Robert Plant Puts Away His Big Voice

In an interview last year discussing his current band, The Sensational Space Shifters, Robert Plant said he had found his big voice again.

Today, Patty Griffin released the first song from her upcoming album, American Kid, featuring Robert Plant on background vocals. In the song, Ohio, Plant gives a very understated performance providing harmony to Griffin's lead vocal. It is comparable to some of his work with The Band of Joy or Allison Krauss: that is to say, he put the big voice away for this one.

Ohio is an old style folk song about the Underground Railroad. In an interview with USA Today, Griffin said Plant was key to the arrangement:

I had the song in an odd shape and couldn't really figure out how to use it. He came in and arranged it so that it became what it is. He came up with the tempo and the mood on it.

It is previously ported that Plant provided backing vocals on three tracks on American Kid, due in stores May 7th.