Sound team for Plant/Krauss tour wins award; Plant sits out as Rounder label honored

Congratulations go out to the people responsible for the sound on last year's Raising Sand tour by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

The sound team picked up the Outstanding Creative Achievement award for Tour Sound Production, presented by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio at its 25th annual TEC Awards ceremony, held in New York on Saturday, Oct. 10.

LedZeppelinNews.com caught up with Plant's longtime sound engineer, Roy Williams, on tour last year.

Last October, T Bone Burnett won a TEC award for his production of Raising Sand, the Plant/Krauss album, and both singers were on hand to speak poetically in tribute to him. The situation one year later is different as a stalled project for a second Plant/Krauss album is in limbo, with Burnett's continued participation in it even in doubt and, now, Plant's relationship with the Rounder Records label possibly strained.

Hours ago, Krauss performed with her band, Union Station, at a Nashvile reception honoring Rounder's 40th anniversary. As The Tennessean recently reported), Rounder has been her label for almost a quarter of a century.

Nicole Keiper of The Tennessean reports in her Oct. 7 profile on Krauss that she and Plant "are in pre-production for a second set, Krauss says, but don't yet have a release timeframe."

So, not much has changed in the album's status -- or at least Krauss's terminology -- since she and Plant were in a studio together in January and Krauss insisted at the time that they were in "pre-production" for their Raising Sand follow-up.

Plant, who was spotted in California the past two weeks in a row, did not attend the Rounder reception.

By Friday night, he was back in England to attend a concert in Bristol by Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, who played on Unledded with Plant and Jimmy Page -- credit goes to Annie Hollinshead for the info about Plant's whereabouts on Oct. 9.

Isn't it odd for such a top-selling artist not to attend his own label's anniversary gala? It makes one question what the truth really is regarding their current work for Rounder.

Robert Plant performs second gig with Buddy Miller in San Francisco; circumstances may hint toward Plant's next project

Robert Plant was spotted by a photographer at a mall in Malibu, Calif., for this photo printed by British tabloid The Sun on Sept. 29. Yet four hundred miles from Malibu, Plant made his third and fourth onstage performances all year long in a single weekend. Both times, he played with Nashville session musician Buddy Miller over the weekend in San Francisco, including at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival yesterday.

The San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 27 highlighted a complete lineup of performers who were scheduled to appear over three days at the free concert at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Almost prophetically, Robert Plant's name did appear in the middle of it all, though not as a scheduled performer.

Update: Footage from the show

He was mentioned only as someone with whom Miller, the expert sideman, has recently played. Other names touted in this capacity were John Fogerty, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. Interestingly, though, the authors called Miller "a magnet for guests on his set."

During Miller's 11:45 a.m. set on the Towers of Gold stage, Plant was one of two special guests who appeared. He was brought in "to unleash his leather lung wail on the Hank Snow standard 'I'm Movin' On,'" according to Aidan Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle. There's also a remark attributed to Plant in the article: "This is like going to school for me."

As for Miller's other onstage guest during his festival set, Vaziri reports that Emmylou Harris, who later concluded the night with her own set, joined Miller in singing his "Wide River to Cross." Although Miller's tour dates don't reflect it on his own Web site, he'll be accompanying Harris on tour all this month, opening for her.

Plant had also performed in San Francisco on Friday night at a charity show where Miller performed as part of the backing band for Boz Scaggs. Twitter user Stax provided some information about this earlier appearance: "Plant sang several songs with Buddy's band and later sat in with Boz Scaggs and the Blue Velvet Band (with James Cotton). Plant was visibly excited to be sharing the stage with Cotton, singing Jimmy Reed's 'Baby what you want me to do.' To answer your question, yes, one of the songs Plant played with Buddy was 'What You Gonna Do, Leroy.'"

Last year, while Plant and Krauss began their world tour in support of their album Raising Sand, Miller was the capable guitarist at stage right for every show. He did not perform on their album, but Plant did appear on the disc released this March by Buddy and Julie Miller, Written in Chalk.

A year ago, Plant issued a statement saying he would not tour for two years and would not partake in any recording sessions with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones or Jason Bonham. At the time, Led Zeppelin reunion rumors were widely reported in the press, even with one account claiming Plant had agreed to participate in a Zep reunion tour.

Progress on a follow-up album has been the subject of some confusion in recent months. In an interview published in the Sunday Express this August, Krauss was so unsure of how to describe their album because it evidently hadn't yet been recorded and the personnel hadn't yet been nailed down for sure. The Sunday Express's Charlotte Heathcote reported that Plant and Krauss hadn't "even decided whether they should ask influential producer T-Bone Burnett, who gave Raising Sand its stripped-back sound, back on board."

The only date currently on Krauss's official tour schedule is Oct. 12, when she and her band, Union Station, are to perform during the Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. There is no official word on whether Plant will be in Nashville to attend Rounder's celebration.

(Coincidentally, John Paul Jones is scheduled to appear in Nashville exactly one week earlier; he and Them Crooked Vultures are booked for a show at the War Memorial, the band's first show outside of Austin for this tour. From Nashville, the band heads directly to Columbus, Ohio, for a show the following night.)

Over the summer, Krauss and Union Station were recording a new album. A Rounder spokesperson confirmed to LedZeppelinNews.com in June that Krauss was planning to tour with Union Station in 2010.

Alison Krauss says her second album with Robert Plant is to 'be different, as if we hadn't made the first'

It's been half a year since Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are known to have made any progress on a follow-up album to their successful and Grammy-winning Raising Sand album.

The female half of that collaboration is now busy with some of her own projects apart from Plant. Over the past few days, she's been recording a new album with her band Union Station, and she appeared with that group and Brad Paisley at the White House last night as President Obama saluted country music. She also has a new collection coming out for the British market, The Essential Alison Krauss.

Aside from all of this, she is also now talking once again about her upcoming work with Plant. In what is so far the most telling statement made of their sophomore album, Krauss tells the Telegraph, "It'll be different, as if we hadn't made the first."

"I love being in the world of the unknown," she also says.

Paul Sexton writes that the two have had "listening meetings about potential material."

In January, two weeks before picking up an onslaught of awards at the Grammys, they made their presence in a Nashville studio known in an interview on British radio, during which Krauss said they were "in pre-production."

Robert Plant in and out of Nashville

Robert Plant was in Nashville briefly over the weekend, sources have confirmed. One LedZeppelinNews.com reader tipped me off to the singer's whereabouts on Saturday. Plant witnessed the banjo-plucking debut of comedian Steve Martin on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. The informant said he was in and out of town rather quickly.

That account has been bolstered now by WKRN MusicCityTV's report on Plant's Friday night whereabouts -- wearing bright red shoes while dancing with Alison Krauss at a Presbyterian church -- and his quick exit from town Monday morning.

In January, Plant and Krauss were in pre-production for a second album together, although plans to complete the project have been sidetracked for the time being. In July, Krauss will be recording a new album with Union Station, a spokesperson for her record label, Rounder Records, confirmed today. The spokesperson added there are no plans for Union Station to tour this year, which means a tour in 2010 in support of the album would be likely.

On one hand, that could leave time for Krauss to work with Plant and finish work on their sophomore release; however, my source indicates that "Alison has declared a moratorium on all work for 12-18 months with Robert because she wants to do an album and extended tour with Union Station." In the meantime, the source says, this situation has left Plant "frustrated" because he "wants to finish the thing off and be done with it."

As for what this portends for Led Zeppelin fans hoping to see the surviving members reunited once again, perhaps there is still yet hope. One observer has theorized, "By the time [Alison] works [Robert] over, he will crawl back to Jimmy Page." True, you can almost always predict how Page would react if Plant suddenly said he was in favor of some further Led Zeppelin activity.

Finally, portions of a Levon Helm concert from last September, which saw Plant and Krauss perform as special guests onstage at the Ryman Audiotorium in Nashville, are set to air June 14 on Nashville Public Television.

No summer tour plans announced for any Zeppelin members; only a rumor of Jimmy Page joining Jeff Beck

• Jeff Beck, newly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is on tour right now. The first date was last night in Scranton, Pa., and he's set to visit Philadelphia's Electric Factory tomorrow and New York's Irving Plaza the next couple of nights. From there, he's off to New England, the Midwest and California, before a U.K. tour in June and July, with some Canadian dates and a short European tour rounding out that month.
  
  As for a rumor reported today by Boston Herald's Inside Track that says Jimmy Page may join Beck "on tour later this year," it's not a rumor I could find anywhere else recently. Of course, we did hear back in July 2007 another reported rumor -- that time courtesy of Rolling Stone magazine and others -- that Page and Beck were going to join up with the already-touring original Yardbirds members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty, and that hasn't happened.
  
  But you never know if Jimmy Page might show up at Jeff Beck's concerts. Check out those tour dates here and decide for yourself.
  
  
• Sara Watkins just released an album produced by John Paul Jones, and she'll soon be out on tour. It looks like she's booked to open for Old Crow Medicine Show for a few dates in the South, starting this Thursday. She's supposed to play on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" next Monday night and then head to Minneapolis for shows on April 15-16 that kick off her first-ever headlining tour.
  
  Jones will not be a regular in the touring lineup although he is scheduled to appear with her on Monday's TV spot, which will tape in New York. Jones is committed to being in New York to perform with Sonic Youth on April 16-19, during Watkins's headlining shows in Minneapolis, Naperville, Ill., and Nashville. But if Jones sticks around in New York for just a few days more, he would still be around when Watkins performs at the Mercy Lounge on April 22. This may be the best chance of Jones sitting in during the tour, but you can view all the tour dates here and decide for yourself.

Side note: While Watkins is out touring, she will presumably take with her Pete Thomas, who drummed for Elvis Costello in the Attractions lineup that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and again later for Costello's Imposters lineup. That lineup also included bassist Davey Faragher, who was said to be one of the members of the Watkins solo band (also called the Works Progress Administration -- and, previously, the Scrolls) back when it was lining up in December 2007.

• But it probably doesn't bother Elvis Costello when his former bandmates find new things to do. He has a new band now called the Sugarcanes, and he'll be using them on a dozen or so tour dates this June and August. The band includes Stuart Duncan on fiddle and banjo and Dennis Crouch on bass; both toured last year with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Also in Costello's Sugarcanes lineup is Jerry Douglas, who's a member of Krauss's Union Station. They'll be supporting Costello's June album release, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, which (also like Plant and Krauss's Raising Sand) is produced by T Bone Burnett and features him on electric guitar.
  
  
• There was speculation late last year of a new studio project by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss leading them to some tour dates this year. However, nothing more currently appears on the horizon. Heck, there hasn't been any indication that any recordings proceeded beyond the "pre-production" stage as Krauss pronounced it. No word even if Krauss will be out at all this year.
  
  And whatever happened to Plant's band the Strange Sensation? I always thought it would be natural for him to return to that group once he was done with Krauss. That's the group that helped him record the albums Dreamland and Mighty ReArranger, and he went out on tour with them several times between 2001 and 2007, right up until Raising Sand was released. All throughout Plant's association with Krauss, the front page of his official Web site had a link to biographies of his band members, who were listed as the guys in the Strange Sensation. But last week, his site was redesigned for the first time in four years, and the Strange Sensation stuff has disappeared.
  
  
• Tour dates for Foreigner continue without Jason Bonham on drums anymore. They've had Bryan Head on drums ever since Bonham's departure last summer, which he explained at the time he was doing so he could rest up with his family in the event he was suddenly called into action by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Foreigner's out playing all the time and currently has shows booked through October.
  
  
• The surviving members of former Swan Song recording artist Bad Company have reunited again and will be playing 10 shows in late June and early July. I'm a fan of the fact that this band's first reunion of the original lineup reunited in honor of Peter Grant, their manager and Led Zeppelin's, after his 1995 funeral. They played a show last year, and they're returning to the same venue to kick off their limited tour and sell a DVD of the 2008 appearance.
  
  Perhaps it's a plan the Led Zeppelin members ought to consider since they have a DVD to release and seemingly don't have very much else to do in the near future.
  

Led Zeppelin members, where are they now? Short answer: the United States!

It's been all quiet on the LedZeppelinNews.com front. Just like much of last year, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones aren't making any public statements about their plans. And now with Robert Plant off the road, and with Jason Bonham not doing anything we know of, it seemed appropriate to comment on everybody's last known, current or predicted near-future whereabouts.

As previously predicted here, Jimmy Page is set to be in Cleveland on April 4, when he will speak at the induction ceremony of Jeff Beck into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, according to reports by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and USA Today. Earlier this month, photographer Ross Halfin reported on his blog that he was shooting Page for some upcoming projects, the nature of which he did not discuss. One thing we do know is that Page stars in a movie to be released in theaters this summer, "It Might Get Loud."

John Paul Jones sat in with Sara and Sean Watkins in Los Angeles during their performance on March 5 at Largo at the Coronet. I am willing to bet he joins them again tomorrow night, March 21, for the Watkins Family Hour's special appearance. Sara Watkins's debut solo album, produced by Jones, is set to be released April 7 on the Nonesuch label. (Watch this space for a review of the CD soon.) And on April 16-19, Jones will be in New York for the premiere of some new music of his, a collaboration with Sonic Youth.

Jason Bonham is also said to be in Los Angeles tomorrow night for a performance by the tribute band based out of that city, Led Zepagain. Guitarist Steve Zukowsky says Bonham is confirmed to attend the band's concert at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard on March 21. The tribute act is set to revisit Led Zeppelin's 1977 tour with the complete set list, faithful recreations of the equipment and costumes, plus the lasers, fog and other lighting that were a staple of the band's final tour of North America. With rear-screen visuals added, it looks to be a show not to miss -- an assessment Bonham seems to be willing to give a chance.

Robert Plant was known to be in a recording studio in Nashville with Alison Krauss in January, just prior to picking up five Grammy awards each in Los Angeles. Krauss is now said to be preparing for a tour later this year with her regular group, Union Station, which may mean that any future projects between her and Plant are on hold for the moment. In the meantime, Robert was last spotted in his hometown of Wolverhampton, England, greeting a racecar driver who was a fan of his.

His son, Logan Plant, is currently making big news. Logan's band, Sons of Albion, is in the United States for the first time, appearing in Austin, Texas, at the presently ongoing South by Southwest Festival. You may recall that Plant gave a keynote speech at this event in 2003 and performed at that time with his own band, the Strange Sensation. Following three gigs in Austin, the Sons of Albion move on to New York City for three more gigs in small clubs. They are set to appear March 24 at Annex, March 25 at Fontana's and March 26 at the Delancey. And who knows if some paternal support is in the cards at any of these New York shows!

So, even if there isn't a Led Zeppelin reunion on the horizon, there are still plenty of opportunities to catch the surviving members of Led Zeppelin and their relatives!

In interview, Robert Plant explains motivation guiding current studio work, and his acceptance of awards

When Robert Plant shared in the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Led Zeppelin in 2005, he ignored the honor.

But it backfired on him, and the award came to him. In a case of "you can run but you can't hide," Recording Academy President Neil Portnow tracked down Plant at the South by Southwest Festival and presented him with the award in person at a very public affair.

This elicited a curt acceptance speech from Plant, who said he could barely remember being in Led Zeppelin because so much time had passed since those days.


Plant has been nominated or awarded in at least one Grammy category in six of the past 15 years. Each time, win or lose, he has consistently snubbed the glitz of Los Angeles and the trappings of celebrity.

But not so this year. In a remarkable turnaround, he is guaranteed to show up at the ceremony two weeks from now.

That's not because he and Alison Krauss stand to rack up as many as five more awards, added to the one they shared for last year's Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

The reason Plant is guaranteed to show up is because he and Krauss have been booked to perform.

Pollstar relays a quote from Plant about his break from precedent this year:

"I'm looking forward to being in Los Angeles, but musically -- and spiritually -- I expect we'll be somewhere halfway between the Mississippi Delta and the Clinch Mountains."

Official word of the Plant-Krauss booking was released Thursday, one day after the airing of an interview the two gave from Nashville, where they say they are currently in pre-production for a possible follow-up album to Raising Sand.

Their interview, recorded Tuesday and broadcast the following day on Absolute Radio's "Wednesday Night Live," touches on a number of far-reaching topics, probably none more easily understandable than Plant's mindset in collecting awards.

On the night before they recorded this interview, Plant attended a Grammy party in Nashville and smiled in snapshots with current Lifetime Achievement honoree Brenda Lee, T Bone Burnett and executives of the Recording Academy's Nashville chapter. By now, Plant must be pretty used to hobnobbing at such events. After all, he and Krauss didn't spend last year doing concerts only; they were also going heavy on the award acceptance circuit. After snubbing the Grammys last February despite capturing a win in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category, the duo hit up:

• the Country Music Television awards in April,
• the Mercury Prize in September,
• the Americana Music Association awards also in September,
• the Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards in October, and
  
• the Country Music Association awards in November.

At the same time, Plant was still being honored for his work signing for the single Led Zeppelin reunion concert in December 2007. He was busy touring with Krauss in the United States last June, when Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones turned up in London to accept Mojo magazine's award for Led Zeppelin as the best live act of 2007. Plant did pose in pictures alongside them, however, when the members of Led Zeppelin were named GQ's Men of the Year.

But Plant's most prestigious and noble honor of late is being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Ben Jones asked if Plant had, for any reason, considered rejecting the honorary title assigned him by the queen of England. Plant answered that, after thinking "long and hard about it," he "reckoned that 42 years of making records" made him worthy of the honor. He has mellowed and has set aside any inclinations toward being anti-establishment or doing the "cool" thing, and just accept it.

Plant's fully elucidated response recalls a quip he made last September, when accepting GQ's top award in London. At that time, Plant said, "The thing is, when the temples get gray, the gongs start coming in thick and fast." Now, he says of his rank in the British Empire:

"It's this time of life that gongs start coming in. They're usually called lifetime achievement awards [laughing]. But, basically, somebody helps you across the street if there's a lot of traffic. ... I said to somebody, 'Well, maybe I should say, "No, I'll wait for the knighthood," for a laugh.'"

Krauss says she and Plant are in "pre-production" for a possible second album together. Plant says that for now, they're at an early stage:

"We got a whole bunch of songs and we're just going, 'Does that work?' and 'Does that work?' So, yeah, we're trying it out again."

They say they're approaching this new project with great caution, just as they had upon their first studio meeting in late 2006, to ensure that everything works to their mutual satisfaction before proceeding. Says Krauss:

"Our attitude when we were recording was, let's go in and see what it's like, and after three days, if something doesn't turn into something, then we'll say it was a nice try. I mean, I think that's what makes it surprising and interesting for Robert and myself, is that we didn't know what it was going to be like either."

Plant adds that he's "incredibly challenged by this." Elsewhere in the interview, he reveals himself as "frightened" of his own "limitations":

"She said to me about an hour ago -- we were sitting, and she said, 'What's the matter with you?' I said, 'I'm frightened by the limitations I've got in this environment.' It's quite spectacular, really."

Plant is also weary of expectations as they can only add pressure. Given the acclaim of Raising Sand by both the media and the public, along with all the awards, Plant admits he is that much more fearful of the sequel's success, saying:

"What are we gonna do? We're not going to have time to do any new stuff before it's too late! ...

"The critical -- the stuff that we've had, the acclaim and, ah -- it really doesn't bode very well for the next record, if we get that far because, I mean, people really took to it.

"But you know what? It was so genuine -- the choice of songs, the production techniques, the engineering, you know, T Bone Burnett's input -- the whole thing was just a dream and done in the shortest space of time, and it was just great, you know. It was really good.

"Of course you don't expect anything because the material isn't kind of mainstream pop, particularly ..."

Plant says he has enjoyed the freedom of employing such a trial period whenever approaching any musical project. He says it's been that way ever since his work that followed Led Zeppelin:

"I think when Led Zeppelin -- when we lost John [Bonham] in 1980, I was desperate to -- not reinstate, but do something for myself, free from the kind of shackles of people's expectations. And from that moment on, along the line ... it's not something that I think about."

He's free to pull that parachute if it's not going well. And when this came up again in the context of an answer to the inevitable Led Zeppelin reunion question, it became clear that Plant would feel this same way if approaching a reformation of his former band.

Ben Jones gave Plant a chance to address his take on why the public appetite for a Led Zeppelin reunion persists even when it is clear there will be no reunion. Plant, in his response, ignored the public perception and gave his own reasoning for not wanting to revive Led Zeppelin again. He said:

"Well, you know, the thing is -- look at it like this. The reason that it stopped was because we were incomplete, and we've been incomplete now for 28 years, and no matter what you do, you have to really guard the discretion of what you've done in the past and make sure you have all the reasons in the right place to be able to do something with absolute and total conviction.

"I mean, if my great award is to do this [sing with Alison Krauss], then I don't want to do anything that -- where I'm -- where we challenge anything we did in the first place by just going back and visiting it without having a new, fresh, make-over start.

"I mean, you only get one shot at these things, and if they're spectacular on day one, if on day 10 they aren't so good, as Alison said when we cut our -- started to make Raising Sand, we gave ourselves a deal about, if we don't get anything going in three days, let's just go out for lunch and say, 'See you later.'

"And I think the thing about it is, really, is that to visit old ground -- it's a very incredibly delicate thing to do, and the disappointment that could be there once you commit to that, and the comparisons to something that was basically fired by youth and a different kind of exuberance to now -- it's very hard to go back and meet that head on and do it justice."

This makes me wonder if Plant joined up with Page and Jones anytime last year to hear the new material Jason Bonham said they were working on and went home dissatisfied. Otherwise, I can't help but think that he didn't give them a chance to see if any further collaboration with them would prove fresh, exuberant, and enacted with "absolute and total conviction."

At any rate, Plant says working with Krauss is the award he's most proud of because:

"It's about being happy, you know. You can have a lot of gold stuff and silver stuff and whatever it is, but you end up putting them out of the way, but the achievement is really to do something I never imagined and to be schooled into getting it right. And we've both taught each other enough about swagger and precision and all that stuff, so this is a great one, really."

And as for what binds everything together that Plant has done professionally? Don't call it a career:

"For me, well, I don't have a career. I just have a bunch of great events in my life and a few dips and troughs, but this is -- I don't think I've ever had a career."

'Surreal' intoned second time in a week to describe Zeppelin close encounters

Is it a common word where some people are from? Some people, two this week in fact, have described their recent meetings with Led Zeppelin rock stars by using the word "surreal."

The first, we saw Tuesday when a member of rock band Alter Bridge confirmed reports that he had been under consideration to sing for Led Zeppelin or some offshoot band. He described his opportunity to play with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (plus Jason Bonham, has anybody confirmed?) as "a good experience" and -- this part's important -- "surreal."

Keep that word in mind. It's been used again. A blogger has just labeled "surreal" his change bumping into Robert Plant in public the other day.

The second time in a week! Dare I say that coincidence is ... surreal?

Well, it's true. The second mention is in a blog describing an encounter with Robert Plant in Nashville as "surreal."

As a reminder, Plant's been spotted in Nashville a few times this month, as he's in a studio with Alison Krauss and singing under the tutelage of producer T Bone Burnett, an artist with a creative and directive vision. One woman ran into him in a mall, and he consented to a quick snapshot.

Wonder which mall they were at. I spent some time last summer playing expensive mandolins inside the Gibson guitar showcase/factory at the Opry Mills mall. Same place I had beers with a bartender from Ohio before my afternoon showing of The Dark Knight in IMAX.

Now that was surreal.

I digress. I was talking about why Plant was in Nashville.

He's just gotten a mysterious song list from Burnett, back around the holidays, announcing the songs that will glitter his next album with Alison Krauss. She got the list too. Both singers were allowed to pitch in some songs too, but no more than three each. The album, this one the follow-up to a critically acclaimed collaboration of 2007, is really the brainchild of T Bone.

Plant's probably playing CDs of these recordings in his car. And he's heading out every day, just being a normal person. Rock star? No way. This is Robert. Just some guy named R. A. Plant. And tries not to answer to the name "Percy" when strangers recognize him.

But folks do encounter him. Is it "surreal" though?

Someone thinks so.

Anybody heard of Daniel Tashian? Member of the Silver Seas. If you don't know it, I don't either.

Well, anyway, this guy runs into Plant. Plant doesn't know him either. Guy recognizes him. Plant says hello.

They're at the Mirror. Tapas menu. Good wine selection. Not exceedingly pricey.

Plant's sitting there by himself. Dude goes over. Conjuring their connection in T Bone Burnett, the dude starts to announce he'd done a record with T Bone.

Plant nods. Sure. Hell, half the country has.

No reason for the conversation to continue. That's it, by all rights. No more. You had your chance to talk to Plant. You bombed, Tashian. Now go home.

Dude speaks up again though. He's coming back for more. How's Robert gonna react?

Dude's lucky. He's got an ace up his sleeve. He knows how to connect with Robert. What makes him unique? Or if not unique, at least a rare commodity. Connect to Plant on a familial level.

"My dad was in the Remains."

Good thinking. He actually recalled that Plant was a fan of the Remains, his dad's old band. And given Plant's mental jukebox, you know his record collection is not only a collection but a cherished possession. He plays his vinyl often still. The same format that gave Plant his initial connection with Jimmy Page a hair over 40 years ago, vinyl is still within Plant's reach at all times.

At the mention of that name, Plant instantly recalls the Remains, and he samples some of their 1966 single "Don't Look Back." Sure, from the Nuggets collection!

Holy hell. Does anybody remember ... vinyl? Well, maybe the guy knew Plant had released his own cover of "Don't Look Back" on a maxi-single in 1990, which was re-released on Plant's Nine Lives box set in November 2006 and then as a Manic Nirvana bonus track on pressings released from March 2007 on.

Point is, the dude has succeeded in connecting with Plant. And in the process he deems this brush with stardom "surreal."

Maybe it is surreal. I sometimes look back on my arranged interview of John Paul Jones as something some other person must have done. I look back on the portions of my transcript that made it onto the Internet courtesy of a newsletter I used to write, and I reread them as if I had just reread the Trouser Press interview, which was conducted two years before my birth. But I know I did it because stumbling upon a certain word, phrase or sentence will transport me back to the Grand Hyatt at Penn's Landing, when John Paul Jones last stayed in Philadelphia on tour opening for King Crimson in December 2001.

I remember Jonesy being under the impression that his show at the Tower Theater was that night. But I had to correct him and tell him he had the day off between the previous night's New Haven show and the show in Upper Darby. I knew his itinerary better than he did! And when I informed him that his calendar was open for the rest of the day, he slunk back on a couch and allowed me to question him for four hours straight.

Now that's surreal.

That was me, asking the questions. Asking things I had come up with on my own -- a ton of them, believe me -- and also questions I had gleaned from readers of my newsletter, and some people who were on an online forum who were probably somewhat familiar with my newsletter at the time. It's the newsletter that lent me, a college student at the time, the credibility to sit for any length of time with Led Zeppelin's unsung hero on bass and, like me, keyboards.

I guess the point where I connected with Jones was that. We both play keys. And I wanted to learn how to play pedal steel like he does. We talked briefly about his track called "Chilli Sauce," included on the Scream for Help soundtrack. A rare memory. He remembered.

Once I complimented his handling of the melody on that synth-heavy track, he smiled and said, "Yeah, that was good, wasn't it?" It would have been against my best journalistic ethics to have acquired his autograph on that CD insert I brought.

It was obvious he hadn't thought of this album in a long time. He hesitated and studied the packaging, saying he was unaware of it having been released on CD. I said yeah, it was, and I had to import it from Japan. I had the OBI strip at home.

The disc is red and green, with the same Atlantic logo that comes on my remastered Yes CDs. And, come to think of it, Jon Anderson adds guest vocals to two of the tracks and is listed on the front cover.

Yes gave us some fodder in our four-hour conversation/interview, some of which was taped and half of which was not. Which led him to speak totally off the record on some occasions. Since he was on a support tour and was trying to save money, he had no roadies and as such carried his own instruments, in their cases, into the hotel so he could check himself in under his own legally adopted pseudonym, John Paul Jones (not birth name John Baldwin, which he confirmed does not have a middle name). With these instruments at his disposal, he played anything I wanted.

He busted out a mandolin and played his part in "Going to California." Which I soon wrongly attributed to Jimmy Page in a newsletter, causing him to e-mail me his own objection and correction. I took it more as a compliment that now he was reading and monitoring and reacting and participating.

Interacting with John Paul Jones! Surreal!

That's like playing Peter Frampton's talk box!

I did play the bass lap steel on Jonesy's counter while he wasn't looking. He had stepped away for a minute, leaving me unaccompanied in the presence of his entire touring rig. Of course I went straight for the tone bar and placed it gently on his bass lap steel -- an invention of his own! -- and ran it across the strings. Sounded cool.

I put it away. Still, that crap was just plain damn surreal.

My first-ever interaction with Jones was in downtown Philadelphia, two years and two months earlier, when Jones was on his Zooma tour and headlined at a small venue. The type of venue I could play with my band! But haven't.

And here's John Paul Jones up on stage with two other people in his band. One guy on the "stick," an electronic stringed instrument with synthesizer capabilities as versatile as a Major League utility player. This guy was Nick Beggs from Kajagoogoo. And the other's on drums. Can't remember today if it was Terl Bryant or Pete Thomas. Both drummers were on that album though. (Update: It was Terl Bryant.)

Since I was reading show reviews of this Zooma concert series from Jones online at TBL/Web, I knew it had already become a nightly custom for some informed fan at each show to invoke the line from children's literature John Paul Jones happened to be reading to his children in a scene in The Song Remains the Same.

"Fe fi fo fum."

So I said it. I was that guy. And I turned myself in, guilty as charged, the next day, upon submitting my roundup of the evening's happenings to TBL/Web for publication before the world.

"Fe fi fo fum!" I shouted to Jonesy between numbers.

In the 1976 movie, the next line -- also Jones's -- is "I smell the blood of an Englishman."

So Jonesy plays on that line. "Do you smell blood?"

Oh, he's got a stand-up act and everything! Surreal!

But we were talking about Yes. It came up during our interview that Jimmy Page was once rumored to have had rehearsal sessions with Alan White and Chris Squire, both designated at the time as ex-members of Yes. It was 1981, and Page had likewise been newly christened in some circles as an ex-member of Zeppelin, only because of the de facto dissolution of that band following John Bonham's unexpected and untimely drinking-binge death.

So did these so-called XYZ sessions, long rumored in the lore of both Yes and Zeppelin fans, really take place or not? Jonesy told me no.

But I think he's uninformed. How would he know? He wasn't there!

I have, through a colleague, a supposedly "exclusive" recording of bassist Chris Squire explaining in plain English that he and drummer Alan White had gotten together with Page, and played a few songs of Squire's. Stuff he hadn't used yet. But stuff he was ultimately gonna use with Yes. All except for one track, which he said Jimmy misappropriated half a decade later as the first track on The Firm's second album. Squire says he never sued Jimmy over it, though, because why bother? He would have been owed such an insignificant pittance since Mean Business album sales left something to be desired. Not even worth it to him to think about going after Jimmy.

I asked Jonesy about the whole plagiarism thing in the context of Led Zeppelin. The band is often criticized for similarities between its recordings and ones that preceded it. Jonesy said sometimes the accusers were familiar to them and other times they were not. But most of the time, the band would just settle out-of-court for convenience's sake, whether or not the claim held any credence. They worked off of the assumption of guilt and dished away crazy amounts of payoff money, leaving most claims unverified by anyone.

So as for specifics, like Jake Holmes having performed "Dazed and Confused" as a song of his in a setting that would have been seen by Jimmy Page as a Yardbirds member in 1967, Jonesy doesn't know. All he knows is Jimmy brought the song into Zeppelin and managed to list himself legally as the song's sole composer. More recent reissues have also credited Plant for lyrics. But never credited was Jake Holmes.

Just heard Holmes on the radio the other week. He spoke on a New York show that's being syndicated soon, called Get the Led Out XL. The pilot episode included a pretty good portion of his "Dazed and Confused" from his 1967 solo album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. He said Jimmy got away with nicking the title and the descending bass line but that was all. No complaint from Holmes.

That, too, is surreal!

Come to think of it, another close encounter is going to happen this summer. Page will be in a movie showing off the inside of Headley Grange, where Zeppelin recorded parts of some albums. To read about the microphone setup for the drums on "When the Levee Breaks" is one thing. But to see and hear Jimmy Page reflecting on that firsthand experience 37 years later? Surreal.

So I guess there's a lot of it going around. People are running into these guys every day and having surreal encounters with them. Just so glad to be lucky enough to remember some from my own experience.

Thanks, Jonesy.

Robert Plant gears up for second wave of activity with Alison Krauss

A song by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss is to be the sixth of 20 tracks on the new CD compilation of this year's Grammy nominees to be released Jan. 27. It is the first time in the 15-year series of Grammy Nominees discs that any member of Led Zeppelin is featured.

Plant and Krauss, who are up for five Grammy awards next month, have contributed their Record of the Year-nominated track, "Please Read the Letter," to the CD. Its release on the Rhino label is to benefit the Recording Academy's two charities, the MusiCares Foundation and the Grammy Foundation.

"Please Read the Letter" was written by Plant with Jimmy Page and their two bandmates in the late 1990s, and they released it on the Page-Plant album Walking into Clarksdale in 1998. Plant's second attempt at it, released nine years later on the 2007 album Raising Sand with Krauss, lowers the tempo and replaces the sound of Page's electric guitar with the bluegrass star's fiddle.

Plant and Krauss are reportedly slated to perform during the televised Grammy awards ceremony to be held Feb. 8 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. As the winners are announced, they will learn whether or not Raising Sand has earned the status of Album of the Year -- and whether or not they have repeated last year's victory in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.

By then, the two will supposedly have begun on their second album together. They are said to be gearing up for recording sessions taking place next week at a Nashville studio. (Update: This was confirmed in a Jan. 13 report at CJDCcountry.com that is no longer available but whose contents are archived at the Plant fan site Manic Nirvana.)

It was in that city that their collaboration was born, under the tutelage and guidance of T Bone Burnett. Their producer is also said to be resuming that role in this month's sessions. Plant, when he gave the first official confirmation of an intended return to the studio with Krauss this month, said Burnett would be involved.

An early revelation of dates booked for the Plant-Krauss recording -- and of plans for possible summer tour dates -- came last month on the Internet discussion group Royal Orleans, when a user named "Zepp-4-Life" posted the following:

Just got home from dinner with the owner of Rounder records. For those that don't know , that's the Plant / Krauss label. So, the scoop is they are beginning recording sessions on January 12/13. The first sessions feature most of the same musicians from Raising Sand. T-Bone once again is the driving force and has apparently chosen most of the tracks. The songs being considered were sent to Rob and Allison only weeks ago. Rob and Allison will choose a song or two each for the production. Nashville is the meeting ground for the first studio sessions. Not sure which studio , but it was cool to hear how it all goes down. Rounder records basically pays for all costs on whatever they produce. My " friend " just sent the cheque last week for all expenses. Following the new CD , a small tour is planned. A 15 to 20 city tour is all they are expected to do. Summer dates are being negotiated. In addition , it is confirmed that Rob and Allison will perform at this year's Grammy's. That's all I can say for now. It's valid and real.

"Zepp-4-Life" added in a follow-up post post that the source of his information is Ken Irwin, cofounder of Rounder Records.

Tour dates in 2009 would negate a statement issued on Plant's official Web site in September that "Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years."

All I'm going to say about that is, hmmmmm.

Also in Plant news:

• Buddy Miller, who played guitar and pedal steel on the Plant-Krauss tour last year, has a new album with his wife, Julie Miller, due March 3. Titled Written in Chalk, it is to include Plant guest-singing on the track "What You Gonna Do, Leroy," written by Mel Tillis and originally performed by Lefty Frizzell.
• Plant will likewise feature on the album Elsewhere by Scott Matthews, also to be released in March (Update -- It is now pushed back to May 18). Matthews, a self-proclaimed Led Zeppelin III enthusiast, wrote the song "12 Harps," which will include Plant on vocals. Matthews told the Galway Advertiser in Ireland last month, "I got to know [Plant] before recording the second album and I had a song in mind for him called '12 Harps.' It has leanings towards acoustic Led Zeppelin with mandolins."

Report: Robert Plant plans to record second album with Alison Krauss, T Bone Burnett

Not noticed here until last night, the Birmingham Evening Mail in England reported last Friday, Nov. 21:

Plant well away from tour plans

Robert Plant tries to avoid questions about his role in the proposed Led Zeppelin reunion tour - but Hancock managed to steer him in that direction at Bilston's Robin 2 club.

Robert made a surprise on-stage appearance to mark singer Ricky Cool's 30 years in music and confirmed to Hancock he would not be joining Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham on the road. He said it was partly because he'd be busy working on the follow-up to his awardwinning Raising Sand LP.

"In January, I'm starting to record a new album with Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett," he revealed, before adding "but I understand that everyone's got to eat," implying that the Plant-less Led Zep has his blessing.

But before he joined the Big Town Playboys on stage for a couple of bluesy numbers, he imparted one piece of significant information: "They won't be calling it Led Zeppelin!"

The Birmingham Evening Mail doesn't report when this conversation took place, but exhaustive Robert Plant fan site Manic Nirvana says it took place Nov. 6.

If that's correct, it's funny the Birmingham Evening Mail took all of two weeks to report on the only known statement by Plant on the topic of Led Zeppelin since September, when he said he was taking two years off from all touring and that he didn't see himself participating in any form of Led Zeppelin reunion.

Anyway, this is the first we're hearing any kind of official confirmation that Plant and Krauss, with producer Burnett, will be working together on a follow-up to their 2007 album Raising Sand.

And Plant's parting comment -- that Page and Jones "won't be calling" their group "Led Zeppelin" -- is in line with the latest word from Page's management. As RollingStone.com reported Nov. 12, a representative for management company QPrime told Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt, "Whatever this is, it is not Led Zeppelin. ... Not without the involvement of Robert Plant."

So, to summarize, Plant on the likelihood of Page, Jones and Jason Bonham going out on the road with a new singer: "Everyone's got to eat." I can just see the comments on this site raining in now ...