Wednesday, February 6, 2008

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.

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