Monday, September 12, 2011

Will Robert Plant sing again between projects?

Campers arriving next Thursday night in Marfa, Texas, for the 6th Annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, may find out that one of the unnamed "special guests" appearing with Patty Griffin during her set is Robert Plant!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Jason Bonham announces fall Led Zeppelin Experience tour dates; live DVD from Black Country Communion also previewed

Two bits of news have emerged from Jason Bonham's camp this week: one involving an upcoming live release from his group Black Country Communion, and the other involving his other touring outfit, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience.

First, a release date has been set for Black Country Communion's live 2-DVD set. While Bonham toured Europe with bandmates Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian over the summer, they filmed what looks like a pretty decent performance of tracks from their two studio albums.

Titled Live over Europe, the two-DVD set will be available Oct. 24 with pre-orders being taken beginning Sept. 13. It will be Black Country Communion's second release this year, following the June release of Black Country Communion 2. It hasn't even been a full year since the release of their self-titled debut.

There's already a trailer for the DVD, just released on YouTube this week. And anyone going to the band's official website, bccommunion.com, can register to receive a free MP3 download of one of the songs included on the DVD. Downloading begins Sept. 8.


In other Bonham news, his other band has today announced a slew of upcoming tour dates scheduled this fall. Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience began last year as a large-scale vehicle for the drummer to connect with audiences in sharing his own personal story of growing up with the Led Zeppelin family. The stories Bonham tells onstage are complemented by the songs played by hand-selected musicians who aren't lookalikes or even imitators of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.

This will be Bonham's third outing with the Led Zeppelin Experience lineup. They have toured the United States and Canada twice already.

Four of the upcoming live dates were rescheduled from earlier appearances that were postponed at the time due to the illness of singer James Dylan. Tickets from the previously postponed California and Nevada shows will be honored on the night of the rescheduled show.

The four rescheduled dates are:
  • Oct. 14: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, Calif.
  • Oct. 15: Alliente Casino, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • Oct. 17: Crest Theatre, Sacramento, Calif.
  • Oct. 18: Uptown Theatre, Napa Valley, Calif.
Ten other newly announced shows are to take place in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ontario, Canada. The band will be returning to previously entertained markets in some of these cases. The new dates are:
  • Oct. 12: Fox Performing Arts Center, Riverside, Calif.
  • Oct. 13: Fox Theatre, Bakersfield, Calif.
  • Oct. 27: Bergen PAC, Englewood, N.J.
  • Oct. 28: Paramount Theater, Huntington, N.Y.
  • Oct. 29: Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Pa.
  • Oct. 31: Wilbur Theatre, Boston, Mass.
  • Nov. 1: Best Buy Theater, New York, N.Y.
  • Nov. 2: The Webster, Hartford, Conn.
  • Nov. 4: Town Ballroom, Buffalo, N.Y.
  • Nov. 5: Casino Rama, Orillia, Ontario, Canada
In addition, the locations of two shows in Quebec remain to be announced later this month.
  • One will take place Nov. 6 at a venue in Ottawa or Gatineau; details are to be announced Sept. 19. (UPDATE: It takes place at Casino Lac Leamy in Gatineau.)
  • The other show is to take place Nov. 7 in Quebec City; details are to be announced Sept. 6. (UPDATE: It takes place at the Grand Theatre de Quebec.)
Additional tour dates were announced Sept. 15 as follows:
  • Nov. 10: The Fillmore, Silver Spring, Md.
  • Nov. 11: The Chance, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
  • Nov. 12: The National, Richmond, Va.
  • Nov. 13: Center Stage, Atlanta, Ga.
  • Nov. 16: Hard Rock Live, Orlando, Fla.
  • Nov. 17: Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena, Hollywood, Fla.
  • Nov. 18: Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, Fla.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Jimmy Page coming out of retirement; guitarist makes 2nd onstage visit as Web countdown ends

Jimmy Page joined the Black Crowes onstage
in London, Wednesday, July 13. They played
"Shake Your Moneymaker," a blues by Elmore
James they last played together on tour
over a decade ago. YouTube: brenotube
Jimmy Page has now found himself back onstage for another surprise performance, the second time since June, following the better part of a decade spent just about anywhere other than stages.

London, where many of Page's post-Led Zeppelin gigs have taken place over the past 31 years, on Wednesday night solidified his intention to make a comeback of sorts.

Wednesday's gig was at Shepherds Bush Empire, a venue where Page might remember sharing the stage in March '98 with Robert Plant, during the tour in support of new material on an overlooked album but whose live sets focused on Led Zeppelin hits from another era.

Singer Chris Robinson marvels as Jimmy Page plays
one of the first guitar solos of a long-awaited and crucial
phase of his career, his coming out of retirement.
YouTube: dsrc18
This time, though, Page stepped on the stage with other folks and for only one song, one that surely wasn't "Stairway." Not even close.

With the Black Crowes, the very group with which Page embarked on his last tour just over a decade ago, he entertained Shepherds Bush on a blues standard, Elmore James's "Shake Your Money Maker."





Meanwhile, fans who've been aware of an imminent change to Jimmy Page's official site, www.jimmypage.com, prepared to check in on the hour, every hour, until something changed.

Kool-Aid drinkers believed Page would come out of retirement, in one way or another, when, 24 days ago, a daily countdown of Roman numerals first appeared on Page's site alongside an active sandglass.

YouTube: brenotube
The guitarist to Page's left is 38-year-old Luther Dickinson,
the Black Crowes' most recent acquisition, plucked from
the North Mississippi Allstars. YouTube: brenotube
YouTube: dsrc18
YouTube: dsrc18
YouTube: dsrc18
YouTube: dsrc18 
YouTube: dsrc18