Concert preview: Robert Plant & the Band of Joy

Now Plant has released a new CD, “Band of Joy,” and is playing its music on a run of winter dates in the U.S. This time, Plant is taking his exploration of American roots music in new directions, with the help of such stellar band members as guitarist Buddy Miller, mandolin player/multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott and singer Patty Griffin.

“I’m doing an interview with you because I am very proud of what I’m doing now in the present tense,” Plant said, once again shooting down any prospect of a Zeppelin reunion. “That really is my entire raison d’etre …I’m on a journey here.”

To Plant, it was understood that the 2007 reunion show would be a one-time event.

“I don’t think we’ve ever thought of it going any further, to be honest,” Plant said. “I think the great thing about it was that we could do it, and we did it really well with dignity and with excitement. The idea of traveling around the sports facilities of the world is something that would have to be thought about really, really carefully.”

That opinion, however, may have changed in the aftermath of the reunion gig. There have been reports online and in the print media that Plant’s former band mates, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, are both interested in a reunion tour, and may have auditioned different singers (including Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler) to fill Plant’s role as front man.

The other musician involved in the reunion, Jason Bonham (son of the late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) also has expressed enthusiasm in press reports for a Zeppelin reunion and said that he, Page and Jones spent time in 2008 working on material and rehearsing.

Those rehearsals never panned out. Jones has been gigging as part of the super group Them Crooked Vultures (with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age). And Page has a solo album in the works. But even those facts haven't quieted the rumors of a future for Led Zeppelin.

For Plant, though, playing the December 2007 reunion accomplished the goals he had for Zeppelin, essentially bringing closure to a band career that ended with Bonham's death in 1980.

“That night was a spectacular night,” he said. “It was really something special. For me now, I can’t see any way of it carrying on.”

Being in the moment creatively and moving forward artistically are clearly top priorities for Plant.

While the “Band Of Joy” CD is not a part two of “Raising Sand” by any means, Plant sees it as a next step in his musical journey – one in which he is gaining musical knowledge and learning to sing in different styles and intensities.

“Obviously there’s a continuum because I went back to Buddy [Miller] and back to Nashville, where I knew I could get all of the jobs done in one place,” Plant said. “Now bear in mind, I’m the student here. And when we sit on the bus together, everybody else is in one place and I’m kind of playing catch-up on a lot of other American music that I didn’t know about.

“It’s a great learning curve for me, but it [the music on “Band Of Joy”] is a lot tougher and it’s much more tricky than ‘Raising Sand,’” he said. “It really does growl and clunk and it comes out of the church. It’s Sunday morning and definitely Saturday night.”

The album, named after Plant’s pre-Led Zeppelin group, Band of Joy, began with Plant recruiting Miller, a key band member on the “Raising Sand” tour, to produce, choose songs, recruit musicians and coordinate recording sessions for the new CD.

“Initially we created a very pastoral sound,” Plant said. “We were making a very pretty record. And over Christmas I realized I’ve got to have some sinew in there. I called Buddy and I said we need to pump this thing up a bit and get even more dynamic interplay between the moods of the songs. He suggested I think about Patty [Griffin], and I said ‘Of course.’ Patty’s got just the right voice to bring the edge onto the record, to create a bit more of a cutting edge. And also, [there was] a change of material, with a lot more kind of spook, so the second session became much tougher and much more psychedelic, if you like.”

The entire core lineup of Band Of Joy is on tour with Plant now – Miller, Scott, Griffin, drummer Marco Giovino and bassist Byron House – and the singer expects the new material to evolve further as the group performs its concerts. With Plant, Griffin, Scott, Miller and House all being accomplished singers, Plant said the shows have become a “massive vocal experience.”

The musical format and musicians involved also are letting Plant reinterpret some songs from the Zeppelin catalog, with Griffin playing a key role. He noted she takes the song “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” down a notably different path.

“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with Patty,” Plant said. “The way that she connects with me on stage is both humorous and incredible. When we both let rip … we take things up a notch.”

-- Last Word Features

Concert preview

Robert Plant & the Band of Joy

8 p.m., Feb. 5, $40-$80

Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-881-2100, www.foxtheatre.org/