A New Duet Partner for Robert Plant

Ever since teaming up with Alison Krauss in 2007, Robert Plant has been singing more in duet style than as a front man. First with the Plant Krauss album, Raising Sand, and following that up with The Band of Joy, where he shared vocal duties with Patty Griffin.

Meanwhile, his Led Zeppelin partner John Paul Jones was appearing in an opera based on the life of Anna Nichole Smith and talking about writing his own opera. But nobody saw this one coming.

Robert Plant will appear on tenor Alfie Boe's latest collection, Alfie. The opera star and Plant combine on Tim Buckley's 1968 piece, Song To The Siren. Plant previously recorded Song to the Siren in 2002's Alfie, with his then band Strange Sensation, and Plant has often talked about the song as a favourite of his. Now it appears it will get a different treatment.

Boe is currently playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre in London. His new album, Alfie, will be released November 8th.

Mr. Plant Goes to Marfa

Patty Griffin stepped onstage  last night at Marfa, Texas for the first night of the El Cosmico Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, and introduced her new band, Crown Vic: "I'd like to introduce you to my dear, dear friend, Robert Plant."

Plant joined the band of Texans for a run through a set of old songs, including at least three Led Zeppelin numbers, Rock and Roll, Misty Mountain Hop and Black Dog. A poster on YouTube noted, "(Crown Vic) Played a lot of Zepplin. One of the best shows I have ever seen."



Rumour is that Plant will stay in Texas and work with Crown Vic when Griffin goes out for a series of dates with Buddy Miller later this month.

More at Lemon Squeezings.

OA Online.

From Robert Plant's official website.

Feather in the Wind: Led Zeppelin Over Europe 1980

Led Zeppelin have impressed me in different ways over the years. As musicians, as performers, as writers, as people. Tonight they impressed me as a working rock ‘n’ roll band - above everything, that’s important.

Tight but loose? - you ain’t joking... And this is only the second night of the tour.

Dave Lewis
Feather in the Wind page 96

Dave Lewis has said that Feather in the Wind: Led Zeppelin Over Europe 1980, is a companion book to his earlier work, Then as it Was - At Knebworth 1979*. This is the most accurate statement you can make about it. Feather in the Wind is so perfectly synchronous with Then as it Was it could be called part 2. Between the two books, Lewis thoroughly covers the time in Led Zeppelin’s career beginning with the last US show in July 1977 and ending at the announcement of their dissolution in Dec 1980.

[caption id="attachment_1267" align="alignright" width="214" caption="Led Zeppelin Feather in the Wind - Over Europe 1980"][/caption]

Feather in the Wind is in the main about Led Zeppelin’s underreported final tour through Europe in the summer of 1980. In the telling, however, Lewis starts at Knebworth the summer before, and carries the story to the end of 1980 and the end of Led Zeppelin.

Lewis was there, that’s the key point of the book. Dave Lewis was able to get to a number of the 1980 shows. He was a fan, buying his tickets, but he wound up getting treated like a journalist and seeing 1980 Led Zeppelin from a variety of vantage points: backstage, the photography pit, the cheap seats. After show he hung about with the band members in the hotel bars, and talked about the tour, and the future of Led Zeppelin. That access is at the heart of the narrative.

Feather in the Wind is both the telling of the last Led Zeppelin story, and a reference book. If you want to know when they played Nuremberg, what songs they played, what was said between songs or any other number of facts about the show, it is all in there. From short venue history and seating capacity to what each band member wore onstage, you can find it.

Yet it’s not an encyclopaedia. With personal stories, Lewis’ personal experiences and a store of never before seen pictures taken by the author himself, Feather in the Wind tells a great story. It is, in fact, one of the best Led Zeppelin books you will ever read.

_______________________________
*Lewis has published a second edition of Then as Now: Knebworth ‘79, with a “revamped cover and new layout design,increased colour content and additional text.” It looks great, and would nicely sit beside Feather in the Wind on the bookshelf.

Both books can be bought at Tight But Loose. If you have a Led Zeppelin fan on your Christmas list, buying both would make a great gift.

Dave Lewis on BBC

Last Tuesday Dave Lewis called into Vic Morgan on BBC Radio's weekday Late Show for a chat about writing and his new book Feather in the Wind: Over Europe 1980.



I talked about the book myself on my first PodCast, available here.

The book can be ordered from the Tight But Loose website.

h/t Steve Sauer

Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience Add Dates

Edited and Bumped

Last spring, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience had to cancel 4 shows due to singer James Dylan's illness. The shows in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Sacramento and Napa Valley were rescheduled for this fall. The band has added three more California shows, plus a number of dates in the North East, including three in Canada.

Here is the full schedule for Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience fall tour:

• October 12: Riverside, CA - Fox Performing Arts Center


• October 13: Bakersfield, CA - Fox Theatre


• October 14: Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre (make-up date)


• October 15: Las Vegas, NV - Alliente Casi (make-up date)


• October 17: Sacramento, CA - Crest Theatre (make-up date)


• October 18: Napa Valley, CA - Uptown Theatre (make-up date)


• October 27: Englewood, NJ - Bergen PAC


• October 28: Huntington, NY - Paramount Theater


• October 29: Upper Darby (Phil), PA - Tower Theater


• October 31: Boston, MA - The Wilbur Theatre


• November 1: New York, NY - Best Buy Theater


• November 2: Hartford, CT - The Webster


• November 4: Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom


• November 5: Orillia, ONT - Casino Rama


• November 6: Ottawa/Gatineau, QC - TBD


• November 7: Quebec City, QC - TBD

________________________
Update

New dates added:

• Nov 10: Silver Spring MD - The Fillmore


• Nov. 11: Poughkeepsie NY - The Chance Theatre


• Nov. 12: Richmond VA - The National


• Nov 13: Atlanta GA - Sun Center Stage


• Nov 16: Orlando FL. - The Hard Rock


• Nov. 17: Hollywood FL. - Seminole Hard Rock and Casino


• Nov 18: Clearwater FL. - Ruth Eckerd Hall

Podcast #3

The 3rd Ramble On Podcast is complete and uploaded. This week, I have an interview/chat with Steve, The Lemon, Sauer. Steve offers some of his recent experiences, and we talk about Death Wish II, Robert Plant in Texas and a possible Jeff Beck/Robert Plant collaboration.

The podcast can be found at my PodBean site, or subscribed to on iTunes.

If you're interested in providing an intro and outro bumper ("hi this is XX and you are listening to the Ramble On Podcast."), contact me and I'll set up a time to be on Skype or iChat or FaceTime. You don't have to be Steve Sauer, I'm looking for anybody to do this.

Death Wish II Soundtrack to be re-Released

Jimmy Page announced today on his personal website, JimmyPage.com that he will be re-releasing a special edition vinyl Death Wish II: The Original Soundtrack
.

From jimmypage.com

To mark today’s 30th anniversary, jimmypage.com will be re-releasing a special, limited, re-mastered vinyl edition of the soundtrack to Michael Winner’s Death Wish II, featuring a previously unreleased instrumental version of the death wish main title and new liner notes by Jimmy Page…

Only 1,000 copies will be released next month from the forthcoming Jimmy Page shop, so stay tuned to jimmypage.com over the coming weeks to find out more information about this exciting release.

Death Wish II was released to accompany the movie in February 1982. It was Page’s first album after the death of John Bonham and dissolution of Led Zeppelin. Recorded in late 1981 at Page's own Sol Studio, music from the album was also used in 1985's Death Wish III, also directed by Michael Winner.

The re-release of the album also marks the first item to be sold at the Jimmy Page Shop, which will hopefully provide some real product for fans of the guitarist over the next while.