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Music

Robert Plant

ROBERT PLANT AND THE BAND OF JOY with NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (1 Front East), Saturday and Sunday (January 22 and 23), 7 pm. $49.50-$85.50. TM. See listing.


Robert Plant speaks with the calm consideration of a man who knows he has the rapt attention of his audience. Relaxing with his guitar in a Nashville hotel room prior to embarking on a North American tour with the Band of Joy, Plant is so witty and charming, it’s tough to imagine he once sang about having his lemon squeezed until the juice ran down his leg.

“I just spent a week in sunny Barbados, where I met a lot of Canadians who were not looking forward to returning to Toronto,” he says, pronouncing it “Toronna” like a local. “It was the first vacation I’ve taken since leaving school. I did a bit of singing in the meantime.”

Since joining the New Yardbirds in 1968, Plant hasn’t been out of the public eye. When that band became Led Zeppelin, Plant’s reputation as a rock frontman was secured. Following their demise in 1980, he continued to record solo and with collaborators, including former bandmate Jimmy Page and bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, with whom he won five Grammy Awards for 2007’s Raising Sand.

It was during his time with Krauss that Plant made the decision to work with Buddy Miller, the Nashville musician at the heart of the Band of Joy.

“Ten or 15 years ago, I saw Emmylou Harris play on the Wrecking Ball tour,” Plant says. “I wondered what the band would do with those songs, how they would differ from the way they sounded on record with Dan’s [Lanois] production. Buddy brought such grit to the way he played. It was incredible to watch.”

When Plant went to Nashville to work with Krauss, he decided that “it would be an absolute disservice if I didn’t get in touch with Buddy.” Finding they shared musical and other interests, he and Miller just kept working after Plant’s tour with Krauss ended.

The resulting record, 2010’s Band Of Joy (Rounder), is primarily cover songs, including Plant’s duet with Patty Griffin on Monkey and Silver Rider by Minnesota trio Low. Though Low’s moody, atmospheric music is critically lauded and they have a faithful following, they’re still enough of a secret that it’s surprising they’re on Plant’s radar.

“Do you think these things just fall into my lap?” Plant asks with a hint of outrage. “I think people expect me to listen to Supertramp!

“I’d been listening to [Low’s] The Great Destroyer in my car for months when I first thought I would try those songs. I love the way it sounds.”

Crediting his desire to keep moving forward – “because the only thing worse than monotony is more monotony” – for his refusal to reunite with the remaining members of Led Zeppelin or otherwise rest on his past, Plant is philosophical about singing other people’s songs.

“Going from [Band of Joy’s] Angel Dance to, say, Silver Rider – that’s a huge jump in tone and feel. If I could write songs that covered so much ground, it would be great. But at best, it would me take a long, long time.

“It’s not always easy singing other people’s songs. You have to treat them with respect and also make them your own.”

Plant speaks of other people’s music with respect that verges on reverence, but he’s not afraid to poke fun at his own past, including his role in Led Zeppelin.

“I was able to drink a lot of cups of tea during the solos,” he says with a smile in his voice. “We weren’t quite as bad as the Grateful Dead, but some of those solos did go on for a long time.”

music@nowtoronto.com

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