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Robert Plant
Apr. 13th, 2011 12:06 amRobert Plant and his Band of Joy. Plant is very much a fan of Americana. He's been obsessed since he was a kid. Led Zeppelin, of course, was all about the blues (among other things), but Plant has branched out in recent years. Monday's show was rooted firmly in country music, but ran the gamut from folk to R&B. It included Rockabilly, gospel and blues in addition to middle eastern. Very rootsy.
A giant like Robert Plant can choose any musicians he cares to, and he chose some great ones. Buddy Miller, guitarist extraordinaire. Patty Griffin, vocals, guitar, mandolin. Darrel Scott, Nashville stalwart, vocals, guitars, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, pedal steel. Byron House, basses - fretless, hollow-body, and upright. Marco Giovino, percussion. All of them sang backing vocals, and the first three took turns at lead, during which times Plant sometimes played harmonica.
The voice that made Plant a legend left him in the mid seventies, but he still has some force, when he wills it. Regardless of the tone of his voice, he still knows how to sing. I don't think he gets enough credit for his phrasing. They did a few Zeppelin tunes, but none like the originals. Back when I was a teenager, testing the stereo, to see how loud it would get without distorting (and then testing it to see if it still sounded cool with the distortion), I could never have conceived hearing a version of "Houses of the Holy" with pedal steel guitar - much less from Plant himself! It was almost surreal. It would have been surreal, had Plant not been so good at what he was doing - taking us on a journey - and the band not been so good at what it was doing - playing it for real. He opened with a slow, kinda jazzy version of Black Dog. "Black Country Woman" was somewhere in the middle. They played He ended up the main set with "Houses" and "Ramble On" which really brought the house down. Everyone was really having a good time. I guess you can't call "Band of Joy" a misnomer.
I don't remember all three songs of the encore, but they ended with "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" (Dylan). They also did "Down to the Sea", "Monkey", "Silver Rider" (both by Low) "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (Uncle Tupelo) and a rockabilly spin on "Twelve Gates to the City." (by Rev. Gary Davis). Darrel Scott sang "Satisfied Mind". "Move Up" by Patty Griffin. Somewhere Trouble Don't Go", by Buddy Miller. "House of Cards (Thompson). Aside from the exuberance of a few songs, the best mood was on the slower, darker tunes.
Plant is looking pretty worn out. He was a little hunched, and rather stiff looking in the shoulders. I'm told he still has a nice ass.
The opener was the North Missisippi Duo. This consisted of two thirds of the North Mississippi All-Stars, the Lukather brothers. Guitarist and drummer. They were pretty cool. Rough edged rockin' delta blues. For one tune, the two played an excellent acoustic guitar duet. We bouight a CD, and were not very impressed with it, but the show was great!
A giant like Robert Plant can choose any musicians he cares to, and he chose some great ones. Buddy Miller, guitarist extraordinaire. Patty Griffin, vocals, guitar, mandolin. Darrel Scott, Nashville stalwart, vocals, guitars, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, pedal steel. Byron House, basses - fretless, hollow-body, and upright. Marco Giovino, percussion. All of them sang backing vocals, and the first three took turns at lead, during which times Plant sometimes played harmonica.
The voice that made Plant a legend left him in the mid seventies, but he still has some force, when he wills it. Regardless of the tone of his voice, he still knows how to sing. I don't think he gets enough credit for his phrasing. They did a few Zeppelin tunes, but none like the originals. Back when I was a teenager, testing the stereo, to see how loud it would get without distorting (and then testing it to see if it still sounded cool with the distortion), I could never have conceived hearing a version of "Houses of the Holy" with pedal steel guitar - much less from Plant himself! It was almost surreal. It would have been surreal, had Plant not been so good at what he was doing - taking us on a journey - and the band not been so good at what it was doing - playing it for real. He opened with a slow, kinda jazzy version of Black Dog. "Black Country Woman" was somewhere in the middle. They played He ended up the main set with "Houses" and "Ramble On" which really brought the house down. Everyone was really having a good time. I guess you can't call "Band of Joy" a misnomer.
I don't remember all three songs of the encore, but they ended with "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" (Dylan). They also did "Down to the Sea", "Monkey", "Silver Rider" (both by Low) "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (Uncle Tupelo) and a rockabilly spin on "Twelve Gates to the City." (by Rev. Gary Davis). Darrel Scott sang "Satisfied Mind". "Move Up" by Patty Griffin. Somewhere Trouble Don't Go", by Buddy Miller. "House of Cards (Thompson). Aside from the exuberance of a few songs, the best mood was on the slower, darker tunes.
Plant is looking pretty worn out. He was a little hunched, and rather stiff looking in the shoulders. I'm told he still has a nice ass.
The opener was the North Missisippi Duo. This consisted of two thirds of the North Mississippi All-Stars, the Lukather brothers. Guitarist and drummer. They were pretty cool. Rough edged rockin' delta blues. For one tune, the two played an excellent acoustic guitar duet. We bouight a CD, and were not very impressed with it, but the show was great!
