LUCIDMEDIA

Robert Plant Alongside the World

Written by Catherine Kustanczy Thursday, 17 July 2008 09:06

The singer, best known as the golden-voiced god of supergroup Led Zeppelin, has been a huge supporter and enthusiast of North African sounds for years, and has incorporated several sounds from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and even Mali, in West Africa, into his work. His album with bluegrass queen Alison Krauss from last fall, Raising Sand, finds Plant exploring new territory –new, that is, for him. For folk and roots music enthusiasts, it’s old hat, but rich as ever; the plaintive sounds of the Appalachia have been fertile grounds from which many singers have drawn inspiration through the decades.

For those unaccustomed to hearing Plant turn down the volume (much less sing in harmony with a woman) the album came as somewhat of a shock. But the album, produced by Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack man T-Bone Burnett, is filled with a roster of classics lovingly re-interpreted from the dustbins of time. Whether the gentle, gently poetic sounds of Raising Sand would translate to the huge behemoth-like space of the Molson Amphitheatre for the duo’s sole Canadian date on their current world tour was a cause for concern. The music, by its very nature, demands intimate spaces and the quiet of a closed-in performance area. The Molson Amphitheatre may be perfect for the likes of the Steve Miller Band and Mark Knopfler, and indeed, hosted Plant himself during his 2005 Mighty Rearranger tour, but for more intimate, contemplative sounds, it isn’t anyone’s first choice. Still, the music, and its featured performers, made for a memorable evening, drawing in the thousands who’d assembled as if the concert were an enormously cosy shindig. The fact such opposites can exist, and in such beautiful harmony, was reflected in Plant and Krauss themselves. Coming out casually to the shuffle-beat sounds of “Rich Woman”, he in loose fitting black shirt and dress trousers, she, in crocheted white top with flowing sleeves, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss put on a musically adventurous performance that kept the soul of the Delta alive, while offering significant nods to bluegrass, country, gospel, and of course, its collective-creationist offspring, rock and roll.

Krauss' lilting, crystalline voice turned the venue’s wide-open spaces into a church with her haunting performance of "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us", and Plant, ever the frontman, knew when to push on the theatrics, or simply vanish into the background. Sure, he swiveled his hips and making faces during “Gone Gone Gone”, but he also acted as backup singer, as Krauss took centre stage, to sing alongside multi-instrumentalists Stuart Duncan and Buddy Miller, for an acapella version of "Let's Go Down to the River". A nod to Plant’s solo work was given, with “In the Mood”, a pseudo-pop tune from 1983’s The Principle of Moments, being thoughtfully, hypnotically reinterpreted, with Krauss and Plant harmonizing over a quiet heartbeat-like rhythm. Producer Burnett contributed a lively “Bons Temps Rouler“, an acknowledgement of the debt owed to the New Orleans sound inherent in American popular music. Krauss showed her gift with violin playing, offering impressive solos and instinctive counterpoint, particularly during the gorgeous solo of the Plant/Page tune “Please Read the Letter”. Of course, Plant offered his own take on Americana, performing with trademark bravado and letting that famous golden voice wail on the black Townes van Zandt tune, “Nothin” and a playful, sexy version of “Fortune Teller”, a 1962 R&B number, and a longtime favourite of the singer’s.

Fans who attended Monday's show, kitted out in Zeppelin tees and shouting "Gallows Pole!” didn't have their wishes granted with a rollicking, rocked-out version of any of the super-group's roster of well-loved hits; instead, they were treated to a re-envisioning of a few old chestnuts, complete with fierce fiddle playing and mean banjo-picking. "Battle of Evermore", the classic Zeppelin track that takes lyrical cues from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, was lushly haunting, with Krauss' perfectly-suited vocals taking the higher Sandy Denny part. Although it was written over thirty years ago, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were laying a path down that would lead to this sort of creative collaboration, and to hear Plant’s gorgeously burnished-oak voice in harmony with Krauss’ bell-like soprano was a treat no music-lover worth his or her salt could dismiss. Similar in creative power and musical inventiveness was "Black Dog", with a banjo taking the part of Page’s bombastic guitar line. Quietly sexy and deeply subtle, Plant nearly whispered the lyrics in harmony with Krauss, and a violin, played in a country-meets-metal style, was given the solo line. It didn't have a shred of the rocking sound it's known for, but who cares? If this is what musical maturation sounds like, so be it.

Still, the notion persists that one has to be a country fan to appreciate the "Celtic-Appalachian" sounds that Plant and Krauss explore. Not quite. Musical curiosity is all that’s really required. Like Plant’s Mighty Rearranger tour from 2005, there are a variety of styles and sounds on offer, and being adventurous, Plant isn’t about to grind out a greatest-hits package of dull musical clones. That might explain, in part, why the tour’s been met with massive popularity and appreciation, and has been extended through mid-October. No one’s heard anything quite like this, and certainly no one in mainstream culture expected it from Robert Plant.

But then, Plant isn’t a figure content to rest on his laurels. Whether it’s working with Arab rock king Rachid Taha in France or with bluegrass queen Krauss in Nashville, he obviously isn’t finished exploring, or expressing, things he finds interesting and inspiring. It’s striking to note the level of virtuosity, curiosity, and deeply-felt connection between he and his collaborators live, two years after the formal recording in Nashville. Monday’s show ended quietly with "Your Long Journey", the beautiful, harmonized duet that ends Raising Sand. It was quiet, it was inspiring, it was perfect. Yes indeed, it’s been a long journey. Here’s to it continuing.