Originally appeared in Wall Street Journal

By JIM FUSILLI

Robert Plant’s new band borrows the name of his old one. No, not Led Zeppelin. It’s Band of Joy, a late-’60s group of which Mr. Plant was a member with soon-to-be-Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Unlike its namesake, the new unit doesn’t offer a British take on blues and soul. It plays Americana music and, as demonstrated here last week, does so with intelligence and inventiveness—even when its leader is revisiting his Zeppelin days.

Band of Joy’s eponymous album won’t be out until Sept. 14, but the group worked its songs as if they were already an established part of the 61-year-old Mr. Plant’s vast repertoire. For an opening night, the band—featuring Buddy Miller on guitar, Darrell Scott on several stringed instruments, Patty Griffin on guitar, Byron House on bass and Marco Giovino on drums—was remarkably tight. It found precedent for its airy, tasteful, bottom-rich and occasionally fierce music not only in the ‘07 Plant-Alison Krauss collaboration, “Raising Sand,” but also in Mr. Plant’s fruitful solo career, now almost twice as long as his stint in Zeppelin.

But Zeppelin was never far from Mr. Plant’s mind: The new group played seven songs associated with Messrs. Plant and Bonham, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones; each piece was delivered with a dose of irreverence while still linked to their deeper roots. Before jumping into “Houses of the Holy,” Mr. Plant said, “Hold on to your trousers!” His colleague Ms. Griffin sang the blues standard “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” which Zeppelin co-opted some 50 years after Blind Willie Johnson recorded it. Mr. Plant also ended the set with “Gallows Pole,” which featured Mr. Scott on banjo, and began the encore with “Thank You.” “I knew you were country fans,” he said, acknowledging how the band reworked the tune. Then they launched into “Rock and Roll.”

On new, unfamiliar material, Mr. Plant showed his ability to control the stage when, late in the show, the band did a folky reading of Townes Van Zandt’s “Harm’s Swift Way” with Mr. Scott on acoustic guitar and Mr. Miller adding twangy bass notes on electric guitar. Mr. Plant conceded it was “a little premature” to showcase songs two months before the band’s versions would be available, but the audience welcomed the performances. He followed “Down to the Sea”—from his ‘93 solo album, “Fate of Nations”—with Los Lobos’s “Angel Dance,” which can be heard on Band of Joy’s new disc. Both songs were greeted with equal fervor.

Mr. Plant is beefier now, and he’s set aside the fey gestures he deployed in his Zeppelin days. But he’s still a star: The day before opening night was Robert Plant Day here and the Memphis Commercial Appeal ran his photo on its front page the morning after. The city’s importance to American music holds meaning for him; during the show, he called Memphis “his first second home.”

In the Band of Joy, he’s the centerpiece, but not the only focus. Several times during the program, he withdrew to a backing role, allowing his colleagues to share the spotlight together. In a beautiful reading of “All the King’s Horses,” he allowed them to show their versatility: Mr. Giovino turned from the drums to play accordion while Mr. Scott switched to pedal steel. Mr. Plant also exploited the band’s vocal capabilities, using three, and sometimes four, voices to form a wall of harmony around him.

A large share of the credit for Band of Joy’s sound belongs to Mr. Miller, who is based in Nashville. Mr. Miller brought to the Plant-Krauss band his easy way with Americana, and he’s done the same with this unit. His rubbery guitar lines centered “House of Cards,” and when the group tackled the Plant-Page composition, “Please Read the Letter,” Mr. Miller unleashed a garage-rock sound, then withdrew, to be followed by Mr. Scott’s gentle riffs on folk guitar. When the band played other songs from the Plant-Krauss collaboration, Mr. Miller gave them a new underpinning. Accordingly, “Rich Woman” and “Gone Gone Gone” shimmered with a new, different glow.

It’s a treat to watch Mr. Plant, who exudes a casual, though not quite self-effacing, confidence. No one in the theater seemed to enjoy himself more than he did. He played a tiny washboard on one tune, toying with it well after the song ended. During “Misty Mountain Hop,” the evening’s first Zeppelin tune, he moved his microphone next to Ms. Griffin’s and they sang in unison, a sly smile crossing his face as the audience cheered with glee.

When the brief U.S. tour ends on July 31, Mr. Plant and Band of Joy will head to the U.K. for several shows in anticipation of the album’s release. Another U.S. tour will kick off in early 2011. There’s no reason to believe Mr. Plant won’t be smiling then, too, as the new Band of Joy continues to explore the link between the Plant catalogue and its American roots.

Originally appeared on tulsaworld.com

By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer

Robert Plant dressed for comfort in a dark tee, relaxed dungarees and pointed leather cowboy boots. But this was no casual affair.

The legendary singer and songman’s concert Friday night at the Brady Theater in Tulsa was his first here in half a decade, and the sold-out audience was ready for him.

“Welcome to the first intergalactical tour of the Band of Joy,” Plant yelled after bowing low to a standing, screaming crowd. “At least the first tour since the first half of the last century.”

Plant’s U.S. tour with his band started this week – the first official outing for the English band in more than 40 years. He and bandmate John Bonham went on to join Led Zeppelin in the late ‘60s.

Plant’s Friday set was an adept blend of the American roots he’s explored so thoroughly for nearly half a century. There was blues and country and bluegrass and rockabilly (boy, was there) and gospel and straight-up rock, all helmed by his agile trademark vocals.

His set was fitted with harmonica, five supporting musicians and, yes, even a washboard. Tunes included the new and classic, from the ‘70s Zep standard “Rock and Roll,” ‘80s solo hit “Tall Cool One” to “Rich Woman” from the Grammy-winning 2007 album “Raising Sand” and Band of Joy’s debut of “Angel Dance.”

He erupted into laughter early in the set, as he witnessed recognition — and ecstasy — wash over he crowd after the beginning bars of the Led Zeppelin oldie “Misty Mountain Hop.”

Band of Joy featured the down-home inspiration of Patty Griffin on vocals; the unrivaled rockabilly and surf-guitar of Buddy Miller, versatile former Sun Studio musician Byron House on stand-up bass, Darrel Scott played everything from pedal steel guitar to banjo and Marco Giovino ruled the drum kit.

Band of Joy happily ripped through some six new tunes from its upcoming studio album, including “House of Cards,” “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” “Central Two O Nine.”

A highlight of Friday night’s show, they performed a gospel-esque medley including “Twelve Gates to the City” and “Wade in the Water.”

The band emblazoned its distinctive iron brand on each tune performed, including “Gallows Pole,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Down to the Sea,” “Rich Woman,” “Thank You,” “Houses of the Holy,” “Please Read the Letter” and more.

Shimmering surf-rock vibrato, doghouse-style bass and honky-tonk slide guitar glimmered with emotional intensity.

Griffin - Plant’s vocal His Girl Friday - complimented and counterbalanced his distinctive vocals, adding richness and texture and depth. At times, he seemed a little tipsy in the wake of her charm.

A misfire at “All The King’s Men” even earned the 61-year-old a round of applause, as Plant rebooted the tune from the top and laughed it off. The capacity crowd was pleasantly ornery, whooping and feeding into — and from – the band.

Opening act the North Mississippi Allstars Duo LuCo (brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson) rumbled and wailed through a set of up-tempo, bluesy, rocky, jam-infused Americana — the pair as drummer-keyboardist and guitarist, mixing vocal harmonies with finger slide and staccato rhythm.

Originally appeared on ArkansasOnline.com

By Jack Hill

Robert Plant and his Band of Joy made a joyful noise Thursday night at Robinson Center Music Hall for a horde of adoring fans. The crowd soaked it all up, for sure, on a night when the oppressive summer heat might have kept some folks away.

Those who braved it, however, were richly rewarded with an hour and 45 minutes of Plant’s new music as created by the five musicians who backed him up, as well as some of his solo work and the songs from his Led Zeppelin days.

Still able to belt out songs with his amazing voice 42 years after the start of his Zeppelin career, Plant did keep his shirt on, something he didn’t always do back then. With Patty Griffin singing and Buddy Miller playing guitar, Plant had plenty of help, plus multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott on pedal steel, banjo, mandolin and guitar rounded out the sound nicely, with a firm foundation provided by bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino.

Plant opened with “Down to the Sea,” from one of his solo albums, following with Plant’s take on a Los Lobos song, “Angel Dance,” one of several from the forthcoming Band of Joy album, set for release Sept. 14. Some of the best of the new songs were versions of Townes Van Zandt’s “Harm’s Swift Way,” Richard Thompson’s “House of Cards,” Low’s “Monkey” and the Uncle Tupelo arrangement of old traditional, “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down.”

Led Zeppelin fans were treated to several classic cuts, the best of which were “Houses of the Holy,” “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Rock and Roll,” which put the cap on a generous encore segment before the band bowed out.

Opening act honors went to Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars, who are sons of the late, great Jim Dickinson, a Little Rock-born musician/producer who brought up his boys in the Memphis area, specifically north Mississippi, as their name suggests. With guitar, drums and keyboards between them, the Dickinson brothers made an endearing racket themselves, making the most of their half-hour set.

originally appeared on commercialappeal.com

by Bob Mehr

It was, as Robert Plant noted, a night of firsts.

Plant’s Tuesday concert at downtown’s Orpheum marked the first show for the revived version of his Band of Joy in 43 years, the first night of his current tour, and his first performance in Memphis since being officially honored by the city.

Plant and his five-piece outfit took the stage for a nearly two-hour set that cut a wide swath across his career, from his Led Zeppelin glories to his recent Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, as well as offering a preview of a new Band of Joy album due later this year.

Choosing a roots music Mecca like Memphis as the site to re-launch the Band of Joy was no accident. For Plant — an avowed student and explorer of Southern musical traditions — the project brings together the deep blues, gospel, country and rockabilly closest to his heart.

Set against a giant circus-themed backdrop, the capacity crowd roared as Plant opened with a understated version of “Down to the Sea” from his early ’90s solo album Fate of Nations, before quickly moving into “Angel Dance,” the first single from his forthcoming record.

It was immediately apparent that Plant’s decision to stock his new Band of Joy with gifted Nashville multi-threats — including lead guitarist Buddy Miller, instrumental wiz Darrell Scott and singer Patty Griffin — was an inspired one as the group’s contributions were rich and nuanced throughout the evening.

Plant, who was honored on Monday with a star in front of the Orpheum’s sidewalk and with the City of Memphis declaring it “Robert Plant Day”, was chatty and playful. “I don’t know how many second homes you can have,” he noted between songs, “but this is my first second home.”

After a halting reading of “House of Cards,” Plant noted: “That was a song from the catalog of Richard Thompson. This is from another catalog,”

With that the band was into a slower, groovy version of Led Zeppelin’s “Misty Mountain Hop.” It was restrained but enjoyable performance with Plant sidling up to Griffin to belt out the song together.

It was the first of several Zep songs that would get an airing during course of the evening. Most were heavily rearranged and colored by the guitar work of Miller, who was more than up to the task of re-imagining such deeply ingrained classic rock standards, though his playing clearly owed more to Jimmy Bryant than Jimmy Page.

Later, each of the band members took turns on a brilliant gospel medley of “Oh What A Beautiful City/Wade In The Water/In My Time of Dying” that stood as the show’s centerpiece.

Griffin took the spotlight for an impassioned, stomping reading of “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” before the band segued into “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” which was delivered with an appropriate menace. A spirited romp of “Central Two 0 Nine” found Plant going native, strapping on a washboard and getting down to business.

Throughout the night, Plant’s pacing was perfect, as he moved the band seamlessly from familiar fare to new material, moody songs to spirited numbers.

A one-two punch of his solo hit “Tall Cool One” and the Zep favorite “Houses of the Holy” had the audience at fever pitch, and he continued to hold them rapt with cover of Townes Van Zandt “Harm’s Swift Way” and a powerful closing “Gallows Pole.”

“See you in another 43 years,” joked Plant after the band had taken its bows.

But it was merely a matter of moments before he was back on stage for an encore that included “Thank You” and a rousing, Sun Records-style redux of Zep’s “Rock and Roll” that ended the night on a fitting Memphis note.

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.”

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.

How’s it going?

Excellent. I finally got back to my ancient home away from home. I’m staring across the Mississippi River. So, yeah, I’m rockin’.

The tour begins tomorrow night there in Memphis. So you’ve got some time to tour around?

Well, you know, I’ve got some stuff to do here and I’ve got some friends to see. I met Elvis many, many years ago when I was in Zep, so I got to know people who were around him too, and they know people who were around Jerry Lee. And I’ve got good connection with friends down in Clarksdale, Mississippi, too.

In a lot of ways your solo career has been if not about defying expectations then at least jumping around a lot stylistically. So I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that you’re not following your massively successful collaboration with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett with another record with Krauss and Burnett?

You shouldn’t be surprised. And you wouldn’t be surprised to know that sooner or later they’ll be a Union Station record out and then there’ll be another summer and another winter and there’ll be another Plant and Krauss record out, I guess.

This is a wonderful world of music, especially with great hindsight and more and more knowledge and a little more maturity. It means that so many things are possible, even though you kind of lose the great panoramic vista of enormous success that comes or doesn’t come. Every dog has his day, and my day is a different color quite regularly. My plan is to stimulate, so that I can sing with true meaning. I can’t bluff it. To be a singer and just to repeat everything that he is and has been, I’d be a hell of a one trick pony, so I can’t do that.

If you get together with people and you can make stuff work in four hours, you know you’re on course for making a blinding collection of songs in a new zone. That has a very familiar ring because that’s what happened in 1968, 1969 and 1970 and on through the Zeppelin world. We never went back to the same spot.

On paper, though, this project looks similar to working with Burnett and Krauss: you, plus a really respected roots producer in Buddy Miller and a really respected female folk vocalist in Patty Griffin. But early reports indicate it’s a departure, in terms of its sound, from “Raising Sand.”

There’s a lot more going on in the nether regions. It’s a punchy record. It drives a lot. It’s a little to The Electric Prunes, I guess. Occasionally, there’s enough spook there to think you might be getting ready for a Cocteau Twins gig. Buddy wasn’t involved in the recording of “Raising Sand.” But he played with us throughout the tour. It was that relationship that I struck up with him at that time and the great dynamism of music — the love it all — that got us into this new zone. It’s really powerful.

You’ve got a really eclectic assortment of songs on the album — from acts as diverse as Los Lobos, The Kelly Brothers, Townes Van Zandt and Low. Can you talk about the song selection? Did you and Miller pick the songs you’d cover together?

I’ve been carrying Low songs in my car for about eight or nine years. That “Great Destroyer” album I used to play it a lot. I thought it’s quite removed from where I’ve been going, but I know Buddy’s got that spook stuff covered. Around Christmas time, I said, ‘Let’s touch it and see what we could do.’ It was at that point that he suggested that Patty could come along and really make the thing work. She was in Nashville and came by and tried it out and it was a very strong and sensuous vocal link. It’s really just what we want. It’s great.

Let’s talk about some of the other song choices. You’ve got The Kelly Brothers.

Yeah, there’s some amazing DVDs that you can get, something like seven or eight DVDs of stuff that’s maybe not very mainstream from that period. Maybe a little OV Wright or ZZ Hill and the Kelly Brothers are there right in the middle of it. It’s just a great period of music.

I saw some YouTube footage of them. They had really fantastic pompadours.

That’s right. And the bolero jackets! We all wanted to look like that, but a white boy from Worcestershire with spots —

Has trouble pulling that off?

Yeah, it doesn’t work really. Frayed jeans and beatnik sandals were a bit more apropos. Later on, I did get into pointy-toe shoes, and I don’t seem to have left that behind.

Can you talk about the Townes Van Zandt song, “Harms Swift Way”?

It’s kind of drifted around. His — I’m not going to say “reading” because that’s really where we know we’ve gone right up our own sphincter — his music was dramatic at times, sometimes lost and sometimes hugely found, and this was, maybe, according to one aficionado, the last thing he ever wrote. It’s not a very happy tune in its original form. And basically it’s not happy-ed up now, but at least it’s got a driving beat and sounds like it just dropped off “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.”

I know the album is to be called “Band of Joy,” but are you and Miller and Griffin and others also Band of Joy?

Yeah, everything is Band of Joy.

Why did you decide to revive the project?

Because my original Band of Joy, which was right up to meeting Jimmy Page, was like nothing mattered. You just had to get the music right — at the expense of everything. There was a very buccaneer approach to it. John Bonham and myself drove the band, but we were ably supported at that time by musicians who felt that the most important thing on the planet was to get it out and express it rather than follow Herman’s Hermits and The Tremeloes or Freddie and the Dreamers into some American teen scene moment. It was a kind of buccaneer band. I felt that I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m singing good. These people are amazing. I find that I’m learning way more by being with these people. Every day is a day when I learn something fresh.

What should people expect on the tour?

Tunes from everywhere. Tunes from 1968 in a studio in London. Tunes from 1988 in a studio in London. Tunes from 2008 in a studio in Nashville. And it’s not sedate.

So you’ll be doing “Raising Sand” and Zeppelin songs?

There’s room for “squeezing my lemon” and “baby, baby.” Also, “I got a woman with plenty of money/She’s got the money and I’ve got the honey” doesn’t seem like a bad thing to sing. It’s not too challenging cerebrally anyway.

This’ll be your first time performing in Arkansas, right?

No. I was in Little Rock about 10 years ago. I remember driving in from West Helena.

I was going to ask about that. I knew you’d been in Helena and sat in at KFFA with Sonny Payne.

That’s right. Nicely and quite righteously for me and him there was no connection with me being a musician*, I was just a passerby. That made it so much better for me because I could talk about things like the last Sonny Boy sessions on Arhoolie before he died.

You should come back in the fall. The blues fest they have in Helena is going to be bigger than usual. They’ve got BB King and Dr. John and Taj Mahal.

Oh really. How did they manage to do that? It’s just on the levee there on Main Street in downtown Helena, right?

It’s sort of struggled in years past, and they really struggled when the company who owns the name to King Biscuit took it back and they had to rename it the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, which, obviously, doesn’t have the same ring to it.

You know what’s really sad is when you come over the bridge on Highway 49 there used to be years ago a sign that said “Welcome to West Helena, the home of Sonny Boy Williamson” that fell in the grass and no one had the bloody propensity to put it back.**

I was in Tutwiler [Miss.] this year to unveil a plaque for WC Handy, and this husband and wife came up to me from Cornwall in the UK and they were looking for clues. I think these things are part of the heritage of an area that can use as much tourist dollar as possible.

I’d be a bad journalist if I didn’t ask: Is there any chance for another Led Zeppelin reunion?

You know, sometimes there’s a hell of a lot of interference on the line.

[Laughs] Fair enough.

*The story goes that, when asked by Payne what he did in England, Plant said, “I play a bit of tennis.”

**I called Delta Cultural Center director Katie Harrington in Helena to ask about the sign. She couldn’t think of what Plant might be talking about, but said that a marker for the Mississippi Blues Heritage Trail that references Sonny Boy Williamson and “King Biscuit Time” sits outside the DCC. She added, “Helena is paying more attention to its past, preserving what it can, saving what it can.”

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.

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”

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.”

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