Robert Plant to make Arab appearance at world music festival

Robert Plant has sung from '66 to Timbuktu, and now he's on his way from Nashville to Abu Dhabi.

He played one concert with Led Zeppelin in 2007 and 55 with Alison Krauss last year before picking up five Grammys for their recordings.

Now, Plant's next concert appearance was announced today: He'll be performing later this month as a special guest on the closing day of the World of Music and Dance festival in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Plant appeared at an installment of the Womad festival in Reading, England, on July 29, 2005, with his band the Strange Sensation. That show kicked off a European tour in support of his disc Mighty ReArranger. He and the Strange Sensation were previously slated for a Womad appearance in Redmond, Wash., but the band withdrew its appearance due to scheduling conflicts, the festival and Plant's management said at the time.

Now, Plant is to take part in Womad's headlining act in Abu Dhabi on April 25, which fuses together blues and African roots. This lineup incorporates Strange Sensation guitarist Justin Adams and his more recent musical collaborator, Gambian singer and musician Juldeh Camara.



This just proves you can never predict with great accuracy where Robert Plant's next move will take him! Krauss nailed it last summer when she told her hometown newspaper that Plant's "constantly on the move for inspiration." She likened him to a snake with an unpredictable path:

"He's going to go around this curve over here, and maybe he got a CD in Seattle and that made him turn this other way. Or maybe he shook somebody's hand in Istanbul and that's why he's turned to the right now."

In a similar turn of events, Plant sat in with Tinariwen in April 2007, performing the Strange Sensation blues song "Win My Train Fare Home."

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.
  

Robert Plant to release 'Nine Lives' box set with unreleased material

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Nine Lives, a box set combining nine of Robert Plant's post-Zeppelin albums with perfectly tailored bonus tracks, is set to be released later this month on the Rhino Records label. His eight solo albums and the Honeydrippers' EP Volume One have all been remastered for Nine Lives, each matched with at least one bonus track from the era, consisting of unreleased songs, rarities, live cuts, and remixes. The box set also includes a DVD with 20 music videos from Plant, plus interviews with him and several friends and musicians.

The first official DVD of Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation was released last month by Rounder Records. It includes their appearance on the PBS television show Soundtage, recorded in September 2005. There are two versions of this DVD available; one is being sold on the PBS Web site, and the other, sold in stores, includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" that is not available on the PBS version.

Plant has reportedly been busy inside studios on both sides of the Atlantic recently. For one thing, he is said to have recorded a load of new material with the Strange Sensation in England. For another, he was in Nashville, Tenn., recording late last month with Alison Krauss. I happened to be in town on Oct. 29 to read a report about Plant by celebrity columnist Beverly Keel in that day's edition of The Tennessean. "He's been recording a duets project with Alison Krauss that's bring produced by T-Bone Burnett," she writes. "Take a moment and imagine how amazing our bluegrass angel is going to sound with rock's golden god."

Former Zep members announce concert schedules

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

All three surviving members of Led Zeppelin are said to be working on new recording projects, something fans of the group should be used to hearing for some time now. However, a point that will be easier to prove is that at least two of the former members of the group will be playing concerts this summer. The news of upcoming concert events seems to put Jimmy Page back onstage for the first time since a couple of one-off appearances 2002, this time alongside a couple of faces that popped up more often during his music career of over 45 years than did that of P. Diddy.

Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation are already fresh off some completed concert engagements in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland that have taken place over the past few months. More live dates by the band will follow throughout the continent throughout August or later.

Page, who has not played regularly since he sustained a back injury while on tour with the Black Crowes in 2000, has two concerts lined up over the next few months. Some newly recorded Page guitar work is expected to be released on an album this September, while his past remarks that he would be undertaking another new project remain elusive.

John Paul Jones, in a message on his official Web site posted in February, thanked his fans for their patience while he readies what will be his third solo album since 1999. It is one he claims to have been working on since 2004, just after he last embarked on a concert tour – that being with an all-star bluegrass band called Mutual Admiration Society. Jones' February message also recounted some more of his recent one-off concerts, and he said he would take some time off from the solo project to produce a record for an all-female folk string ensemble he met two years ago, called Uncle Earl.

While announcements from the Page and Jones camps are so scant, tour plans from Plant and the Strange Sensation are high in frequency. Despite the rumors of a North American tour, there has been no announcement as such. The group was on the road for several months last year, including in the United States, in support of the album Mighty ReArranger. The Strange Sensation has committed to a number of festival dates throughout Europe that will keep them busy touring for the next several months.

The few dates apparently lined up for 62-year-old Page this summer will pair him up first in June with Plant, and second in August with Roy Harper, who was a constant touring companion with Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. There is also the possibility of Page sitting in with Jerry Lee Lewis of "Great Balls of Fire" fame this August.

Just days before Plant and the Strange Sensation played their first show this year, the music world suffered the loss of prominent guitarist Ali Farka Toure, who died in his home country of Mali on March 7 after a long bout with bone cancer. Plant was a fan of his music, and the two played together in Mali at the Festival in the Desert in January 2003.

Plant's most recent live appearance, a concert tribute to Toure, took place on May 4 in Milan, Italy . Also playing the event was Tinariwen, a group Plant has called in recent years as one of his favorites worldwide. However, at the time of the show, Plant was said to be suffering from the flu and a throat infection. As a result, he limited his singing to only one number: a version of "Win My Train Fare Home" performed with the members of Tinariwen and Strange Sensation bandmates Clive Deamer, Billy Fuller and Justin Adams. He also played guitar on a few other songs.

Plant is among artists scheduled to appear June 23 at a benefit concert for another of his musical heroes: Arthur Lee, the singer and songwriter behind the group Love, who is reportedly battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Lee has undergone three weeks of chemotherapy and faces possible surgery. Plant's Web site says Lee's medical bills already top six figures. "I'm really glad to be able to do something for him, you know, raising funds and stuff because I don't think he's got any health insurance," Plant said this weekend during an interview on DJ Johnnie Walker's BBC Radio 2 show. All proceeds from the concert will go to Lee's medical expenses.

Plant spoke briefly in this interview about his appreciation of Lee and his contemporaries from San Francisco and other West Coast hotbeds of late-1960s psychedelic music. "I must have been about 17 when I first heard 'The Castle' and his version of 'Hey Joe,'" he said, referring to songs from the first two Love albums, released in 1966 and 1967. Love's next opus in 1967, Forever Changes, is routinely mentioned as Plant's favorite album of all time, and it provided him with a pair of songs he often covers in concert – "A House Is Not a Motel" and "Bummer in the Summer."

The Arthur Lee benefit concert is set to take place at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Besides Plant, other performers on the bill, according to Plant's Web site, are Love member Johnny Echols, the Ian Hunter Band, David Johansen of the New York Dolls, New York-based songwriter Garland Jeffreys, and Alec Ounsworth of indie-rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. (Tickets to Beacon Theatre events are normally sold online by Ticketmaster and by the venue box office, although the concert has not yet been listed at either site.)

For now, Plant's next concert is set to take place today in England, at a benefit by the RD Crusaders. In addition to Plant, the RD Crusaders concert lineup is to include Roger Daltrey, drummer Richard Desmond, Lulu, Greg Lake, Russ Ballard, Zoot Money, Simon Townshend, Steve Smith, Nick Newall, Nicky Lambourne, Steve Balsamo and Margot Buchanan.

Richard Desmond formed the RD Crusaders in 2003, and the group has raised over 1 million British pounds for charity since then. Proceeds from the May 9 show benefit the Evelina Children's Hospital Appeal and Camp Simcha. The hospital appeal project aims to raise 10 million pounds through this concert and several other events.

Both Plant and Page are among artists slated to appear on June 30 in Montreux, Switzerland, at a special tribute show for Ahmet Ertegun. The Atlantic Records cofounder will be one month short of turning 83. It is unclear whether Page and Plant will play together.

The Ertegun tribute concert takes place as part of the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was the setting of the set Page and Plant last played together, on July 7, 2001. Then, the two collaborated on a set that included the first-ever performance of Led Zeppelin's "Candy Store Rock," paying tribute to the Sun record label that first made the names of rockabilly legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis famous in the 1950s.

A new album by Lewis, called Redemption, is slated for release in September, and it will feature Page sitting in on a new rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." Both Lewis and Page are scheduled to appear at the Rhythm Festival in England this August, so it is not unreasonable to assume that the former Led Zeppelin guitarist could show up to play during the Jerry Lee Lewis and the Killer Band's festival set on Aug. 6.

Page is being mentioned as a guest of Roy Harper's, who will perform at the Rhythm Festival on Aug. 5. According to promotion for the event, Harper is to play his 1971 album Stormcock, which includes Page on a 12-and-a-half-minute song called "The Same Old Rock." (Page's role was attributed on the album sleeve to the pseudonym S. Flavius Mercurius.) David Bedford, who provided the orchestral arrangement for the song that closes Stormcock, is also listed on the bill as involved with Harper's August festival set.

Harper, after whom Led Zeppelin named the blues medley featured at the end of Led Zeppelin III, included Page on the songs "Bank of the Dead" and "The Lord's Prayer," both from his 1973 album Lifemask, as well as on the song "Male Chauvanist Pig Blues," separate versions of which were included on Harper's 1974 albums Valentine and Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion. In 1984, the two released a collaborative album called Whatever Happened to Jugula?, which they supported with a handful of festival dates. A London concert in 2001 honoring Harper's 60th birthday provided fodder for a rumor that Page would pick up a guitar; Page attended the event but did not grace the stage.

For a complete listing of upcoming concert appearances from Plant and the Strange Sensation, visit Plant's official Web site. To stay up-to-date on the latest happenings from Jones, visit his official Web site. Page is without an official Web site to call his own, but the Led Zeppelin fan site Tight But Loose does a fine job of keeping up with his news as well as that of his fellow former bandmates.

There's been talk that Plant said the Strange Sensation is working on another album, so consider that three separate projects are potentially forthcoming from the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, forcing the history of this group ever onward.

Not just Bath's 35th anniversary; go out and see a concert!

Lemon Squeezings today celebrates the 35th anniversary of a special occasion that is more than just a concert. As documented by Dave Lewis in a soon-to-be-released updated version of his book "The Concert Files," Led Zeppelin played well over 450 shows in a 12-year span. While I wasn't even a year old at the time the band broke up, I believe it's easy to recognize some of the concerts that to this day stick out in the minds of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, and might have stuck out in the mind of the late John Bonham.

The second year in a row that the group appeared at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music occurred on this day in 1970 and is covered at great length in this edition. This festival-headlining appearance goes down in Led Zeppelin history as a momentous early event in the group's career. My interview with John Paul Jones in 2001 revealed his previously untold side of a story in which he was directly involved: being accompanied by a motorcycle gang to arrive for the group's strategically timed set with seconds to spare.

Stories from the road make up a good part of what Led Zeppelin History is all about. And it's continuing. Two live concerts I attended last week were accompanied by great music and an outpouring of emotion among fans and the well-received artist, who was in this case none other than Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation. The group played two sold-out shows at the Tower Theater in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, Pa., last Tuesday and Wednesday. Responding to live renditions of "When the Levee Breaks," "That's the Way" and new track "The Enchanter," the unbridled Philly-area audience cheered and applauded feverishly, prompting Plant to comment on the second night that from his 36 years of playing gigs, he could tell there was something special happening.

Currently touring the United States in support of its album Mighty ReArranger and radio staple "Shine It All Around," the band plays a sold-out show tomorrow, June 29, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Then, they head off to play Chastain Park in Atlanta on June 30, followed by a July 4 holiday gig in Portsmouth, Va. The Strange Sensation's first Canadian date since its initial outing in 2001 will take place this July 5 at the Molson Amphitheatre. They will reach 10 more U.S. cities between July 7 and July 24. Dates in Europe will start July 29 at the WOMAD Festival in Reading, England, and continue into August. A full-fledged eight-city tour of Canada will keep the band busy in the middle of September, before they return to the United States for six West Coast shows and six more in Texas, Mississippi and Florida.

Writing today about my firsthand live concert experiences June 21-22 also gives me the opportunity to mention a Led Zeppelin tribute band I saw perform earlier this month. The four-member, all-female group Lez Zeppelin, which was featured in the pages of this month's Spin magazine, hammered out a two-and-a-half-hour homage June 16 in Falls Church, Va. They display a swagger undeniably akin to their rock-god counterparts while delivering faithful renditions of crunchy numbers from Led Zeppelin's first five albums. Seated atop stools for an acoustic set, three members of the band sang harmonies that accentuated the serene sounds of their mandolin and acoustic guitar. This sizzling quartet of Brooke Gengras (lead vocals), Steph Payne (guitars and theremin), Lisa Brigantino (bass, keyboards and mandolin) and Wendy Kidd (drums) will be set to repeat the performance with a show tomorrow, June 29, at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. They will also help to celebrate Plant's 57th birthday with a big bash to be held Aug. 20 at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, also in New York.

A classic-rock cover band I joined in April 2004 is scheduled to headline a five-band bill at a venue called the Grog and Tankard in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, July 9. I will be playing keyboards for the group, which is called World Peace Party. Among many other collective favorites, we have been working up a pleasing version of "Kashmir." If you happen to be in the area that night, come by and see our two-hour set. We'll go on at about 11:30 p.m.

Overall, what I'm trying to say is that live concerts are often filled with magic. Obviously, if you signed up to be on this mailing list, you must have some affinity for Led Zeppelin's music as I do. For my money, there is no better way to celebrate this with other fans than going to see a relevant concert to flirt with fame and to hear these songs performed to your liking. As I mentioned, Robert Plant is touring the United States now. To find Plant's concert dates, as well as reviews and photos of shows from his current tour, try his official Web site or the Tour Watch page at Tight But Loose. Led Zeppelin tribute bands pop up all the time. Here in the northern hemisphere, the summer concert season is already in full swing.

Upcoming Robert Plant tour to support album release

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Upcoming U.S. concert appearances by Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation are currently being confirmed. Plant will tour beginning around March in support of a new album, said to bear a title of either Another Tribe or Mighty ReArranger.

Further information on the tour and album will appear in this newsletter as it becomes available. Surely beating me to the punch in reporting it, however, will be Dave Linwood and Dave Lewis, who still cover the Page-Plant-Jones beat full-time at TBL/Web.

Led Zeppelin members all working on solo albums

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

As announced in October, Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation will have a new album out in the new year. The title of the record to be released in or around March 2005 will be Another Tribe, according to an interview for Mojo magazine summarized by Siarl Davies for Tight But Loose [Update: This working title was subsequently changed to Mighty ReArranger].

Plant's eighth solo effort since the breakup of Led Zeppelin has been described as "a mixture of Delta blues and North African stuff, with a nice fireside lute-driven ballad too." These are the influences Plant spoke of in liner notes he wrote in August 2003 for Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a career-spanning double album.

The singer from the British Midlands expounded on his admiration for a lifetime of influences, stating: "I heard the voices of the high Atlas and pre-Saharan Morocco, the sound from the last juke-joints of south-side Chicago and the buzz of after-hours backstreet Bombay, performances so beautiful, remote and contrasting that I was never to recover."

In that message, Plant also stated that more creative output was on the way. "With abundant new material developing rapidly and connections in Morocco and West Africa moving at a pace unimagined back in '71, the future is ahead - bright ahead," he wrote. For that, he credits his diverse and powerful band, currently made up of Justin Adams and Liam "Skin" Tyson on guitars, Clive Deamer on drums, John Baggott on keyboards, and Billy Fuller on bass. "The musicians make this thing work," said Plant.

Also as recently announced, Robert Plant is not the only ex-member of Led Zeppelin hoping to release a new album in the new year. Both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are said to be working on separate recording projects. A brief clip of a new Jones opus can be heard in the Flash intro to his Web site, www.johnpauljones.com, where a Nov. 7 posting updates his progress.

"I have now started to write and record for the new album," he said. "I'm sort of doing both things at the same time, a new approach that I am hoping will make for a more organic process." After detailing a mandolin festival he'd taken time out to attend and participate in, Jones concluded his message: "So, all of my instruments have been restrung, no small matter, and I am writing / playing / practising / listening / singing / recording / walking, anything and everything necessary to get the music flowing!"

Meanwhile, sources say Page's project will pit the guitarist alongside several guest musicians with a different guitar for every song.

So, my dear friends, if everything goes as planned, there will be three new albums from the ex-members of Led Zeppelin in 2005. [Update: Only Plant delivered a solo album in 2005.] Many years have passed since the days that group walked this earth, and their music has evolved with that time. It would be impossible for them at this stage to try to recreate their earlier moments. However, as Robert Plant would attest, it is great fun to look back at it.

Robert Plant and Strange Sensation preparing new album

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant is said to be involved with his Strange Sensation backing band on a new album. It would be the follow-up to Plant's studio album Dreamland, released in June 2002. This June, the Web site of Strange Sensation member Justin Adams, www.justinadams.co.uk, hinted that the band had begun working on Plant's next album and that it could possibly be released in spring 2005.

On Dreamland, the singer covered seven songs that had haunted and inspired him for years. "I wanted to put myself and the musicianship of the people around me into these tunes and breathe some new life out of them," Plant said upon the album's release. The following August, he submitted eloquent words for liner notes in his career- spanning two-CD retrospective album, Sixty Six to Timbuktu. Expounding on his admiration for a lifetime of influences, he wrote: "I heard the voices of the high Atlas and pre-Saharan Morocco, the sound from the last juke-joints of south-side Chicago and the buzz of after-hours backstreet Bombay, performances so beautiful, remote and contrasting that I was never to recover."

Dreamland also included two new band compositions (the U.K. version also included a third), each of which is credited to Robert Plant and band. He has alluded to other songs having been written two years ago but not included on Dreamland. He also speaks proudly and extensively about the way Strange Sensation writes fresh material. "The musicians make this thing work," he said. His diverse and powerful band is currently made up of Justin Adams and Liam "Skin" Tyson on guitars, Clive Deamer on drums, John Baggott on keyboards, and Billy Fuller on bass.

In a message penned in August 2003 and included in the liner notes of Sixty Six to Timbuktu, Plant states bluntly that more creative output is on the way: "With abundant new material developing rapidly and connections in Morocco and West Africa moving at a pace unimagined back in '71, the future is ahead - bright ahead."

Robert Plant 'Storytellers' debuts on VH1

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant's edition of the TV show "Storytellers" has just made its premiere on VH1. His new album will be out tomorrow in the United States.

Robert Plant 'Storytellers to debut on VH1

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation will appear on "VH1 Storytellers" today at 11 p.m. Eastern. And remember, it's not too late to join Robert Plant's Official Online Team: You can do so at http://65.45.90.98/events?13852xy153 (Web content no longer available).

'Red Dress': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 10 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

The last song to be reviewed is "Red Dress," the second of the two completely new songs on the album. This groovy shuffle begins with a lead played on fretless bass and steel guitar. The riff sounds like something out of the North Mississippi All Stars' songbook. (By the way, if you don't have that group's debut album from last year, Shake Hands with Shorty, you need it.) The percussion used here gives it sort of an Australian sound. It features Plant's first recorded harmonica probably since 1993. His last attempt I can think of was on "Promised Land" from his previous solo album, Fate of Nations. The harmonica in that song was just like in Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." On Plant's new "Red Dress," the harmonica is not derivative of anything. If anything is derivative, it's the sound of that steel guitar; it sounds like it belongs on John Paul Jones' solo albums! The lyrics on the song aren't very intricate; Plant's pretty much singing about a "pretty little girl with a red dress on." When he hypothesizes about the meaning of love in this song, he manages not to get too deep in thought. It even sounds like he's guessing at what Skip Spence would say love is, too! No mention of badge holders anywhere, and that's a good thing in my mind.

'Skip's Song': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 9 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Skip's Song," named for its author, Alexander "Skip" Spence. As a member of Moby Grape, he and the band first recorded it as a demo on Nov. 6, 1967, while rehearsing new material for the group's second album. In those days, Spence was a really loving guy, those who knew him said. But during the second album's recording sessions, Spence apparently snapped, possibly the result of some drug use. In a well-publicized incident, Spence apparently tried to use an ax on another member of the band. Spence was then institutionalized for six months.

With Spence no longer in the band, Moby Grape chose not to use "Skip's Song" for the second album, Wow. But the song was retitled "Seeing" and used as the final track on Moby Grape's third proper studio album, Moby Grape '69.

Robert Plant has long been a fan of Moby Grape and Skip Spence. The lyrics to the first two lines of Led Zeppelin's bluesy "Since I've Been Loving You" are a play on the corresponding lyrics of Moby Grape's soulful "Never." Since the Led Zeppelin days, he's performed versions of Grape's "Sitting by the Window" and "Lazy Me" and recorded versions of Grape's "8:05" and "Naked, If I Want To" and Spence's "Little Hands." This new cover of "Skip's Song" falls right in line.

The song closes out Plant's new album, Dreamland. Organ and acoustic guitar are the first sounds heard on the track. Generally speaking, "Skip's Song" has a different sound from the rest of Plant's album; sorry, I won't be using the word "soundscape" in today's review. The song jumps from light to heavy in the flash of a drum fill -- and back.

There are backup singers on it that are definitely not Plant; some of them are female! But the male backup voices might be the boys in the band, like bassist Charlie Jones, Plant's right-hand man when it comes to backing vocals on tour these days. Whoever it is highlights the words, "Save me," definitely a jarring phrase when taken into consideration that they were written by Spence while he was still a friendly man.

Throughout the choruses, there are two electric guitars: one strumming the chords and the other playing a country-folk improvisation. The arrangement here was not unlike what Moby Grape guitarists Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis employed on their version of the song.

In the end, Plant's version just fades out. But not eerily so. In a way, it does sort of leave you hanging ...

'One More Cup of Coffee': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 8 of 10)

Today's song is "One More Cup of Coffee," by Bob Dylan. Now, here's a song I'd been anticipating since the moment in February when I first heard the song was being recorded and even considered for a single. The thought that crossed my mind was that if the song were to be released as a single, the sound would have to be totally different from the original.

With all due respect to Mr. Dylan, the version on his January 1976 album, Desire, was about as uncommercial as one could get. It was nearly a dirge in a minor key with a poetic verse that requires one to ponder long before it makes any sense. It's not exactly lighthearted party music fit for commercial radio.

Dylan's even sounded unrehearsed in a few places. The violinist soloing in the opening bars obviously wasn't entirely sure of the chord changes, and that wasn't fixed by overdubbing. Dylan and backup singer Emmylou Harris obviously weren't reading from the same lyric sheet, and that wasn't fixed by overdubbing.

(Funnily enough, Plant left that second mistake intact at the end of his version, harmonizing with his own overdubbed second vocal line. With Plant's sense of humor, it's probably an intentional nod to Bob.)

On Plant's version, out goes the violin, and in come the electric guitars. He nudges the tempo just a bit so that the song doesn't drag. He sings it in the same key as the original, but instead of bellowing the lyrics as did his predecessor, Plant uses his raspy, breathy voice to ease through the verses. On the choruses, where he overdubbed his vocals to sing with himself, he alters the harmony from the original so that he doesn't have to sing in a female vocal range. Each chorus concludes with a full-band break preceding the last four words.

In these reviews, I've used words like "landscape" and "soundscape" so many times, I'm growing sick of it! But really, the Strange Sensation ought to be renamed the Smooth Sensation because the arrangements on these songs are perfectly smooth, swirling and textured. It will become such a cliche by the time I'm through reviewing each song, but that doesn't mean the album repeats itself at all. It's really an album that is worthy of being heard and thus enjoyed.

'Song to the Siren': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 7 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Song to the Siren," the highlight from Tim Buckley's 1970 album, Starsailor. Plant missed that version of it the first time around; the first time he heard the song was the 1984 cover version by the U.K.'s This Mortal Coil. Plant was smitten.

Recalling some of his all-time favorite tracks for an article in the May 1990 issue of Q magazine, Plant said of "Song to the Siren": "I like the Tim Buckley original too, but I'll go with [This Mortal Coil's] version. It's so rewarding to hear it on U.S. college radio." Plant's still raving about the song this year, too. He said in a 2002 interview, "The haunting element of it, the lyrical content, it's so powerful."

For the last few years in his last two bands, Plant has performed the somber song as an encore, frequently closing shows with its peaceful yet intense textures. In the context of Dreamland, though, Plant sandwiches the song as the fifth track, between a bouncy original and a laid-back blues.

Buckley's album version and This Mortal Coil's attempt both approach the song in free form. The layered background sighs match each other. The electric guitar is less in the fore on the 1984 cover, with chords strummed once instead of arpeggiated over the vocal line. But the vocals on This Mortal Coil's version sound somewhat rushed, particularly toward the end.

Plant's new studio version opens with just acoustic guitar, definitely laying down a strict tempo to which Plant adheres. Plant's voice manages to escape all the labels with which he's been criticized: breathy, feathery, whiny, raspy, contrived. In a short break before the second verse, the sound of strings enters.

The arrangement through the verse remains slight but with a definite pulse rather than the free form of previous versions. By the end of the verse, a quiet electric guitar accompanies the arrangement.

A substantial instrumental break is added between the second and third verses, with cymbals being heard for the first time. A simple electric guitar solo energizes the break. The first half of the solo is all within five notes, and the second half seems to fade out before the final verse. Leading up to the track's high tide during the final verse is a light current of crashing cymbals.

Plant, whose singing has piled on a lot of influence from Meditteranean and Arabic singers, could have taken the opportunity to evoke some trills. The vocalist in This Mortal Coil relentlessly peppered the last line of each verse with trills. Showing restraint, Plant surprisingly limits his inflections in his six-minute version to the very last line, where the trills are effective.

I wonder if Plant has sat down and compared all three versions in a row. I did. And if he has, I wonder if he decided his takes the cake. I did.

'Funny in My Mind': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 6 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Funny in My Mind (I Believe I'm Fixin' to Die)." The opening track on Dreamland, it can't really be classified into any single musical genre. Robert Plant refers to the first bit as "Cajun psychedelic zydeco." The album is introduced with an accordion sound. But, as Plant says, "Just when you think it's performing in one particular area, it drops down into some kind of dark, psychedelic moment, which... I don't think Bukka White had that in mind, but I think it's the way that you have to move blues along. I don't think the polite interpretation of blues in the carpeted concert hall is what blues was all about in the first place."

Plant describes the arrangement as "bouncy and confident." He says it necessarily has to be that way to keep it entertaining for everybody concerned, including himself. It definitely has a driving, upbeat rhythm that doesn't hesitate. Plant sings with force throughout the track. Between verses, the band kicks into several different figures.

As for the lyrics, they're trotted out from songs that have been in Plant's repertoire for decades. We've heard some of these lyrics in Led Zeppelin songs before. "Fixin' to Die" is a Bukka White blues whose lyrics were no stranger to Led Zeppelin in the live arena; the April 1, 1971 "Whole Lotta Love" live medley on BBC Sessions includes "Fixin' to Die." Some lyrics are also in "In My Time of Dying," namely "Tell my Jesus to make up my dying bed," as sung in the new track. (Bob Dylan's first album employed both "Fixin' to Die" and "In My Time of Dyin'.")

The fast-paced music in Plant's new arrangement is definitely entertaining. The track fades out just after reaching four-and-a-half minutes. But that's really where it's just beginning for the Strange Sensation, Plant recently said in a promotional interview.

He said, "You can probably hear the great future for this band lurking on the fade-outs of the tracks. For instance, the kind of improvisation at the end of ... 'Funny In My Mind' is the kind of playing you will experience in a full hour-and-30-minute show. There is a good communion of souls, there's a lot of great guitar-filigree going on, not on a blues base but in that kind of Indo-raga style of playing, somewhere between John Fahey, The Flaming Lips and the Electric Prunes."

Plant is nothing if not a musical connoisseur, and, best of all, he knows how to implement all his influences into his own music.

'Hey Joe': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 5 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Hey Joe." It's a traditional song although sometimes credited to Billy Roberts. Other times, it's credited to the lead singer of Quicksilver Messenger Service -- Chet (or Chester) Powers, a.k.a. Jesse Oris Farrow, born as Dino Valenti.

Prior to the most famous cover version by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967, "Hey Joe" was covered and reshaped many times by bands including the Byrds, Love, the Leaves, the Shadows of Knight, the Music Machine and Tim Rose. Then came the Hendrix version, after which almost every cover of "Hey Joe" sounded mostly the same: Nearly all tried to sound like Hendrix! (Even Plant took a shot at it in the same year as Hendrix, recording a demo version in the Band of Joy with John Bonham on drums.)

But the new arrangement by Plant and the Strange Sensation is definitely different from any previous version. From the first note, that's obvious. Justin Adams' contribution is not on a guitar but a three-stringed Northern African instrument called the gimbri (and spelled various ways).

Conventional guitar? You'd better believe there's conventional guitar there too. Porl Thompson handles the electric guitar duties. Drawing from a lesson learned in the Jimmy Page technique, Thompson echoes some of Plant's higher vocal lines.

An underlying drone supports the verses while Plant sings the call-and-response lyrics. He told the BBC, "I made it sort of like a news broadcast, a sort of adventure in the middle of a drama. The musicians make it into this amazing soundscape."

"Hey Joe" sounds like a really good film score ("The Robert Blake Story," anyone?). The whole band leads the song into a very gradual crescendo, but what stands out most instrumentally are the drums. Throughout the buildup, Clive Deamer lays off and then sporadically inserts fills around Plant's vocal lines.

The drone of the verses finally gives way to a fortissimo peak. At that time, the band switches into the song's familiar rolling bassline, only uniquely played at lightning speed.

The instrumental break of this song is one of my two favorite moments on the entire album. At the end of it, Charlie Jones quotes from the descending bassline of "Dazed and Confused," whether intentional or not. I'll describe this song with only one more word. Exciting!

'Win My Train Fare Home': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 4 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Win My Train Fare Home." It was given the working title of "If I Ever Get Lucky" when used to open Plant's live sets last year. I chose to review this song on June 16, the 33rd anniversary that Led Zeppelin recorded the blues-steeped "The Girl I Love." What these two tracks have in common is the way the singer handles his influences from the blues genre at large.

As long as Plant has been singing, he's been influenced by the blues. Through the years, he's spoken about bluesmen like Charley Patton, quoted from writers like Bukka White and covered entire songs by Willie Dixon. Over and over, Plant cites Chess recordings by Howlin' Wolf as some of the dearest to him.

The writing credit goes to Robert Plant and band, as well as the late Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, author of "If I Get Lucky" in the 1940s (another, later version of which is credited to J.B. Lenoir). But the lyrics in "Train Fare" are from more than one source; Plant compiled lyrics from some of the most honest blues songs, tracks that have endured in vinyl form on Plant's shelf. In addition to Crudup's "If I Get Lucky," Plant also quotes from "Key to the Highway" by Big Bill Broonzy, "Milkcow's Calf Blues" by Robert Johnson, "Crawling Kingsnake" by John Lee Hooker and "Levee Camp Moan" by Son House.

"Crawling Kingsnake" was a tune Plant used to sing in a band called the Crawling Kingsnakes; it was his first band with John Bonham. But probably most meaningful to Plant are the Crudup lyrics ("If I ever get lucky, mama, I'd win my train fare home..."). Thirty-four years ago, Plant could barely afford the transportation fare to go to Jimmy Page's boathouse to discuss the possible formation of Led Zeppelin. Needless to say, the 19-year-old singer ended up lucky and won his train fare home.

There's no question that this is the Delta blues. It's just that the delta might be beside some river on another planet. A plethora of guitars and keyboard instruments describe the landscape and atmosphere of the delta.

Charlie Jones plays an upright bass for this one and switches at will between plucking and bowing it. At the instrumental section, the interplay between guitar and bass is legendary. The guitar action itself is full of bluesy, bent notes, and Jones uncharacteristically explores the upper reaches of his fretless instrument like a true jazz bassist. This is one of my two favorite moments on the entire album.

During the break, I count four times Plant sings the Arabic word, "yallah," which means "Let's go." It's a word that entered Plant fans' vernacular first in 1994, when they titled a new Unledded track "Yallah" (retitled the next year as "The Truth Explodes").

The point is that Robert Plant is very enthusiastic about the blues and incorporating not just Arabic influences into it but also the unique contributions of his wonderful band. This song is a prime example of the diverse forces within the Strange Sensation flowing together to gel into one sound, or as Plant put it recently in an interview for BBC radio, a "mix of really astute and colorful musicians."

'Darkness, Darkness': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 3 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Darkness, Darkness." The song was first released by the Youngbloods in 1968 (on the album Elephant Mountain and as the A-side of a single the following year). The original sounded almost Celtic in nature. Fiddles introduced the melody, and it was a tune that could have been danced to. On the original, recorded when fuzz-tone guitars were a popular staple, a hook vocal line at the end of the chorus was duplicated with a searing electric guitar.

Robert Plant's new version is much more somber than the original. There are no fiddles, and there's no dancing. Instead, there's anguish in his voice, as if he's truly feeling the lyrics: "Take away the pain of knowing; fill this emptiness with light." His performance is really convincing; you have to feel sorry for the guy! Fortunately, fans who put up with the moodiness of Led Zeppelin tracks like "No Quarter" and "I'm Gonna Crawl" should be able to stomach the feeling.

John Baggot initiates the track with a placid and deceptively warm electric piano. Then a delicate soundtrack underscores Robert's voice: Drummer Clive Deamer keeps the rhythm with a lone ride cymbal. A few brief lines later, chords strummed on acoustic guitar comes into the picture, followed quickly by bassist Charlie Jones nicely slipping into the mix. Then Deamer switches to a medium pulse on drums for the next verse.

Each stanza of lyric is met by an increase in intensity -- not necessarily in volume. If the mark of a good band is the recognition of the difference between volume and intensity, then Robert has a good band in the Strange Sensation.

After the first chorus, the electric guitar and bass experiment with some minor-ninth chords. Doing this leaves the song sounding intentionally open. The chords sound like they're initiating questions. Plant's singing seems to continue this. Reconstructing the Youngbloods' melody at the hook, he uses a few key notes from the Strange Sensation's interesting chord choice.

A few bars of Baggot vamping on electric piano precede just as many bars of an electric guitar solo. The guitar's sound benefits from heavy reverb and what sounds like an Octavizer effect. All the notes come from the Aeolian mode but for one instance of a flat five. It's tough to know whether that particular note was borrowed from a blues scale or imported from an Eastern scale. The beauty of the Strange Sensation is that it could really be either.

Instead of the song merely ending the way it came in, an enduring chord in the background comes to the fore, ushering in a heavy rock coda that continues for the next minute and through a very long fadeout. Among the tricks Robert pulls out during the final section are the "C'mon baby" rhythm he used on "Come into My Life" from his previous solo album -- itself a throwback to Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er." Plant also throws in some high notes that are reminiscent of the very early days of Led Zeppelin -- the same time the Youngbloods recorded this song. All in all, this song does a great tribute to the music and to the era.

'Last Time I Saw Her': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 2 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Last Time I Saw Her." I chose to review this song right away because I thought there might be people who thought Dreamland was an album of all covers. Well, it's not. This track shows the creativity of Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation.

Plant deserves a lot of credit for his performance on this one. His voice may have changed a lot throughout his career, and his voice gets a lot of criticism for being breathy these days. Still, Plant never fails to conjure up vocal energy when it's needed. And this track is one of those times when he comes through with flying colors.

His performance in the upbeat verses of this track reminds me of the Presence track, "Hots on For Nowhere." He sounds like he's having some fun on this track, and with a great band behind him, how could he not be? The rhythm section lays down a funky, syncopated backbeat to support the song. Crazy effects from guitar and synthesizer show why this five-piece backing band might be called "the Strange Sensation" in the first place. Some of Plant's energy throughout the song could be attributed to the inspiring noises behind him.

When Porl Thompson spoke with Lemon Squeezings last month, he described his own guitar sound on the album as "over loud" and "uncontrolled." Well, that's only half of it! Does anybody remember laughter? Squeaks, growls, trills and howls are just some of the describable noises throughout the track. Then there are the indescribable ones, too; I won't even get started on them.

Plant himself gets into the groove with his own repeated words and phrases and improvised hollers. The song fades out with a battling exchange between guitar and keyboards. (I turned up the volume so I could hear the last sounds before they fades away completely; I won't spoil it for you which one wins.)

"You can probably hear the great future for this band lurking on the fade-outs of the tracks," Plant said recently. No kidding! But there's a lot to be heard within this dynamic four-and-three-quarter-minute track, and every second counts in Dreamland.

'Morning Dew': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 1 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Some Led Zeppelin fans are reluctant to listen to any solo material. But this quote above from Page in 1969 speculated that each member of Led Zeppelin's solo albums would be great. But Led Zeppelin no longer exists as a music-making force, and so that might be a good reason for fans to check out what does exist and decide for themselves whether it's great. Ever onward ...

Earlier this year, I provided a song-by-song analysis of John Paul Jones' new album, The Thunderthief. But I reviewed all nine songs in one e-mail, and several readers complained that the e-mail was too long. So what I'll do with Plant's new album is review one song each day.

Today's song is "Morning Dew," the first single from the upcoming album, Dreamland. It may already be familiar to some of you through radio play. One "Led Zeppelin History" reader tells me that Polish public radio is playing it! The single will be released commercially at the beginning of next week.

Plant's studio arrangement is totally new, and his live versions this year reflect it. A previous version played by Plant and the Strange Sensation on tour in 2001 was in a lower key, C; now, the arrangement is in E, placing restrictions on Plant's voice. His vocal range is higher in this version but really doesn't exceed one octave. Given the limited range and the lack of volume on the verses, there's not much room for Robert to show off throughout the song. He keeps the arrangement laid back.

In last year's shows, John Baggot's electric piano drove the song. But after the first verse of the studio version, the song is mostly driven by Justin Adams on guitar. An extended break between the second and third verses yields a chorus of female backup singers lending their "Oooh." At this point, Clive Deamer switches from percussion to drums. Also emerging are a string section and a groaning electric guitar courtesy of Porl Thompson. The song achieves a musical climax during the break but still manages to stay relatively somber.

After the minute-long break, Deamer accentuates every beat with a light tap of the snare drum. He keeps this up during the final verses as Thompson weaves in and out of each vocal line with some supplementary guitar.

Tim Rose's version from the 1960s was basically composed of three different verses, but he repeated them so often that he was already beginning his eighth stanza by the time the song faded out at 3:39. Plant's adaptation, with only three verses, is actually just a few seconds shorter than that. The time is made up with a decrease in tempo and with the addition of the break between the second and final verses.

Plant's voice on this track is not meant to be showy. The strength of "Morning Dew" lies in the group's arrangement and performance and the meaning of the lyrics. Plant told the BBC this month, "It addresses so many more things than just the current condition in India and Pakistan. It just talks in the simplest and most word free aspect of projecting reason through music. It talks about our blindness. We control so many things so poorly. We make amazing advances in one area of our culture, life and society and we make such huge gaffes built on such aimless crap on the other side." Not bad for three-and-a-half minutes!