Robert Plant Band of Joy Tour 2011

[Rock Historian]

Robert Plant - "That's the Way" 2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest

Would have been cool to meet some of my fellow LEDZEPPELIN.com friends...oh well, maybe next time

I think Plant was hoping for Jeff Beck to emerge from backstage and do a Jam to end the show, as Plant comments..... but it never happened.

I thought Plants set was a step ahead of Jeff's.

[Rock Historian]

You can't be serious.

Have you been diagnosed with osteoporosis ? If not, you'd better get a second opinion.

Yes ,dear smart ass, I am serious...and I know my music. Jeff did NO improv jamming at all. His bass player had more of a showcase solo than him. He played within the framework of the song, but nothing out the box. Nothing that proved to me or the audience as a whole that he is one of the greatest living guitarist. I know he is great , but for someone just discovering him he didn't make that sort of impression. Many people thought that around me, I wasnt the only one who felt that way. It was just missing something. The most exciting song he did was "higher" with guest Trombone Shorty..that was the highlight-would you argue that fact? I'll tell you what- His Inductiion into the R&R hall of fame that Page jammed on was miles ahead of his entire show at Jazz Fest..and yes-Plants set was better still...you have your ears..i have mine-leave it alone and enjoy the site

[beatbo]

Yes ,dear smart ass, I am serious...and I know my music. Jeff did NO improv jamming at all. His bass player had more of a showcase solo than him. He played within the framework of the song, but nothing out the box. Nothing that proved to me or the audience as a whole that he is one of the greatest living guitarist. I know he is great , but for someone just discovering him he didn't make that sort of impression. Many people thought that around me, I wasnt the only one who felt that way. It was just missing something. The most exciting song he did was "higher" with guest Trombone Shorty..that was the highlight-would you argue that fact? I'll tell you what- His Inductiion into the R&R hall of fame that Page jammed on was miles ahead of his entire show at Jazz Fest..and yes-Plants set was better still...you have your ears..i have mine-leave it alone and enjoy the site

i'm with you onthis: BOJ was the best show of the day. i loved beck, but robert moved people, and not just zep fans.

i'm sorry i missed ya, rock!

[Rock Historian]

i'm with you onthis: BOJ was the best show of the day. i loved beck, but robert moved people, and not just zep fans.

i'm sorry i missed ya, rock!

Same here brother..next time, the locals gotta get together that found a common place here....

[Bayougal65]

I had so much fun seeing Robert and the BOJ at Jazz Fest! Everyone I talked to commented on how at ease and warm the set was! He is an artist's artist! What a beautiful day in my musical memory!

[SuperDave]

Robert has always known how to work the crowd.

[Silver Rider]

Jazz Fest Report and Photos: Day 1

By Geoffrey Himes

Photos by Mark C. Austin

pastemagazine.com

[Deborah J]

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Encore from MerleFest 2011

Houses of the Holy, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy from MerleFest 2011

[Silver Rider]

Robert Plant at Merlefest 2011, May 1st 2011

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MerleFest 24 in review

By Ryan Snyder

yesweekly.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Setlist

Misty Mountain Hop

Houses Of The Holy

Black Country Woman

Satisfied Mind

Encore

Your Long Journey

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Misty Mountain Hop

Black Country Woman

[Ludwig_Paiste]

http://youtu.be/WzfMk6JFMvs

http://youtu.be/1UcGqSzEA64

Would have been cool to meet some of my fellow LEDZEPPELIN.com friends...oh well, maybe next time

I think Plant was hoping for Jeff Beck to emerge from backstage and do a Jam to end the show, as Plant comments..... but it never happened.

I thought Plants set was a step ahead of Jeff's.

Hey guys,

I too was at Jazz Fest. The main reason I went was to see Jeff Beck. He is playing better than ever! However, his setlist was almost identical to the show he played last year at Jazz Fest. I was kind of disappointed. I love Narada Michael Walden. The bass played is real good too. His keyboardist is just okay. I wish he had Jan Hammer or Tony Hymas on tour with him.

I was very disappointed in Band Of Joy. I heard Black Dog and absolutely could not stand what Robert did to that song. I had to leave and go get something to eat!

I watched a little more of his show, but really could not stand watching this band destroy songs I have loved for over 30-40 years. Was that Terry Reid in the band? I have no idea. All this show did was make me want genuine Led Zeppelin reunion tour with Jason (and only Jason) on drums.

But I doubt it will happen. For some reason, Robert won't do it.

I wonder what Jeff thought of Band Of Joy. Maybe what he thinks of them explains why he did not sit in with them.

[annam]

waiting for my chance to finally see Robert and the band of Joy (July 19, 2011, a memorable date for me, also because it is the first time I'll see robert live), I'm reading and rereading your posts ... ... many of you have said that he and the band are very hot, that Robert, as imagined, is very good at engaging the public, so I wonder how it interacts with people? for example, the lineup of songs performed is fixed, or you can make requests? Well, about LZ songs played by band of joy, I would like if they play "Gallow's Pole, " "When The Levee Breaks, " "Ramble On"and, of course, "rock and roll", because these are the songs, in my humble opinion, better suited to be revisited in the style of the band of joy, and in fact I see that Robert has incorporated them in the lineup of many of the concerts you have already seen ..... I also read some negative comments just about the performance of LZ songs, because for many of you is a distortion of these songs we love so much in their original version.... well I don't know if I'll feel in this way or not, I think that in any case he is a great artist and I will enjoy the concert!!!!!!

[SuperDave]

waiting for my chance to finally see Robert and the band of Joy (July 19, 2011, a memorable date for me, also because it is the first time I'll see robert live), I'm reading and rereading your posts ... ... many of you have said that he and the band are very hot, that Robert, as imagined, is very good at engaging the public, so I wonder how it interacts with people? for example, the lineup of songs performed is fixed, or you can make requests? Well, about LZ songs played by band of joy, I would like if they play "Gallow's Pole, " "When The Levee Breaks, " "Ramble On"and, of course, "rock and roll", because these are the songs, in my humble opinion, better suited to be revisited in the style of the band of joy, and in fact I see that Robert has incorporated them in the lineup of many of the concerts you have already seen ..... I also read some negative comments just about the performance of LZ songs, because for many of you is a distortion of these songs we love so much in their original version.... well I don't know if I'll feel in this way or not, I think that in any case he is a great artist and I will enjoy the concert!!!!!!

Don't think Robert will take requests. He doesn't really work that way. He's been playing 3 of the 4 songs you mentioned, with the exception of "Levee". He puts on a great show and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as I did a few months ago.

[Jahfin]

Don't think Robert will take requests. He doesn't really work that way.

I don't really know of any performer that does, at least on the scale of someone like Plant. If they do, they make it known beforehand. I saw Jackson Browne doing his solo acoustic thing a couple of years ago and he took requests but that was the nature of that entire tour. While it was cool to see him do that it was also a bit disconcerting because most performers prefer to not have requests shouted at them.

[SuperDave]

I don't really know of any performer that does, at least on the scale of someone like Plant. If they do, they make it known beforehand. I saw Jackson Browne doing his solo acoustic thing a couple of years ago and he took requests but that was the nature of that entire tour. While it was cool to see him do that it was also a bit disconcerting because most performers prefer to not have requests shouted at them.

If they were to do so, it would have to be in a small club where things like this are more permissible.

[Silver Rider]

Next...June 8 San Diego, California, Copley Symphony Hall

I guess he's just not the nostalgia circuit type.

Photo - New Orleans Jazzfest

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Live review: Robert Plant and Band of Joy at the Greek Theatre

-- Randy Lewis

latimesblogs.latimes.com

Hand it to Robert Plant: The man knows how to pick a band.Right now it’s the Band of Joy, the rootsy ensemble led by Americana music hero Buddy Miller that largely lived up to its name at the first stop of its maiden tour Saturday at the Greek Theatre.

Miller is the one carryover from the Band of Joy’s extraordinary predecessor that Plant and collaborator Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett cooked up for the multiple Grammy-winning album “Raising Sand,” whose Greek tour stop in 2008 was one of the most scintillating concerts in recent years.

Then there was Plant’s '80s outfit the Honeydrippers, an early excursion into roots rock and R&B that allowed the curly-locked singer to delve into the music of his youth.

And, for all we know, there may have been another of note along the way.

OK, OK, so Led Zeppelin does cast a rather large shadow, but Plant has shown no qualms about either stepping away from it, or from occasionally traipsing back through it when the mood strikes.

The Greek audience was, not surprisingly, heavily laced with classic rock fans who erupted enthusiastically every time Plant made the Zep connection, to the extent that their reaction nearly became a running gag Saturday: Zeppelin song? We’re on our feet. Non-Zep tune? We’ll sit this one out. Undoubtedly, there are a lot of those fans who will never forgive him for turning down offer after offer for a Zeppelin reunion because he prefers the musical path he’s on to the nostalgia circuit.

Yet the 62-year-old rock god embraced the reality of his world with zeal, opening the show with a haunting folk-blues treatment of Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” pretty much the same arrangement he and Krauss used to appease the oldies-hungry fans in the house. Reframing that, "Ramble On" and, especially, "Houses of the Holy," away from amped-up heavy rock of yore placed songs from the Zeppelin canon more fully within the context of the archetypal folk explorations to which he's devoting himself now.

From there they touched on about half the songs from last year’s “Band of Joy” album which, like “Raising Sand,” mines the deep wellspring of elemental American and, to a lesser extent, Celtic folk music traditions. Plant fronts the group that also includes singer-guitarist Patty Griffin, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino, but also generously shared the spotlight, giving solo time to Miller, Griffin and Scott.

Plant obviously cherishes this music, whether it’s a traditional spiritual such as “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” an eloquent alt-country masterwork like Townes Van Zandt’s “Harm’s Swift Way” or a lullaby as truly sweet as Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance.”

Band of Joy, the album and the band, is generally more earthbound than his pairing with Krauss on “Raising Sand,” which consistently aspired to a higher musical and spiritual plane. One isn’t inherently better, and the terrestrial component Plant and Miller emphasize in Band of Joy’s material makes it possibly easier for mere mortals to relate to.

He’s still primarily interested in wrestling with the stuff that matters: the fleetingness of temporal life and the possibilities of what may exist beyond it, the challenge of finding and holding onto love, the notion that perhaps with all the technological advances humankind has made over the centuries that something of greater value has been lost.

In that respect, it’s no surprise the thought of singing “Whole Lotta Love” one more time doesn’t hold much thrill for Plant.

The one hitch in the show, however, was Griffin. She’s a wonderful songwriter in her own right, and her voice blends beautifully with Plant’s still pliant instrument. But she remained disconnected from her would-be partner for most of the night. It was almost an hour into the set before she even directly locked eyes with Plant, who seemed to be yearning for an equal, as he had with Krauss, not simply a hired gun singer who could serve up studio-perfect harmonies.

That made it more of a Band of Pleasance during the portions of the show in which Plant leaned heavily on Griffin. But the joy surfaced -- in the music and on Plant’s face -- when he engaged with Miller for one of his gritty guitar excursions, or with Scott, who brought a strong country-bluegrass foundation both to his vocals and his contributions on mandolin, banjo, acoustic and steel guitar.

In those moments, Plant seemed to inhabit Goethe’s answer to the question, “Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.”

There was a fair amount of joy in the opening set from brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson in their two-man edition of their North Mississippi Allstars. Guitarist Luther spun out lots of raw, blues-drenched guitar lines over the primal rhythms Cody laid down on his drum kit in a performance, although it would have been more powerful within the cozier confines of a blues bar than the wide-open spaces of an amphitheater.

[SteveAJones]

This Saturday and Sunday (May 7-8), RollingStone.com will stream highlights from the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The high-definition webcast will start at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT and include performances by Jimmy Buffett, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant, Wilco, The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Lucinda Williams, and many more. See complete lineup below.

http://www.rollingstone.com/jazzfest

Saturday May 7

Jumpin' Johnny Sansone

Fredy Omar con su Banda

Renard Poche'

Soul Rebels Brass Band

We Landed on the Moon!

The Dixie Cups

Zachary Richard

George Porter Jr. & Runnin' Pardners

Wayne Toups & Zydecajun

Jon Cleary

Bonerama

Jeff Beck

Galactic

Wilco

Arcade Fire

Sunday May 8

Gov't Majik - the Dirty South Arfo-Beat Arkestra

Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes

Vivaz!

Russell Batiste, Jr. and Friends

Anders Osborne

Marcia Ball

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Cowboy Mouth

Voice of the Wetlands All Stars

Lucinda Williams

Irma Thomas

Better Than Ezra

Allen Toussaint

Robert Plant & The Band of Joy

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band

The Neville Brothers

[SteveAJones]

Robert Plant killed softly with Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin at Preservation Hall

Published: Saturday, April 30, 2011

By Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune

Last things first: Robert Plant sang at Preservation Hall Friday night. If all you knew about the singer was that he played his chest hair as the frontman for Led Zeppelin, you probably wouldn't have even recognized the guy.

Chris Granger / The Times-PicayuneFormer Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant performed

with Patty Griffin on the Acura Stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Friday

- and again at Preservation Hall Friday night.

Plant's latest group, Band of Joy, played New Orleans Jazz Fest earlier in the day, and two of its members, Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin, were performing a late set with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Plant showed up at the end of it. In short order he hushed the room with a song that was the precise antonym of everything in his sizable back catalog of music either explicitly about or suggestive of having his lemon squeezed.

It was "Nature Boy," the jazz standard made famous by Nat King Cole, and Plant killed it softly, owning the lyric -- "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" - with a scarred purr as tender as Zeppelin was virile. Plant won't be confused for Billie Holiday any day soon, but the physical effort it took for him to succumb to the song was poignant.

Plant lightened the mood considerably with two more raucous numbers, both of which required the full weight of the fleshed-out Preservation Hall Jazz Band: "Rich Woman," which the rhythm section fixed with a tribal beat more in keeping with Li'l Millett and the Creoles's original than the moody version Plant recorded with Alison Krauss, and Willie Dixon's "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover."

That the performances were clearly under-rehearsed didn't matter. They underscored Plant's remarkably humble self-reinvention as a menschy music enthusiast who just happens to be a rock god. In recent years, he's surrounded himself with musicians to whom he has no problem playing second fiddle. And perhaps the coolest thing about Friday night was that it didn't belong to Plant.

It belonged to the P.H.J.B., who has undergone a reinvention of their own in recent years as crackerjack backing band that manages to be musically nimble without ever totally abandoning their sound. Their agility was evident from the moment Miller took the stage to sing "I Ain't Got Nobody." He credited the song to minstrel singer Emmett Miller and opened it up for the house band's players, most notably clarinetist Charlie Garbriel, who matched Miller's achy warble with an equally achy solo.

Miller is a top-shelf vocalist and guitar player who looks like a small town car mechanic with a clothes allowance and sounds like James Carr might have were he a white kid from Appalachia. He's also a practicing Christian who leaned into "That Lucky Old Sun" like the haunting spiritual it is. The band pulsed tastefully behind him, like a church organ.

Griffin played a background role for much of the evening, but she proved more than up for the challenge when she stepped to center stage. Backed by tinkling piano and muted trumpet, she drew on a jazz singer's sense of timing for "I'm Gonna Miss You When You're Gone." It's a toss-up as to which was more heart-stopping, her delivery of the words "I know you don't believe that/You're wrong," or the brief but eternal-sounding pause she inserted between the two lines.

Miller turned the casual nature of the performance into an ongoing comedy skit. He admitted he chose to eat instead of rehearse - in a nod to New Orleans food, he said "it was an easy choice" -- and he never could seem to find the right cord for plugging in his guitars. But the self-effacement wasn't necessary. I gather Miller spoke for everyone who pressed into the tiny room when he said to the band, "You guys sound incredible."

http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2011/04/robert_plant_killed_softly_wit.html

[SteveAJones]

Robert Plant rambled on at the New Orleans Jazz Fest

Published: Friday, April 29, 2011

By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

Deep into his closing Acura Stage set on Friday at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Robert Plant sang, "Could it be you've found another game to play?"

Chris Granger / The Times-PicayuneRobert Plant performs on the Acura Stage with his

Band of Joy at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on Friday, April 29, 2011.

He has indeed found another game to play. Instead of cashing in on a Led Zeppelin reunion, he has, over the past few years, embarked on a road less trampled underfoot. With a variety of first-rate players, he has explored the music of Appalachia and its common root with the Celtic music that informed a certain quartet from the Misty Mountains. His "Raising Sand" collaboration with Alison Krauss yielded a hit album and a slew of accolades. He has continued that exploration with his current Band of Joy, featuring alt-country singer Patty Griffin and Nashville guitar innovator Buddy Miller, a holdover from the "Raising Sand" project.

Even moreso than Plant's 2008 Jazz Fest show with Krauss, his Friday set found common ground with his past, even as he and his fellow travelers rendered it even more haunted. In "That's the Way," Miller nursed preening and keening solos as Griffin strummed an acoustic over drummer Marco Giovino's understated brushstrokes. (The decades-old line about "all the fish that lay in dirty water dying" could well have been written about last year's BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.)

Dressed down in a dark T-shirt and jeans, Plant was in fine voice; his Led pipes are still solid. He was generous with the spotlight. Darrell Scott, the not-so-secret weapon who conjured spooky steel guitar solos and picked a mandolin, stepped out front to sing lead on his "A Satisfied Mind"; Plant retreated to the rear of the stage, a bit player in a brace of big, bold country harmonies. Griffin sang more effectively on "A Satisfied Mind" than in her own showcase; she is not quite the foil for Plant that Krauss was.

For the Plant solo hit "In the Mood," Scott's pedal steel droned as Giovino struck floor toms with mallets. The ensemble revived "Please Read the Letter" that was faithful to the "Raising Sand" rendition.

At least a half-dozen Zeppelin chestnuts turned up in the set, starting with the opening "Black Dog." "Misty Mountain Hop" passed through a particularly haunted hollow. ("Those misty mountains are actually up around Seattle," Plant quipped.) A revamped, utterly engaging "Houses of the Holy" swung. In "Ramble On," the pastoral verses gave way to a bombs-away chorus; the arrangement also featured a bouzouki solo.

In the encore, Plant gave a shout-out to Jeff Beck, who appeared on the same stage earlier Friday. Plant noted that he and Beck "have one or two people in common," a reference to Beck's fellow Yardbird, Jimmy Page. Alas, Beck did not materialize for a hoped-for collaboration at the Fair Grounds.

Where his particular brand of electric guitar heroics would have fit in this Appalachian drone is uncertain. A final romp through "Gallow's Pole" included a banjo, Byron House strumming a bow across his upright bass, and a vintage yelp from Plant.

Earlier, he described this third act of his career as "miraculous." At the very least, it's a game he's winning.

http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2011/04/robert_plant_dug_deep_into_spo.html

[SteveAJones]

Robert Plant Dives Into Led Zeppelin Tunes During New Orleans Jazz Fest 2011

Posted on Apr 30th 2011 12:20PM by Melinda Newman

Getty Images

His days as a Byronic love god may be long past him, but Robert Plant proudly wore his Led Zeppelin past on his T-shirt sleeve during a stirring 90-minute set to close the first day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Friday (April 29).

Dressed in a blue T-shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots, with a chartreuse feather hanging from his right belt loop, a relaxed Plant included no fewer than six Led Zeppelin tunes in his set with his new outfit, Band of Joy, including show opener, a shaggy 'Black Dog.' In some cases, the Americana roots collective turned the Zep songs on their sides, such as on the countrified 'Houses of the Holy' or the spooky 'Black Country Woman,' bolstered by Byron House on upright bass. Other times, they replicated them in fairly direct fashion, as with the sinewy 'Ramble On.'

Much of the rest of the set drew from Plant's latest album, 'Band of Joy,' including 'Angel Dance,' a gorgeous take on Richard and Linda Thompson's 'House of Cards' with Plant, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott and singer-songwriter Patty Griffin's three-part harmony soaring high above the melody; and a hypnotic, dark 'Monkey,' originally recorded by Low.

The Band of Joy is a jubilant one indeed with a staggering amount of talent, including bassist House, Scott, drummer Marco Giovino, and Griffin, who serves as Plant's main vocal foil during the show, and producer-guitarist-artist Buddy Miller, whom Plant referred to as "the captain of our ship."

And he's steering a seaworthy vessel, seemingly capable of backing Plant on whatever part of his storied career he chooses to draw from. Giovino's thunderous drumming turned Plant solo track, 'I'm in the Mood' into a tribal stomp, while Griffin beautifully played the part of Alison Krauss on a delicate version of 'Please Read The Letter,' from Plant and Krauss's Grammy-snaring 'Raising Sand.'

After exhorting the audience to 'Be Happy' and delivering a shout out to Jeff Beck, who had preceded Plant on the Acura Stage, Plant closed with a snaky take on Led Zep's 'Gallows Pole.'

http://www.spinner.com/2011/04/30/robert-plant-new-orleans-jazz-fest-2011/

[beatbo]

waiting for my chance to finally see Robert and the band of Joy (July 19, 2011, a memorable date for me, also because it is the first time I'll see robert live), I'm reading and rereading your posts ... ... many of you have said that he and the band are very hot, that Robert, as imagined, is very good at engaging the public, so I wonder how it interacts with people? for example, the lineup of songs performed is fixed, or you can make requests? Well, about LZ songs played by band of joy, I would like if they play "Gallow's Pole, " "When The Levee Breaks, " "Ramble On"and, of course, "rock and roll", because these are the songs, in my humble opinion, better suited to be revisited in the style of the band of joy, and in fact I see that Robert has incorporated them in the lineup of many of the concerts you have already seen ..... I also read some negative comments just about the performance of LZ songs, because for many of you is a distortion of these songs we love so much in their original version.... well I don't know if I'll feel in this way or not, I think that in any case he is a great artist and I will enjoy the concert!!!!!!

he has been doing 'ramble on' and 'gallows pole' so your chances are very good there. my fave zep tune was 'that's the way' at jazz fest. so very poignant..

[Aquamarine]

I agree, That's the Way was a wonderful moment. I loved these particular arrangements of all the Zep songs (except Black Dog, but then the only version of that I like is the studio version! But still, I think the person who walked out because of it ended up missing a real treat.)

I don't really know of any performer that does, at least on the scale of someone like Plant. If they do, they make it known beforehand.

Springsteen does, but as you say, he makes it known beforehand--it's become like a "stump the band" part of the show. (And quite possibly not as spontaneous as it appears!)

[Rock Historian]

Hey guys,

I too was at Jazz Fest. The main reason I went was to see Jeff Beck. He is playing better than ever! However, his setlist was almost identical to the show he played last year at Jazz Fest. I was kind of disappointed. I love Narada Michael Walden. The bass played is real good too. His keyboardist is just okay. I wish he had Jan Hammer or Tony Hymas on tour with him.

I was very disappointed in Band Of Joy. I heard Black Dog and absolutely could not stand what Robert did to that song. I had to leave and go get something to eat!

I watched a little more of his show, but really could not stand watching this band destroy songs I have loved for over 30-40 years. Was that Terry Reid in the band? I have no idea. All this show did was make me want genuine Led Zeppelin reunion tour with Jason (and only Jason) on drums.

But I doubt it will happen. For some reason, Robert won't do it.

I wonder what Jeff thought of Band Of Joy. Maybe what he thinks of them explains why he did not sit in with them.

I respect your opinion man, even if you didn't dig it. I don't think it's proper to bash someone because they disagree. But all I will say is that Robert has been doing Zep tunes in different arrangements for years now, so it's no suprise that Black Dog or any other Zep tune ended up the way it did. Some people (as yourself) are used to the way it was...but for others it's easier to accept the future Robert and let go of the past. I personally like the new twist on the songs. And I expected that from him...no shocker-and they were done tastefully and within the context of the style of music that was before us that day. Take Care man

[SuperDave]

Thanks for the reviews Steve.

Nice perspective on Robert, Rock Historian. Agree!

[The Pagemeister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTa9rMOsdSg

[CIAFTOG]

Hello all, this is my first post. I had the privilege of seeing Robert Plant and several members of the BOJ play last Friday night at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. I saw the review posted above, and it makes several good points. This was my first opportunity to see Plant play live and it was amazing. For those unaware, Preservation Hall seats about 50 or so people. I was sitting on a bench in the front row, maybe five or six feet from the performers. To say that Mr. Plant is enjoying this renaissance is an understatement. According to one of the Preservation Hall staff, Plant had wanted to sing "Nature Boy" live for years, but never felt he had an intimate enough room to do so. I guess Preservation Hall was small enough and felt right. He was clearly having a great time interacting with the musicians and the audience, and made a great effort in what was an impromptu show. I used to be on the bandwagon with those who felt jilted that he won't revisit a Zeppelin reunion, but seeing him doing his thing, I have come to a different conclusion. I'd still love a reunion tour to happen, but at least he is happy for now doing what he wants. Plus, he gets whatever Zeppelin gratification he needs doing the revised numbers he does. I have a couple of poor cellphone pictures of the event. Would it be in bad taste, a rules violation, or an invasion of privacy in some way to post one if anyone cares? Thanks and I hope to contribute on the forum from time to time.