Review of July 13, 2010 Memphis, TN

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. ||Continue reading||

Review of July 16, 2010 Tulsa, OK

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.

Review of July 16, 2010 AK

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.

Review of July 13, 2010 Memphis, TN

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. ||Continue reading||

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||