drumskin signed by the whole band (Wow! – Ed.), plus handwritten lyrics from Tori Amos, Doves and more.

originally appeared at monstersandcritics.com

Robert Plant wants to spend New Year’s Eve (31.12.09) in the arms of a woman.

The 61-year-old rocker - who has famously lived a life of sex, drugs and rock n roll excess - admitted he will be looking for love over the holiday season.

He said: “Where would I like to welcome in the New Year? In some warm, tantalising arms.”

Although he is looking forward to celebrating New Year’s Eve, the former Led Zeppelin singer isn’t looking forward to the next decade because all it holds for him is “more attention to bladder control”.

He added: “I don’t think I’ve aged gracefully. When you can feel the breeze of the Grim Reaper, there’s nothing graceful about that fear, because I’m only a third of the way through the adventures I want to have.”

However, the star has made some New Year’s Resolutions - to improve his driving.

He explained: “I park my car by touch, using the wheels as a guide to when I’ve hit the kerb.”

originally appeared on news.qthemusic.com

Robert Plant rounded off the Q Awards 2009 with Russian Standard Vodka by receiving the Q Outstanding Contribution To Music.

Introducing the award which was presented by Ibrahim from Tinariwen and Bob Harris, and included a video message from Alison Krauss, Harris paid tribute to his friend of forty years. He described him as “a wonderfully exciting person to be around, an artist who has never lost his wanderlust”, recounting Plant’s numerous achievements, including the recent Led Zeppelin reunion and the 5 Grammy awarded album Raising Sand.

Perhaps illustrating his musical journey best of all Plant in return thanked a long list of people from throughout from all eras of his career and across different musical genres, whom he said he shared the award with, including the members of Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Tinariwen, Alison Krauss and legendary record executive and Atlantic Records’ co-founder Ahmet Ertegun.

originally appeared on NME.com

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has said that he has held talks with Glastonbury festival chief Michael Eavis about him performing at next year’s event.

The singer told BBC 6music that although he had spoken to Eavis about the possibility of him playing, he had not thought about who he would be playing with.

“I’ve just been talking to Michael,” he said. “There’s place for me there, but I have no idea who with. There is a chance yeah, but I don’t know with who.”

Led Zeppelin reunited in December 2007 to play the London O2 Arena, although they haven’t been active since. Plant released an album, ‘Raising Sand’, in 2007 with Alison Krauss.

When asked if he would play Glastonbury solo he said, “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m good at card tricks.”