Black Country Communion II

Is a second Black Country Communion album in the works?

During an encounter with fan Wyatt Brake before his Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience show last night in Merrilville, Indiana, Jason Bonham reportedly told him that a second Black Country Communion album was being planned.

Although the conversation was brief and hurried, Bonham indicated that BCC would be heading into the studio in the new year (or, possibly, releasing the album in the new year) before taking the band on the road. Brake wrote in the Led Zeppelin mailing list For Badgeholders Only (FBO):

...it sounds like the band wants to have two albums' worth of material under their belt before they do a full-scale tour... this triggered an immediate comparison to Robert Plant's decision not to tour until 1983, after completing both Pictures at Eleven and Principle of Moments.

One may recall Plant's reasoning for not touring after Pictures at Eleven was so he would have a full shows worth of material to do, and not have to rely on any Led Zeppelin songs. Perhaps Black Country Communion feels the same way about playing Led Zeppelin/Deep Purple/Joe Bonamassa songs.

Lid Magazine: Jimmy Page Edition

About a month ago I was perusing the usual Zeppelin related web sites and newsgroups, when I noticed Lid Magazine was putting out an edition with a Jimmy Page feature. What’s more, they were offering the magazine with a choice of four covers: Jimmy Page, Marlon Brando, Andy Warhol and Daido Moriyama. By the time postage was in and rates were exchanged, it cost me $31 Canadian.

I closed my laptop and thought to myself, did I really just pay thirty-bucks for a magazine?

I did. It arrived yesterday and what a magazine it is.

Lid Magazine is a fine arts magazine, featuring never seen before photographs and art. It is entirely in black and white and printed on photographic paper. It is, in short, a beautiful magazine. The all black and white gives it an elegant presentation, the pictures (and it is mostly pictures) are outstanding. If you, like me, think the world has lost some dignity and elegance in the last 30 or 40 years, you will love this magazine.

Lid Eleven features photographic stories on each of the cover subjects, with few words to let you know what you are seeing. In Jimmy Page you get a double feature: a piece on his new pictorial autobiography, Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, and an interview of Page by photo editor Dave Brolan.

The interview with Page is strictly related to his book, the choice of photographs, the process involved &tc. It is also the longest textual portion of the magazine. It is a magazine of few words, and the majority of them are in the Brolan/Page interview.

The feature on Page’s book is the meat of this edition, where this fan gets his $30 worth of magazine. Lid is a natural fit for a feature on Page’s upcoming Genesis Publication book. The high quality photographic reproduction on thick paper gives a hint of what the Genesis publication will be like. The twenty-one photographs, plus proof sheet from a Yardbirds photo session, are all new and of stunning quality. Favourites: Oakland ‘77 playing the acoustic, with cigarette (below); same show holding the double neck over his head; 1975 shot of him playing his Theremin; a 1977 shot of him “in the garden behind the Swan Song office”; an alternate take of the famous Knebworth photo shoot; and two backstage shots, at different venues, in his white poppy suit.

Two photographers whose pictures are included, Michael Zagaris and Kate Simon each pen a short piece on meeting and photographing Jimmy Page.

If you can find it, Lid Eleven is a great magazine and well worth picking up.

Deborah Bonham at The Groove Remains the Same

On Sept 25th, the 30th anniversary of John Bonham's passing, a concert in his memory was put together in LA. Some of the worlds top drummers got together and played Led Zeppelin classics with a house band that includes Michael Devin and Stephen LeBlanc, now currently on tour with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience.

One of the nights highlights was Bonham's sister Deborah killing on a version of Since I've Been Loving You.

Of note, that's Devin behind Deborah Bonham on the left, and LeBlanc on keyboards. The guitar player is event organizer Brian Tichy, the new drummer with Devin in Whitesnake. (He's a pretty good guitar player for a drummer). Salty Dog's Khurt Maier joined them on drums.



Man, the girl can sing. As one TouTube commenter put it, "I had no idea..."

And yes, we're having fun yet.

Ritchie York Reviews JBLZE

The Ritchie York review of the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience premier concert in Dawson Creek is now on the Rolling Stone Website.

The money quotes:

Led Zeppelin's magic was in effect... much more than just another tribute band: the Bonham bloodline carries its own responsibilities... With state-of-the-art lighting and effects, dazzling video treatments and a crisp, thundering sound...

In short, he liked it, he really liked it.

Two things though: It was waaaay too short and Stephen LeBlanc is playing lap-steel, not pedal-steel.

Otherwise, another strong review of the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience, this time by a respected chronicler of Led Zeppelin.

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience: Setlist

I’ve been gleaming together as much as I can of a setlist for JBLZE. If your going to see Jason Bonham’s LZE, here’s what you can expect to see.

Edmonton, Saturday Oct 16, 2010

Rock and Roll
Celebration Day
I Can’t Quit You Babe
Your Time is Gonna Come
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
Dazed and Confused
Lemon Song
Moby Dick

----- Intermission* -----

Good Times, Bad Times**
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Black Dog
When the Levee Breaks
The Ocean
Over the Hills and Far Away
I’m Gonna Crawl
Stairway to Heaven
Kashmir

---- Encore ----

Immigrant Song
Whole Lotta Love

The setlist is more fluid than might be expected. Some songs seem to move around a bit, and expect others to be added at a later date.***

*Thank You is in the first set, but placing is undetermined
**Good Times, Bad Times was added Oct 12th in Edmonton, the fourth show of the tour.
*** Tangerine is a possibility to be added to later shows.

Stephen LeBlanc, How's the Tour Going?

Last couple of shows have been fantastic

I'll say:



Good Times, Bad Times was from Winnipeg last night. After a brief intermission, it begins the second set.

Later in the set:



A couple of very solid reviews have also come in. First the Regina Leader-Post has a review of Saturday nights show in the town Keith Richards said "rhymes with fun".

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience was an entertaining show, though it obviously paled in comparison to the real thing. Yet, that was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as Bonham smiled largely and had his voice break multiple times when reminiscing about his father.

In reality, the night was a celebration of a deceased father and a son's need to reconnect with what had been lost. In fact, that was never more clear than in Bonham's wise words at the end of the night.

"Thanks. You've made this a very special night. Remember ---love the ones you're with."

Saturday in Edmonton was reviewed in the Edmonton Sun by somebody who knows the real thing:

I saw Zeppelin twice, in 1977 and 2007. And while this was no substitute, it was close enough for rock ’n’ roll. In fact, these guys probably play Zeppelin tunes with more reverence than Zeppelin did in later years...

So who cares if they're a Zep tribute band? They might just be the best one on the planet. After all, one of them has actually played with Zeppelin. And if you closed your eyes and listened very on Sunday, the tune would come to you at last. You could easily forget you were an old IT guy and imagine you were still a young hippie, savouring the real thing back in the day.

*Both videos are professionally shot and released by JBLZE.

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience: Stephen LeBlanc

On the blogs that have attempted to track the musicians in Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience (JBLZE), Stephen LeBlanc has been noted as a keyboard , second guitar and steel guitar player. He describes himself as a multi instrumentalist who does “vocals, keyboards, various guitars, bass, some drums.”

He first came to the publics attention on alternative band A Fine Frenzy’s first album, 2007’s One Cell in the Sea, where he is listed as playing piano, keyboards and vibraphone (a keyboard like percussion instrument), although he himself says he was the piano player on “many of her signature recordings.“

"I'm proud of what I accomplished in that project,“ he says. “I had a lot to do with creating her sound, even more so live.“

On their second album, last years Bomb in a Bird Cage, he is again credited as a keyboard player: piano, keyboards, Hammond Organ and Hammond B3.

While keyboards is his primary instrument, steel guitar is the family business.

Thirty Seven year old Stephen LeBlanc came from what biographers like to call, a musical family. His father was pedal steel guitar player Leo LeBlanc. Leo LeBlanc played with Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, Mac Davis, Carole King. Melissa Manchester, The Osmonds, Merle Haggart, Clarence Carter and The Wallflowers among others. He was a member of Walker’s touring band for three years, and Prines for two. He also played on many sessions at Stax records, Muscle Shoals and Sun Records.

Stephen told the following story on a pedal steel website last year:

Dylan and the Wallflowers were showcasing and playing gigs looking for a new record deal. Leo sat in with the band one night, everyone loved the sound, he was invited to sit in on more gigs and eventually became a full-fledged member of the band. The Wallflowers signed with Interscope and started recording the album (Bringing Down the Horse).

While working on the Wallflowers album, his father was diagnosed with cancer. He died  in 1995, age 57. Jakob Dylan dedicated The Wallflowers album Bringing Down the Horse is to Leo LeBlanc.

Born in 1972 in Memphis, Stephen began noodling on the family piano when he was 5. His “musical family,” included some older brothers. His first band was with the older brothers, playing songs such as Free’s Alright Now.

When Stephen was 11 the family moved to Nashville. He enrolled in the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, “were Roland Schneller taught him how to keep from damaging his fingers while playing fast.”

The family later moved to Waltham MA, where he took weekend classes at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Soon the family was on the move again, from Atlantic to Pacific: Massachusetts to Los Angeles. Stephen was 15 and enrolled in the LA Jazz Workshop, where he got to play with Louis Bellson, something he describes as, “one of the most amazing experiences of his life.”

He then went to the Dick Grove School of Music were he was taught how to “learn any song faster than most anyone else.” He played $50 sessions, in top 40 country bands, with R&B singers and heavy metal bands, but success eluded him.

Stephen did a lot of work with hip-hop rap artists during the 90’s, “making beats and playing keyboards.” He toured with a Tex-Mex country band, Rio Grande and toured with his dad on a project for Curb Records called Jackson Claypool.

At 23 he quit the music business, quit piano, bought a guitar and took an office job. Married and the parent of one son, now 7, Stephen spent his time doing his best Hendrix impression and recording. During his ten years in the corporate jungle, he recorded his first album, SLEB (Stephen LeBlanc’s Eclectic Band), never expecting to make any money off the project.

He is a big jazz fan and had his own jazz fusion group, as well as performed in many jazz gigs. He has even occasionally gigged as a drummer.

Stephen LeBlanc was recommended to Jason Bonham for the Led Zeppelin Experience tour by his friend, bass player Michael Devin. He and Devin have previously done a blues project together and Devin has played a gig with A Fine Frenzy. Of course, they currently play together in Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience.

On playing Led Zeppelin music, LeBlanc says:

My personal connection to Led Zeppelin is mostly as a huge fan of the music, my older brother and I have listened to everything Zeppelin we could find since we were babies. I say this because, though my professional experience is very different from Zeppelin, I never stopped listening or being inspired by their music. JPJ is easily my biggest influence when it comes to rock keyboards.

The tour is going beautiful so far.

The Led Zeppelin Experience finishes off it's Western Canada leg in Regina Saskatchewan tonight, and Winnipeg Manitoba tomorrow.