ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SHAPE SHIFTERS

In the past couple of years, Robert Plant has left a few great bands in his wake, one of whom was Led Zeppelin.

After the incredibly successful one-off Led Zeppelin reunion concert from 2007, he left huge, multi-millon dollar deals for a larger scale reunion on the table to go off and tour with Alison Krauss.

Of course, that ended up working out for him: the Raising Sand album won six Grammys, sold a ton, and redefined him as a more mature (but not "adult contemporary") artist. Of course, there had to be a lot of pressure for them to follow up that classic album, but Robert bailed on that one too, to form the Band Of Joy with Buddy Miller from the Raising Sand touring band, and Patty Griffin, whom Buddy was producing at the time.

That was a really cool album, but again, Robert has moved on to form a new band, The Sensational Shape Shifters.  I don't know when the new album is coming out, but Plant made a very interesting move: on July 12, he and his band did a gig in London, and released it as a downloadable live album the next day.

This sounds like his most wild band yet.  I loved the band will Alison Krauss, but it was pretty musically conservative, as many T-Bone Burnett productions are (and I love Burnett's productions). I loved Band Of Joy as well, but it was like a harder edged version of the Krauss band. But bringing back guitarist Justin Adams, who worked with him on the Mighty Rearranger album, brings back the non-anglo/world music vibe that he hasn't had for a while. There are some really great versions of Zeppelin songs on this live album.   I'm definitely looking forward to the new studio album, which will be made up of mostly originals.

BEST OF 2010 - #5 - ROBERT PLANT "BAND OF JOY"

People asked, how could Robert Plant possibly walk away from his collaboration with Allison Krauss to do another solo album? Their album Raising Sand, won six Grammys over two years, sold over a million records in the US and was highly acclaimed. It even seemed to accomplish what Robert couldn't do on his own for over two decades: take him out of Led Zeppelin's shadow. It must have been tempting to do a second duo album.

The thing is, they did try, and it wasn't working. Keep in mind, Robert Plant is the guy who turned down probably well into the eight figures for a Zeppelin reunion tour to work with Krauss.

I interviewed Plant eight years ago or so, and he told me "I ain't got much time, I can't mess around," meaning he didn't want to waste time on projects if he wasn't 110% behind them. So, rest assured, when he does an album, he means it. If it were about the money, he'd be singing Zeppelin songs and making millions of bucks. He follows the muse these days, period.

So when things didn't work out this time with Krauss (he has said the door is open to work together again), he put together a new band with an old name: Band Of Joy, the group he and John Bonham played in before Zeppelin. He collaborated with the great Buddy Miller (who played guitar in Plant/Krauss' touring group) for the Band Of Joy album.  Where Raising Sand was almost a reverent museum piece of semi-obscure Americana, Band Of Joy sees Robert bringing his west coast psychedelic influences to the party. The touring band features Buddy and also the incredible singer Patty Griffin.  I saw one of their first US shows.  The show floored me. The album does also. I know some of the source material on the album (like Raising Sand, it is mainly covers). Los Lobos, Richard Thompson, Townes Van Zant. But there's lots of really obscure songs, that Robert really brings to life. Like Raising Sand, this is an album you don't have to be a Zeppelin fan to enjoy.

Check out: "Angel Dance," "House Of Cards," "Silver Rider," "Falling In Love Again," "Monkey," "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down."

ROBERT PLANT IS RELEASING A SOLO ALBUM?

Everyone knows that Robert Plant is tired of answering "Will you be getting back together with Led Zeppelin?" But I wonder how he will feel about being asked about a reunion with Alison Krauss? After their incredibly successful, classic, 6-time Grammy winning 2007 album, Raising Sand, I think the obvious thing to do would be to record a follow-up. But now word comes via Led Zeppelin News that Robert's next release, It's Rude To Say No, will be a solo album. It seems like it is in the vein of Raising Sand, with lots of traditional songs on it.  It's produced by the great Buddy Miller, who was in the backing band on the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss tour (Robert guested on Buddy & Julie Miller's album, Written In Chalk, last year). More on this as I hear about it!

In other Robert Plant news, he has a charity gig scheduled at Abbey Road Studios to benefit Cancer Research UK. Plant will be joined by another American singer at this show, Beth Neilsen Chapman. Very odd choice, she's kind of like an adult pop singer. She does have one song that I love, "Sand and Water." Anyway, find out more about the gig (but not the album) at Robert Plant's website.