Review of July 19, 2008–Nashville, TN

Originally appeared in The Tennessean

by DAVE PAULSON

At first, it seemed like a moment straight out of the ’70s: An arena audience finished applauding an incendiary performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” and Robert Plant slithered up to the front of the stage to address the crowd.

“People of Nashville,” he said, and then paused. “And when I say, ‘People of Nashville,’ half of them are on this stage.”

Plant, of course, was not with his legendary former band, but his newfound, Nashville-based musical soulmate, Alison Krauss, and a backing band peppered with top-shelf local talent.

Their performance at the Sommet Center Saturday night was the final date of a summer tour in support of their highly successful collaborative album, Raising Sand, which Plant and Krauss recorded in Nashville last year.

Closing out six straight weeks of shows, the concert balanced an elated homecoming vibe with a finely tuned performance, as the duo’s smoothly blended harmonies rose and fell in perfect step.

In fact, after entering the stage on opposite sides, there was little Plant and Krauss didn’t do in sync at the show’s outset, whether it was sauntering up to the microphones or creeping back with the band, which included Nashville musicians Buddy Miller and dazzling multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan. Their two-hour-plus performance was set to slowly build to a boil, and as sublime as those first, swampy duets were, the pair didn’t heat up until after a few solo turns showcased their individual strengths.

Krauss displayed her otherworldly vocal precision on haunting ballads like Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose,” her transcendent soul on a cappella show-stopper “Down to the River to Pray” and fiery range on bluegrass classic “It’s Goodbye and So Long to You.”

Plant gradually reclaimed some of the sneering bravado of his “Golden God” days with a searing version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’” and Zeppelin’s “Black Country Woman.”

“Oh yeah!” Plant exclaimed at the conclusion of the latter tune.

Earlier in the evening, he told the crowd of the trepidation he had felt about coming to Nashville to begin his work with Krauss.

“Two years later, I’m pleased to say that I feel so at home in this environment,” he said, to warm applause.

To close the set, Plant and Krauss reconvened with looser spirits for a trio of harmony-rich tunes: proto-Sand Zeppelin duet “The Battle of Evermore,” Sand’s “Please Read the Letter,” and the pair’s Grammy-winning single “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On).”

They returned for a five-song encore, highlighted by standout Sand cut “Killing the Blues,” Zeppelin classic “When the Levee Breaks,” spontaneous turns by the backing band and Plant and Krauss’ beaming expressions.

“Thanks for a fantastic finale,” Plant told the audience.

originally appeared in The Tennessean

By BEVERLY KEEL

While Alison Krauss performed before her hometown crowd at Sommet Center on Saturday night, it was also a homecoming of sorts for her British singing partner, Robert Plant.

Nashville, after all, was the birthplace of Plant’s new and personally satisfying sound, a collaboration with Krauss, the queen of bluegrass, and producer/musician T Bone Burnett that resulted in the Music City-recorded album Raising Sand, which was released in October.

Now, with new dates added to their current tour and plans for a second album in the works, the former Led Zeppelin frontman couldn’t be happier with his newfound musical direction. ||Continue reading||

originally appeared on tennessean.com

After the success of the gold-selling Raising Sand album and accompanying tour, the pairing of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant no longer seems like an unlikely combination.

Critics initially focused on their differences: the angel-voiced queen of bluegrass, known for subtlety, precision and restraint, meets the golden rock god whose spontaneously sexual and soaring vocals helped make Led Zeppelin one of the greatest rock groups in history. But the two share much: an unwavering integrity, a passion for truth in storytelling and a respect for musical traditions. ||Continue reading||

Review of July 14, 2008–Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, CAN

Originally appeared on chartattack.com

By Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski

As rock ‘n’ roll carries on after its 50th birthday, we’re finally starting to see what it’s like for some of rock’s biggest legends in the battle to age gracefully. Of the many attempts, Rod Stewart seems to have cornered the market with his successful collections focusing on American standards.

But it certainly looks like Robert Plant could give him a run for his money in his collaboration with bluegrass fiddle player and singer Alison Krauss and guitarist/producer T Bone Burnett. Judging from the crowd at Monday night’s performance, it also seems that, unlike Stewart, Plant still maintains a good relationship with his original fan base. The smell of weed was in the air and vintage Led Zeppelin shirts were everywhere.

Plant, Krauss and Burnett took the stage about an hour after receiving their platinum and gold records at a short press conference. Most of the set focused on last year’s Raising Sand, which mixes country, blues, bluegrass, ’50s twang and the incredible pairing of Plant and Krauss’ voices.

The set itself was well mixed and allowed the band to explore the possibilities of what was basically an acoustic act running through a gigantic PA system. The band created a good sense of dynamics when needed, and the sound was allowed to thunder when necessary.

But the venue’s vastness somewhat hurt the presentation because Raising Sand is more suited for a smaller and more intimate setting. It’s hard to recreate some of the disc’s more atmospheric moments in a place like this — especially when it comes to some of the subtle vocal bits.

Overall, it was great to see the three main participants sharing the stage and knowing when to hold back. It was really shocking to see Plant, the man who many consider rock’s greatest vocalist, do nothing but clap or provide some quick backing vocals. You could also see how important Burnett (who was dressed kind of like a southern gothic preacher) is to the whole project. He kept the band on track and played some cool guitar.

Even though this may be an attempt to age gracefully, you can’t ignore your roots, and Plant didn’t. Early in the set, they did a dirge-like rendition of the Zep classic “Heartbreaker” that could have been on Raising Sand, which showcased Burnett’s arranging powers. They also did a stirring version of “The Battle Of Evermore,” on which both Krauss and Plant shared the unique vocal work.

The whole thing really makes you wonder what other collaborations are out there waiting to happen. Personally, I’d love to see Burnett get Iggy Pop and Nancy Sinatra together for a record. But for now, I can handle Plant and Krauss.

Review of Monday, June 14, 2008–Toronto, CAN

Originally appeared in the Globe and Mail

by ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN

Counterfactual thinking is what you do when you try to imagine the consequences if some event had turned out differently. What if Napoleon had lost at Marengo, or if the bullets had missed Kennedy, or if Bouchard had won the referendum? Applied to that kind of story, counterfactual thinking is a game played at immeasurable distance from its subject. But with music, you can be counterfactual with the thing itself, just by performing a song in a way that exposes overlooked connections.

Raising Sand, Robert Plant’s recording with Alison Krauss, is that kind of project. These performers are supposedly chalk and cheese to each other, but there’s a lot of commonality hidden by the labels they’re usually made to wear: “bluegrass queen” and “rock god.”

For me, the brightest light-bulb moment of the only Canadian show on their tour came during Battle of Evermore, a song written by Plant and Jimmy Page during Led Zeppelin’s hobbit period. Plant’s lyrics are in the style of an old British ballad, Page worked out the tune on a mandolin, and for the 1971 recording they invited Sandy Denny to add her folk-angel voice to the mix. The song’s a wide-open door to exactly the kind of project that Raising Sand turned out to be, though no one saw it as such till producer T Bone Burnett came along.

Monday’s show was all about showing these singers and their songs (as well as numbers by Tom Waits, the Everly Brothers, Townes Van Zandt and others) from unexpected angles. After you’ve heard Krauss play a double-stopping fiddle solo in Please Read the Letter, you can’t think of that Zeppelin tune in quite the same way. When you’ve seen Plant crowding a mike with two other guys (multi-instrumentalists Buddy Miller and Stuart Duncan) to sing harmony vocals for the lily-white gospel tune Down to the River, you glimpse a streak of humility not often seen before. ||Continue reading||

Review of June 15, 2008–Cleveland, OH

Originally appeared on cleveland.com

by John Soeder

Hey, hey, mama — you’ve probably never heard Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” quite like Robert Plant and Alison Krauss breathtakingly reimagined it.

The tempo was slower, a crawl through a haunted swamp. The mood was pure hoodoo-voodoo. And the famous guitar riff was played on a banjo instead!

Zeppelin frontman Plant and bluegrass singer-fiddler Krauss had plenty of surprises Tuesday night at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater. Their unlikely musical partnership began in Cleveland four years ago, at a Lead Belly tribute presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University. Now Plant and Krauss are on tour behind their 2007 album, “Raising Sand,” a rewarding excursion into rootsy Americana.

This creatively risky joint venture also paid big dividends in concert, starting with a bracing “Rich Woman.” When the principals weren’t side by side, interlocked in sublime two-part harmony as they sang about broken hearts and restless souls on tunes such as “Please Read the Letter” and “Gone Gone Gone,” they took turns in the spotlight.

He was leonine; she was luminescent. Who had the more luxurious hair? Call it a draw.

Plant, 59, brought his formidable mojo to bear on “Nothin’” and “Fortune Teller.” A rustic version of his 1983 hit “In the Mood” found him engaging in some lively maraca rattling.

Krauss, 36, made the most of her chances to shine on the uptempo toe-tapper “It’s Goodbye and So Long to You” and the hymns “Green Pastures” and “Down to the River to Pray.” Her wordless wailing during “Trampled Rose” was a treat, too.

The duo’s crackerjack band was led by T Bone Burnett, who produced “Raising Sand” as well as the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. Burnett handled lead vocals for the Creole-flavored “Bon Temps Rouler.” The supporting cast also included multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan on banjo and other stringed instruments, Buddy Miller on guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass and Jay Bellerose on drums.

Rounding out the free-spirited hootenanny were country-fried overhauls of several Zeppelin classics, including powerful takes on “Black Country Woman” and “The Battle of Evermore.”

Who says you can’t teach an old dog — or a “Black Dog” — new tricks?

originally appeared on Chartattack.com

by Dan LovranskiL

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and guitarist/producer T-Bone Burnett greeted journalists and received gold and platinum plaques to mark the Canadian sales of their Raising Sand album prior to Monday night’s [July 13, 2008] concert at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre. ||Continue reading||

review of July 13, 2008–Molson Amphitheater, Toronto

originally appeared in the Toronto Sun

By JASON MACNEIL

When Robert Plant and Alison Krauss announced they were teaming up to record an album, the word that was tossed around most was “unlikely.”

Unlikely in the sense that one of rock‘s biggest frontmen would join forces with a talented singer and country-leaning artist. And unlikely that the synergy between the two would make for anything more than a musical train wreck, fuelling more speculation that once Plant got this out of his system, he would see the light and get Led Zeppelin on the road for a highly anticipated tour and cash bonanza.

How wrong everyone was.

Last night at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre, the pair and a stellar band led by T-Bone Burnett showcased the duo‘s debut Raising Sand during a fine and roughly two-hour set featuring most of the new album and some material from both back catalogues. ||Continue reading||

review of July 13, 2008–Molson Amphitheater, Toronto

Originally appeared in Toronto Star

by GREG QUILL

Two musical nations with little common ground – the diehard country-bluegrass crew to whom American singer and fiddler Alison Krauss is a golden-haired goddess, and veteran classic rockers and hard blues dudes who idolize Robert Plant – came together last night at the sold-out Molson Amphitheatre for a mutually rewarding crossover ritual that seemed to take many by surprise. ||Continue reading||

Canadian Press Newswire

Cassandra Szklarski

Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant is dismissing any talk of a possible full tour by the legendary rock band.

Plant, who is currently on tour with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, simulated snoring noises when asked Monday about the chances of another reunion with his former bandmates.

“Zzzzzzzzzzz,” Plant said when the topic was raised, dropping his chin to his chest and pretending to fall asleep at a press conference on Toronto’s waterfront.

The rock titan dodged the question after he and Krauss were presented with a platinum album award for selling more than 100,000 copies of their disc, “Raising Sand” in Canada.

The presentation was held at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre, where the unconventional duo performed Monday night.

The acclaimed tour - backed by an all-star band led by producer T Bone Burnett - has been going so well that Plant and Krauss are extending it with more dates in the United States, but Toronto remained the sole Canadian stop.

“We’ll extend it as far as we can, if you know what I mean,” Plant said suggestively of a chance the tour could visit other Canadian cities.

So far, it’s set to wrap up Oct. 5 in Saratoga, Calif.

Rumours of a Zeppelin tour have persisted since surviving members of the legendary band reunited for a one-off show last December in London.

But the shaggy-haired Plant, dressed Monday in a white ruffled shirt and grey blazer, steered clear of such speculation, focusing talk on his current forays into roots and blues music.

“I’m just trying to develop taste before it’s too late,” Plant joked while seated next to Krauss and Burnett.

“These people have been very patient because if you get the wrong impression of me, it could be terribly wrong. I was once the king of cock rock, but now I’m saved. Sorry, Alison,” he said of using crude language that nevertheless drew laughs from media.