Sara Watkins goes solo under tutelage of John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones was playing at a bluegrass festival a few years ago when he said to the female member of Nickel Creek that he wanted to produce her solo album if she ever made one.

That's the way Sara Watkins recalls it went down. In an interview on Sept. 30 for the News Times in Danbury, Conn., the unsuspecting 26-year-old said she didn't know back then if Jones had any intention of following through.

Well, he has. Jones made good on that promise during some month-long sessions in Los Angeles this February, adding his magic touch much the same way he did in 2006 for the sophomore release by Uncle Earl. On both albums, he not only produces but also sits in on certain tracks.

On Watkins's solo debut album is a backing band with some famous musicians. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers plays keyboards, and Gillian Welch links up to play some guitar. The record, whose title is not yet firm, is expected to drop early next year. In Asheville, N.C., the Xpress has passed on that the album is to contain self-penned pop songs described as sounding like "a softer Neko Case" and "much like Alison Krauss's new album."

Watkins takes her band and her new act on the road tonight for the first time billed under her own name. The singer and multi-instrumentalist opens for Donavon Frankenreiter on a brief tour of North America that is to continue all into November. Check here for tour dates.

In the past, Watkins has held a weekly gig called the Watkins Family Hour at Largo, her home base in Los Angeles, where she has welcomed many onstage special guest musicians. That steady gig was in addition to her many outings with Nickel Creek over the past 10 years.

As reported in the New Yorker on May 19, Jones guested on bass at one Watkins Family Hour earlier this year, while he was still in Los Angeles just after completing the album. Over the summer of 2004, Jones toured the United States playing bass and mandolin for a touring lineup called Mutual Admiration Society that included Watkins.

For more information, see news articles in Danbury News Times and Xpress or visit Watkins's official Web site.

Myles Kennedy sidesteps rumors of involvement with Page, Jones

Myles Kennedy, the American singer and guitarist who has been rumored for weeks to have been sitting in with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in rehearsals, has offered no comment on the speculation.

In a blog post on the site of his band Alter Bridge two days ago, Kennedy speaks of his daily routine as going in a studio to write new material. He says he has been very creative this autumn and that he has determined some of his new music would work better in a separate project other than Alter Bridge. That Florida-based group is scheduled to tour the U.K. and mainland Europe in November and December.

Jones and Page have so far been absolutely mum on the rumors that they have employed an American singer to rehearse with them. Kennedy's blog post on Oct. 8 is his first in months; in it, he confirms for his fans that he is still alive. But just like Page and Jones, he maintains silence on the well-publicized rumors that have brought his name to a more widespread attention.

Through deductive reasoning, this indicates one of two things:

1. The rumor is true: Kennedy has been sitting in with Page, Jones and Jason Bonham too. However, he can't reveal it because has been sworn to secrecy; an official announcement from Page and Jones is yet to come.
   
2. The rumor is false, and Kennedy doesn't mind the attention. By keeping the rumor alive, he benefits from continuing to receive the increased attention and intrigue that inherently comes with his name being linked to the greatest band of all time.
   

So, we know nothing more than what we did already, and we still just have to wait for the official word from the major players involved.

Disturbing silence: No official word on future plans of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones

What are Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones up to? Would somebody please get an answer out of these two?

It's no secret that Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have been keen on playing together since the one-off Led Zeppelin concert in December. In fact, that's about all either has said in regard to their working relationship. They got to work together onstage again in June when they ran through some of their own classic Led Zeppelin material at a Foo Fighters show.

That guest appearance was only the beginning of the Led Zeppelin story of 2008 unfolding and changing at a rate not matched since the band was last planning to travel the globe in 1980, a blast-off that mislaunched when John Bonham died.

The next plot twist this summer was when Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, revealed that he had been jamming with Page and Jones -- on new material, no less. Then came the rumors a tabloid printed that the three were planning a Led Zeppelin tour with or without Robert Plant as singer. That was quickly followed up with a source allegedly saying Plant was in, which Plant himself officially denied within days.

Concurrent to these developments, the name Myles Kennedy entered the mix. The singer-guitarist of Alter Bridge, Kennedy was mentioned semi-legitimately among Zeppelin fans as a possible new bandmate for Page, Jones and Bonham. Repeating that scenario this week was Dee Snider, singer of Twisted Sister, relating what he had heard as a music-business insider who shares the same management as Robert Plant. Snider explained that if Plant would turn down a lucrative offer to team up again with his former bandmates, then Page and Jones had someone hand-picked and ready to take the reins, and his name was Myles Kennedy.

All throughout this dramatic series of twists and turns, Jones especially has been the least vocal. As to what is truly happening behind all the rumors and suggestions, the most reliable answer would of course come from either him or Page. Page did comment once that all the popular speculation about Led Zeppelin recording an album was off-base, but he didn't have much to say about what the truth really was.

That was before any talk of Myles Kennedy entered the public discussion, and a lot has changed since then. If the rumors of Kennedy's association with Page, Jones and Bonham have been patently untrue, why haven't fans and reporters been alerted?

Even a more pressing question is this: If it is indeed true that this singer has been jamming with Page, Jones and Bonham, and has long-term plans with them, then why hasn't anybody involved spoken up officially to confirm it?

Is it possible that his involvement is merely a ploy by which Page and Jones are aiming to coerce a jealous Plant into working with them again? What an unfortunate a case it would be for Kennedy if his role in this is only that of a pawn: Bring him into the fold, rehearse with him and collaborate with him, tout his name to Plant, and then dump him if Plant reconsiders.

I don't like thinking up conspiracy theories, but I wouldn't have to do that if only we could hear something from either Jones or Page.

Jones is scheduled to participate in a question-and-answer session on Sunday, Oct. 26, in England. Two weeks from now, I really hope we won't still be asking the same questions that we are today. At that event, Jones is supposed to be talking about musical equipment and technology anyway: The two-day event is Manson's Guitar Show, to be held at the Riverside Leisure Centre, with tickets onsale here.

How embarrassing would it be for Jones if so many of people attending were Led Zeppelin fans who paid the meager ticket price of £8 for one day or £12 for both only so they could hound Jones with questions about his future plans? Imagine Jones wanting to discuss any of the instruments made for him by Mansons personnel, brothers Hugh and Andy Manson, only to face a ferocious throng of inquiring single-track minds hoping to be appeased.

Jones can keep this scenario from becoming reality by breaking his silence in the next two weeks. And he shouldn't wait until the day before so he can avoid having to say, "This is tomorrow-tomorrow-tomorrow-tomorrow ..."

Pardon me -- sidetracked: Also worthy of note is another of the guests scheduled to be there: "Big" Jim Sullivan, who shares the credit with Jimmy Page as being one of England's top two session guitarists in the 1960s. Jones was also one of the main studio musicians at that time, so those two would certainly have some old stories to enjoy sharing.

Robert Plant on two-year abstention from touring as of today

If Robert Plant wasn't lying or exaggerating when he issued a statement last week, then he won't be on tour again for at least two years from today.

The 60-year-old's self-imposed embargo of long road trips officially began at midnight today, shortly after taking his final bows on the stage of the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif. This Oct. 5 show with Alison Krauss, T Bone Burnett and other bluegrass musicians signalled the conclusion of an international working escapade that has dominated Plant's time since April.

In last week's proclamation, Plant publicly shattered, in no uncertain terms, any possibility of his reuniting Led Zeppelin for a tour or even any recording. In part, the statement released on Plant's behalf reads: "Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years. Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin."

Still thinking Led Zeppelin could reunite in 2010? Let's see: Two years from today, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones will be three months away from their 67th and 65th birthdays, respectively. Sure, they might still be viable musicians then, but they're said to be pursuing their own individual projects in the meantime, if not making some collaborative effort. Why would they wait two years for their friend to make himself available?

Maybe Plant intends to spend a couple years acting more like a typical grandfather. Or maybe he has something musical on the table that will take two years of planning. Who knows? He didn't specify any particular justification for his decision this time, although in September 2007 he did say he was looking forward to starting to go to sleep earlier once he stopped touring.

Whatever Plant's two-year outlook may be, his announcement marked the first time in years he used unequivocal terms to address the topic of his intentions with Led Zeppelin. His interviews have seldom conveyed moments of clarity. The least vague he has been in an interview was in July when he remarked to Beverly Keel of The Tennessean, "Could Led Zeppelin play together? Of course they could, but why? And for what? That is the question." It was a hint of the decision to come.

But the official declaration of that decision came in late September as his tour with Krauss was winding down, and just after British tabloid The Sun posted a story attributing exactly the opposite decision to Plant. The report had allowed fans all over the world reason to believe that a Led Zeppelin tour was already a certainty.

Plant is not to blame for the last straw, the one in which a tipster to The Sun erroneously said Plant's consent was in the bag and the other musicians involved were overjoyed. And Plant is certainly welcome to choose what he does and does not want to do onstage and in the studio.

But Plant's decision stands in stark contrast to some of his less ambiguous comments to the media in recent years when he spoke of Led Zeppelin.

The most egregious that comes to mind is the one published in the Dec. 13, 2007, issue of Rolling Stone, in which he tells David Fricke in a November interview how enthusiastic he'd been while rehearsing with Page, Jones and Jason Bonham for their one-off concert in London. "I never wanted to do it," Plant said at the time. "Now I want to do nothing else. How about that?"

If being wishy-washy were an offense worthy of capital punishment, Plant would be swingin' on the gallows pole.

Robert Plant honors T Bone Burnett as Raising Sand receives award for sound

T Bone Burnett was honored twice today at the 24th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards.

First, he was inducted into the TECnology Hall of Fame following a poetic speech by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss that was sure to make his cheeks blush.



Later, their Raising Sand album, which Burnett produced, won its bid for an award in the category of Record Production/Album.

Sharing in the award for Raising Sand are all the people who worked on the recording in Nashville and Los Angeles:

Recording Engineers: Stacy Parrish, Mike Piersante, Jason Wormer
Mixing Engineer: Mike Piersante
Producer: T-Bone Burnett
Mastering Engineer: Gavin Lurssen

To induct Burnett, Plant and Krauss provided their flattering words about the man who produced their album and has continued to guide their onstage collaboration.

Plant and Krauss approached their shared podium to the tune of the house band's instrumental "Rich Woman," the opening track of their album and each one of their concerts. Then they spoke:

Plant: "Thank you. T Bone Burnett is excited and surprised. His eyes blink in feigned revelation. His head jerks, and a roar of healing laughter ricochets through the backstage corridors of the world we've come to share. T Bone Burnett is a crazy, glorious hybrid: part Fort Worth frat rocker, part sidekick to the Minnesota Judas. A teller of tales often as tall as the mountains, which yielded up their almost lost treasures to soundtrack and sidetrack. The teller of tales who recently led the great B.B. King back to his original mojo, back to his seminal how and why, back to Blind Lemon, Lighntin' Hopkins and Charlie Patton, to induce performances hardly imaginable in today's celebrity-sodden recording sessions for our senior heroes. The teller of tales who delicately wove the gifts of the bluegrass princess with the prince from the misty mountains --"

[Audience laughs and claps.]

Plant: "Hold it -- dressed in a long robe and playing a red toy piano."

Krauss: "T Bone Burnett is restless and questing, a whirlwind of profound opinions of social responsibility, frustrated and angered by his country's political corruption and blind mismanagement."

[Audiences cheers.]

Krauss: "And T Bone Burnett is almost always, always there for almost everyone."

[Audience laughs.]

Krauss: "Tonight, his music, a salute to his years of eager learning and to passion and detail, salute to his recall and experience."

Plant: "Salute to the library of congress installed neatly between his ears. Salute to his microphone placement."

[Audience laughs.]

Plant: "Salute to his manmade management and riotous assemblies. To his Blue Glow and his Grey Goose."

[Audience laughs.]

Krauss: "Salute to his remarkable conviction. Who else could convince me to sing songs beginning with, 'Once I had myself a good woman'?"

[Audience laughs and claps.]

Krauss: "Thank you."

Plant: "Forget gender; think art! And to his own provocative and beautiful music, which constantly asks questions framed and draped by his dark, compelling soundscapes. And, you know, music with all its rewards, joys and frustrations is just a fraction of what's going on behind those two eyes up there."

Krauss: "I am never happier than when I sing for T Bone Burnett. I'm delighted by his choices, his process, and then what appears after he's called his invisible shots."

Plant: "For me, T Bone is the last train home, the one you'd given up upon, the one you thought you'd missed forever, the last connection to all the golden inspiration that led me to this room tonight. T Bone!"

[Audience bursts into applause, and the house band plays the presenters off.]

Burnett also addressed those gathered at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, saying the honor "came completely out of left field for me."

The award for Raising Sand prompted more words from Burnett and then even more from Plant, who appeared eager to step up and command any microphone as soon as he politely could.



That's when he alluded to his first tour of America, back in 1968 and 1969, when he was singing for Led Zeppelin. It was less than two weeks into 1969 that the band performed at San Francisco's Fillmore West for the first time.

"Somebody mentioned the Fillmore in 1968 [sic]," said Plant, to the crowd's amusement.

"There were no monitors, no plug-ins, none of this s---. I don't know how you can justify being here. You have no right! What happened to the human voice? Go out and get yourself called Dust to Digital. Check it out.

"But on a serious note, of course, you're all very important -- I've only just become American, so I'm just learning this bulls---, you know. I'm gonna be a maverick when I grow up!

"After me and Alison made this speech, I started drinking, but I can't tell you.

"Seriously, Alison and these guys [Burnett and the mixing and mastering engineers present], they're -- you know, Alison said, 'You'll like 'em.' And I was frightened by them. Mike [Piersante], you know, he sat through all the Grey Goose and the Blue Glow and all the cellphones for weeks and me getting twitchy. And these guys are spectacular -- Gavin [Lurssen], T Bone, everybody. I mean, I'm so pleased to be Mid-Atlantic."

About the TEC awards:

Founded in 1985, the Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards is the foremost program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. Presented annually by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the TEC Awards honor the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, films, TV shows and live performances.

If not reunite Led Zeppelin, what's Jimmy Page's next move?

Now that Robert Plant has quashed the rumor of his agreement to participate in a Led Zeppelin reunion, the rumor mill must find a new storyline to push.

And in this case, why not revive the one we were fed last week involving Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham?

After all, just because Plant isn't working with those three guys doesn't mean they're not working with each other, perhaps auditioning singers or maybe even already having identified their choice candidate.

A hint passed on to Led Zeppelin fans last week suggests that Alter Bridge singer-guitarist Myles Kennedy has become the boys' top pick in those much-ballyhooed jam sessions in England.

Hey hey, whaddya know? The Myles Kennedy rumor has now gone semi-mainstream, with entertaining Telegraph blogger Neil McCormick picking up on it! Also having written about it is Michael Christopher, music columnist for the Delco Times in Delaware County, Pa.

The mention of Kennedy's name in Zep circles last week was accompanied by a stipulation, assumedly conveyed to fans by insiders, that the Page-Jones-Bonham-Kennedy band would be a new project and not a Led Zeppelin redux.

If that's so, OK, fine. So, the band hypothetically puts out an album of originals. All new stuff nobody's heard before. How well does that go over in a live setting?

That resurrects another scenario previously discussed here: how classic artists can work to ensure their new music is appreciated by fans in a live setting, rather than be ignored as fodder for the proverbial bathroom break.

Still, even an aspiring new act that stars three members who will forever be indelibly linked to their past participation in Led Zeppelin has only one album's worth of original material under its belt. How could this act possibly conduct any kind of a tour without dipping into the Zep songbook for at least half the show?

Is it not human nature on the part of the musicians to want to play the songs that made them famous, and human nature on the part of the paying audience to expect to hear those songs?

And furthermore, is it not human nature to be disappointed if that expectation is not met? After all, this is the same fan base that crucifies Plant whenever he is seen as the lone holdout against a Led Zeppelin reunion, as he is no doubt currently being viewed in light of today's statement.

Plant's stance has definitely disappointed many fans who held a glimmer of hope that what happened in December 2007 could happen again, and soon.

So, if Page, Jones and Bonham have a project together that is not reuniting Led Zeppelin, how different can it be? Or, if you fit this into the context of history-resisting bands like Blind Faith and The Firm, how different must it be?

And what is the consensus on Myles Kennedy among readers of LedZeppelinNews.com?

Robert Plant negates reunion reports; says he will not tour again for another two years

Reports that Robert Plant has agreed to participate in a Led Zeppelin reunion are not true, the singer said today in an official statement.

Plant "has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years" following the conclusion of his tour with Alison Krauss on Oct. 5, the statement specifies.

Addressing the rumors that he would be somehow involved with Led Zeppelin, it says: "Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets."

The Sun, a British tabloid, days ago published a story in which an unnamed source reveals Plant had agreed to tour with Led Zeppelin next year and, further, that the other musicians -- original Zep members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, with drummer Jason Bonham -- were ecstatic over Plant's decision.

That single report triggered a swath of articles in the media parroting the message, now debunked, that Plant and his onetime bandmates would soon be embarking on a tour as Led Zeppelin.

Plant says in the statement: "It's both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward."

What those individual projects are is unclear.

The Sun had earlier pegged Page, Jones and Bonham as collaborating together on new material and rehearsing with an American singer and perhaps even auditioning others.

Unlike the tabloid's later report about Plant, there may possibly be some truth in the report of the other musicians collaborating.

It was in August that Bonham first revealed in a radio interview that he had at least twice this year been jamming on new material with Page and Jones, although he did not mention whether or not any singers were involved.

At that time, Bonham announced he was leaving the band Foreigner, which is currently on tour with a new album due out next year. He said he wanted to have some time off to spend with his family before committing to any new projects that may require some time. He hinted that the jam sessions with Page and Jones would certainly result in something.

When the press took Bonham's comments to mean a new Led Zeppelin album was already being recorded or that a reunion tour was imminent, Page used an opportunity at an unrelated press conference to deny such assertions as overblown.

Jones is not known to have issued any public statements on the situation.

This weekend, London's Mirror reported that Bonham has put some of his property in England up for sale, which it somehow foolishly interpreted as a telltale indicator of a Led Zeppelin reunion.

Today's statement from the Plant camp concludes with one final thought from the singer: "I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects."

So, the ball appears to be in the court of those musicians as to what individual, or perhaps collective, projects they will be moving forward on in the future.

As for Plant, evidently, we will not be seeing him on another tour until late 2010 at the earliest.

That doesn't necessarily mean, however, he would rule out any one-off onstage appearances. So, there's just enough ambiguity in his statement to keep hopes alive for anyone desperate to believe Plant could still take part in at least one more concert reuniting him with Page, Jones and Bonham -- such as they did last December in front of 20,000 fans at a concert paying tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegün.

But following a year of touring, Plant deserves at least a little break. A year ago this month, the Daily Express quoted Plant as preferring to sit back rather than embark on a Led Zeppelin tour.

"I know I’m getting on," he said at the time. "When I do come back from touring I'm shocked to find a lot of my mates tend to be going to bed far too early and that means I should probably be doing the same. Maybe I should stop having a good time and get old."