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.”