U.S. tour dates for Plant, Krauss extend through July

Tickets to a newly announced batch of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss shows throughout the United States are soon going on sale.

The performers are scheduled to appear at six shows in the South this April, before returning to the States in June fresh off a European tour including dates in England.

The newly announced shows are to take place this June and continue through July 1.

Newly announced tour dates consist of 18 shows in 17 cities mostly throughout the Mid-Atlantic and California.

Among previously announced dates are a pair of nights in Louisville, Ky., to open the tour. Tickets to both shows have sold out. Also previously announced is a performance at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee, to take place June 15.

Their complete U.S. concert itinerary as now announced is as follows:

• Saturday, April 19 – Louisville, Ky. – The Palace Theatre
• Sunday, April 20 – Louisville, Ky. - The Palace Theatre
• Tuesday, April 22 – Knoxville, Tenn. – Knoxville Civic Coliseum
• Wednesday, April 23 – Chattanooga, Tenn. – Memorial Auditorium
• Friday, April 25 – New Orleans, La. – Jazz & Heritage Festival
• Saturday, April 26 – Birmingham, Ala. – BJCC Arena
• Monday, June 2 – Roanoke, Va. – Roanoke Civic Center
• Wednesday, June 4 – Uncasville, Conn. – Mohegan Sun
• Thursday, June 5 – Boston, Mass. – Bank Of America Pavilion
• Saturday, June 7 – Canandaigua, N.Y. – CMAC
• Sunday, June 8 – Atlantic City, N.J. – Borgata
• Tuesday, June 10 – New York, N.Y. – Madison Square Garden Theatre
• Friday, June 13 – Columbia, Md. – Merriweather Pavilion
• Saturday, June 14 – Asheville, N.C. – Asheville Civic Center
• Sunday, June 15 – Manchester, Tenn. – Bonnaroo
• Tuesday, June 17 – Detroit, Mich. – Fox Theatre
• Thursday, June 19 – St. Louis, Mo. – Fox Theatre
• Saturday, June 21 – Denver, Colo. – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
• Monday, June 23 - Los Angeles, Calif. - Greek Theatre
• Tuesday, June 24 - Los Angeles, Calif. - Greek Theatre
• Wednesday, June 25 – Santa Barbara, Calif. – Santa Barbara Bowl
• Friday, June 27 – Berkeley, Calif. – Greek Theatre
• Saturday, June 28 – Stateline, Nev. – Harvey's
• Monday, June 30 – San Diego, Calif. – Humphrey's
• Tuesday, July 1 – Phoenix, Ariz. – Dodge Theatre

Rounder Records, their label, expects to announce more tour dates soon. Jimmy Page has said Plant's current touring commitments with Krauss are likely to run until September.

Is anybody who reads this going to Knoxville or Chattanooga? Let me know. I will be there myself!

Plant, Krauss to play at June's Bonnaroo Festival

As a lineup of acts performing at this June's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee is being unveiled, it is confirmed that Robert Plant will perform with his current touring partner, Alison Krauss, in a lineup featuring T-Bone Burnett.

While the past months' rumors of a Led Zeppelin appearance at the festival are being quashed, media sources including the Associated Press and the United Kingdom's Telegraph have mistakenly reported Led Zeppelin was reuniting for Bonnaroo. The Chicago Sun-Times and Telegraph ran corrections after their mistaken pronouncements of a Led Zeppelin set at the festival.

Plant and Krauss, who are listed fifth on the bill currently featured on the front page of Bonnaroo's Web site, are scheduled to perform on June 15, the last day of the four-day festival set to take place in Manchester, Tenn.

Headlining acts topping the bill are rock groups Pearl Jam and Metallica and solo performers Jack Johnson and Kanye West. The all-female tribute act Lez Zeppelin is also scheduled to perform at the annual festival, a fact that seems to be the source of some media outlets' confusion.

Last year's lineup included a one-off onstage collaboration that teamed John Paul Jones with Ben Harper and ?uestlove to play a set of Led Zeppelin numbers. Jones also sat in with various bluegrass acts, including the female string band Uncle Earl, on multiple stages.

One member of Uncle Earl, Abigail Washburn, is slated to appear with her side project, the Sparrow Quartet. This musical project features the highly regarded performer Bela Fleck.

In turn, Fleck is listed among performers taking part in a collaborative act billed as the Bluegrass Allstars. In this act, Fleck is to be joined by such performers as Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton. Also listed on the bill is "a very special acoustic performance by Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Phil Lesh & Teresa Williams."

Theoretically, the presence of such renowned performers, including Plant and Krauss, could be a draw for Jones, who has not been announced as a performer.

Plant and Krauss are scheduled to embark on a transcontinental tour of the United States, opening April 19 with the first of two shows in Louisville, Ky., and continuing with previously announced dates and also an April 25 performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

A leg of their tour is to take place throughout mainland Europe and the United Kingdom, followed by the Bonnaroo Festival and other June and July U.S. shows yet to be announced.

So Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will tour, but what about Led Zeppelin?

A celebratory worldwide reception to the Led Zeppelin reunion concert on Monday -- the first such event of the 21st century, and featuring a fully capable Jason Bonham on drums in place of his late father -- gave fuel to the old will-they-won't-they question that has plagued the band ever since the cruel hand of fate took away one of them.

For perhaps the first time, the question has an answer other than definitely not. They've just appeared onstage and were overwhelmingly successful in recapturing the spirit and the magic of their original incarnation. Each one of them has been quoted, separately, saying the band is playing well and that the future of playing together is possible. So, what's the deal? No official announcement? Have they even made up their own minds yet? Why not keep the momentum going and see what else can be done at this point in time?

The answer is be patient; just wait and see.

One thing that might hold it back -- and this is certainly not the only factor -- is that Robert Plant is too versatile a musician to stick with just one project. The perennial troubadour already has at least one other project on his plate for 2008. Remember, when Led Zeppelin confirmed rumors that it was going to play one show in London to pay tribute to their late mentor, Ahmet Ertegün, it was less than three weeks away from the album release date that introduced the public to the next phase of Plant's career. Indeed, his partnership with Alison Krauss is one he intends to extend beyond only their existing album. Not only will they take their Raising Sand material on the road, as they announced yesterday, but Plant at least once hinted that he and Krauss could be making more studio dates to record a second album together, perhaps next month even.

Already, they are set to spend the month of May touring the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. From this, the logical assumption is that further dates will be in store in the United States, the obvious choice for a bluegrass tour as the music was developed on the American homeland. So, would those shows be in the early spring, or just after the European tour, or some other time? Whatever is implicit here merely puts a temporary limit on the openness of Plant's calendar for outside musical activities.

If only Led Zeppelin didn't have such a versatile singer; he wouldn't be in such high demand! But the simple fact is, folks, he is a versatile singer who, with Alison Krauss, is being energized by a style of music he has heretofore overlooked and performing songs with an approach that is unique in his career. The album came off remarkably well; Raising Sand has been certified Gold by the RIAA and remains high up on Billboard's charts. For a few weeks, it was all I was listening to.

Robert Plant has seldom shied away from a challenge. And he surely realizes bluegrass is not the only possible musical challenge he could be taking on next year. Being the Led Zeppelin singer at the age of 59 is another, a challenge he met head-on for a few hours on Monday.

This development in no way diminishes any chance there is for Led Zeppelin to fly again before audiences in America and elsewhere in 2008 and/or perhaps beyond. In fact, of the rumored concert dates for Led Zeppelin that have been mentioned, the most credible one seems to be the rumored upcoming appearance at the Bonnaroo festival, which takes place this June in Tennessee.

Tacked onto this rumor is the report of Metallica also appearing on the bill, perhaps headlining as one report suggests. (Management for both bands said the report was inaccurate, but it wasn't clear whether they meant the whole thing was or just a minor detail was.) But come on, would Led Zeppelin be playing a festival it wasn't headlining? My opinion: Not in this century! Led Zeppelin might play the festival, but Metallica will not be headlining over Led Zeppelin.

It's interesting to note that the October 2007 "Guitar Heroes" special issue of Q magazine quotes Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett about his appreciation for the live version of "Dazed and Confused" from The Song Remains the Same. "I used to listen to it every day when I was learning how to play guitar," he said. "That's a total guitar wankathon." The magazine ranked it track the second-greatest guitar track of all time, just under the studio version of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog." Hammett continues, "Jimmy Page cycles through so many moods and levels of intensity, then he breaks out the violin bow."

Hammett then shifts into a story about the group that took place when he was 14 years old and another six years away from joining Metallica. "I saw Zeppelin in 1977 at the Day On The Green [in Oakland, California]. It was the show where [promoter] Bill Graham threatened to throw the Zeppelin guys in jail and there was a big argument before they went on. I remember sitting in the crowd for an hour and a half. Someone came onstage and said, Sorry for the delay, something's wrong with Jimmy's double neck guitar. The funny thing is, I could see it off to the side of the stage. I was thinking, Well, there it is. I wonder what's wrong with it?"

Bonnaroo aside, Led Zeppelin dates at Wembley Stadium in London, Madison Square Garden in New York, and Olympic Stadium in Montreal have also been rumored to be booked, in the works or, at the very least, being contemplated. There is certainly a buzz about the chances of Led Zeppelin performing live again in 2008. Just be patient. We must wait and see.

John Paul Jones' busy year

John Paul Jones has had an active year. Having produced the album Waterloo, Tennessee for Uncle Earl, he began the year with several appearances with the group. In London, he appeared on BBC Radio 2's "Bob Harris Country" show alongside Uncle Earl and accompanied them onstage on Jan. 27 at their premiere London performance. Jones and his wife, Mo, allowed them to stay at their home while they were in town. The "g'Earls" were also able to meet all three daughters of Mo and John Paul Jones.

Waterloo, Tennessee was released March 13 while the group was in the middle of a U.S. tour. Jones flew from London to New York to join Uncle Earl onstage on March 14. They caught up again at the end of the following month at the Merlefest bluegrass festival in Wilkesboro, N.C. Throughout the four-day festival held April 26-29, Jones sat in with several acts: Uncle Earl, the Duhks (Video of their "Whole Lotta Love" cover on April 28 can be seen here and here, and audio of the entire set can be purchased here), Donna the Buffalo and the John Cowan Band. Audio of a four-song set he played on April 28 with Uncle Earl's Rayna Gellert can be found online here.

Jones' first billed appearance of the year was in June at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. There, his name was included as part of the scheduled SuperJam alongside solo star Ben Harper and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots. Jones commented in a videotaped interview a few hours before going onstage for the SuperJam that he had not yet met either performer – much less discussed what material they would play or rehearsed anything. It was truly to be an impromptu jam session. In the meantime, however, Bonnaroo held plenty of other activity for Jones, including two sets on the afternoon of June 15. He sat in with Uncle Earl during their 12:30 p.m. spot and with Gillian Welch during her 3:45 p.m. spot (A 10-minute video can be seen here).
Jones then played Bonnaroo's SuperJam set beginning at midnight. As Uncle Earl explained in a newsletter in July:

Well, the truth is, if we went to festivals like Bonnaroo every weekend, we just might be in danger of trying to be actual rock stars. We saw The Police, and Sting took off his shirt at the end of their set. But even better, we got to see our dear John Paul Jones there in his truly native element, rocking out in a midnight "superjam" with Questlove and Ben Harper. The crowd went wild. John took a full ten minutes to walk across the stage and pick up his bass, and he needed that much time for the applause to chill out enough so the band could play music. It was intense and very humbling. To think we had been playing Cluck Old Hen with the man just hours before!!

A one-minute video capturing the beginning of "Good Times Bad Times" can be seen here, although a much better-sounding clip contains the middle of the song including a fine guitar solo from Harper. Michael Ward joined on bass to allow Jones to play lap steel for "When the Levee Breaks," video of which can be seen here. Ten minutes toward the end of "Dazed and Confused" can be seen here while another source captures it all in parts one and two. Ben Harper was interviewed afterward, commenting that he was "dazed and confused" to find himself playing onstage with Jones.

For good measure, Jones also sat in at Bonnaroo with Gov't Mule the following night for the tail end of a set that ended up heavy on Led Zeppelin numbers. (Videos show their set list as including "Moby Dick" riffs at the end of a drum solo before settling into "Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman)" – which can be seen both here and here – followed by "Since I've Been Loving You" and, finally, "No Quarter" – the beginning of this song is here, and more toward the end is here.)

During the week that overlapped July and August, Jones made no less than three concert appearances with Robyn Hitchcock and his band, which also includes Peter Buck of R.E.M. The first two took place in Italy on Monday, July 30 (footage of this show can be seen here and also here), and Wednesday, Aug. 1. The third was at the Down on the Farm festival in Halden, Norway, where – in addition to the Campfire Stage set with Robyn Hitchcock – Jones also played a set on the Main Stage with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

This busy year of jamming continues next week as Jones is set to perform again with Robyn Hitchcock on Sept. 14 at the End of the Road festival in Dorset, England.

TBL in the mail

Issue 18 of the fan magazine Tight But Loose (tblweb.com) has arrived in my mail hot off the presses in the United Kingdom. There's a whole slew of news on Robert Plant activity in 2007, including discussion of some recent and upcoming concert appearances (a new Strange Sensation song is said to have debuted live!), some previously reported info on his album with Alison Krauss to be released in October (pre-orders onsale now), and something that was new to me.

Namely, Plant contributed two tracks that will be included on a compilation to be out in September that will benefit Fats Domino's foundation, established to help rebuild some portions of New Orleans that are still in poor shape from Hurricane Katrina two years ago. TBL details the track names plus where and when they were recorded and with whom. Also, Plant performed a set including both songs and some Elvis Presley songs as well as some Zep material onstage just after recording the album. I'll leave it to Dave Lewis to provide those details rather than repeating them here.

The Plant-Krauss coverage in TBL, while mostly stuff I'd seen elsewhere and even reported myself in the Aug. 20 edition of my newsletter, does reveal one detail that was new to me, although precise details are still pretty sketchy. There is talk of a single to be released from the Raising Sand album, probably prior to its release. Again, I won't reveal here which track Dave Lewis cites as most likely. TBL promises the next issue will go behind the scenes with the making of Raising Sand, and personally, I can't wait!

I did get some song samples from rounder.com and also on the album listing at amazon.com. From what I've heard, I'm particularly excited about the Everly Brothers track, "Gone, Gone, Gone."

Something Plant said in an interview for Rounder's electronic press kit struck me as particularly cool: that it was with this project that he was first paired with a singer of equal talent who could follow him. Look back through his history: Who all else has dared to sing harmony with Robert Plant? It's a short list. But probably nobody has done it as well as Alison Krauss did. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself here. I haven't heard the full album yet! Thirty-second song clips and testaments from those who have heard the album, however, tend to support this statement.

Somebody just politely prodded on John Paul Jones' official discussion group that he's overdue for another update. They are pretty infrequent at that site; the last was in December 2006. Jonesy told me in December 2001, in a four-hour interview conducted in Philadelphia during the "budget tour" with King Crimson that preceded the release of his album The Thunderthief, that he wanted to interact with fans much more often than he was doing at the time. Jonesy soon handed off his Web design and maintenance to Canadian fan Sam Rapallo, the guy behind the Electric Magic site at led-zeppelin.com (yes, I was jealous, but he had a better résumé, and I still no nothing about making Web sites). They launched a new site, and JPJ's resolve to post more often quickly waned. Granted, maybe it's partially because he updates readers almost entirely on his solo activities, like progress on a new studio album that's been in the works for a long time but keeps getting shelved for other projects.

Jonesy has had his hands full, though, no doubt. There was producing Uncle Earl's album, there are bluegrass festivals, there's improving his skills on a mandolin and other assorted string instruments. But he did show up at Bonnaroo, the jam band festival in Tennessee earlier this year. A former coworker of mine texted me from Bonnaroo and told me he was watching JPJ play "Dazed and Confused" onstage. I thought my buddy was just messing with me! But I checked it out, and it's all over Youtube (in two parts). JPJ looked young -- way younger than he should, by comparison to Page and Plant anyway -- and he really appeared to be enjoying himself while revisiting this song he might not have played in front of a crowd since 1975 (verification/corrections, anybody?). Full coverage of this and his other Bonnaroo onstage guest spots in TBL.

The magazine also has a nice rundown of what to expect from the Mothership and TSRTS releases in November. As far as Mothership, I will go out on a limb and agree with Dave Lewis that the real prizes will be on the limited edition versions, especially the collector's edition. I might just happen to have a little inside information on this project myself. Stay tuned to my newsletter for anything I can reveal about that.

While there was nothing particular in this TBL about the ever-elusive Page other than a brief at-press-time mention of his role in testifying in trial against a man in Scotland who subsequently pled guilty to a charge of profiting from the sale of unauthorized live recordings of Led Zeppelin and other bands, TBL promises the next issue will have an interview with Page and info on a biography. Very ambiguous. Do they mean autobiography? It would be very interesting to read Page's own words on himself.

Finally, Dave Lewis discusses those Led Zeppelin reunion rumors and even points to the seemingly errant one-off rumor of a reunited Beck/Page Yardbirds. As for Zep, Lewis feels -- as do I -- that getting together for a once-only tribute show for Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegün is not far-fetched; anything further than that, on the other hand, is unlikely. For one thing, Plant will be touring with Alison Krauss to support Raising Sand! This much is sure.