appeared in Mojo magazine, January 2007

Interview by Mat Snow

Robert Plant has journeyed down from Worcestershire to his north London townhouse with only an apple plucked from a wayside tree to sustain his journey and the first volume, Ballads (“the green CD”), of Harry Smith’s legendary Anthology of American Folk Music for company. It’s a significant choice. At the age of 58, Plant has reached the end of one musical journey, and has started another, one which will bypass the busy thoroughfare of rock. So say farewell to the Golden God of the midnight moan and banshee howl, of the world conquest that stretches from Bron Yr Aur to Tampa Stadium and onwards to the Silk Road and Atlas Mountains. The next new Robert Plant music you hear will be country. ||Continue reading||

originally appeared in Songlines Magazine, November-December issue

by Nigel Williamson

We asked Robert Plant for his world music playlist when we encountered him at the summer garden party at the Real World studios in Wiltshire in July. Given the convivial spirit of the occasion and the fact that the likes of Daby Toure, Sevara Nazarkhan and Little Axe were providing the soundtrack, we correctly judged that he couldn’t say ‘no’.

Normally, following these kind of informal agreements struck over a glass of Pimm’s, several stern reminders are necessary before delivery but Plant responded like a true enthusiast and his playlist arrived without further prompting within days. ||Continue reading||

originally appeared on Blogcritics.org

by Fumo Verde

Are you ready for this? Nine Lives is a ten-disc box set that includes all nine of his solo albums, remastered and expanded with some “extras,” if you know what I mean. It also includes a sixty-minute film on DVD that takes you on a tour of Robert’s solo career, which began after Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980. But that’s not all on the DVD. There are interviews with Plant about each of the albums and with other musicians who know him and are still to this day inspired by his artistry, such as Roger Daltrey, Tori Amos, and Lenny Kravitz. ||Continue reading||

originally appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine December 4, 2006

By David Fricke

Now and again, you find these fantastic moments when what’s left of virgin Mississippi is still in place,” Robert Plant says with a pilgrim’s reverence. The singer is sipping coffee in a restaurant in Clarksdale, just south of the Crossroads - the spot where Highway 49 and the old 61 (now 161) cross and according to legend, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in return for the musical prowess that made him the world’s most famous bluesman. ||Continue reading||