Led For Plant

After years of trying to separate himself from his legendary status as Led Zeppelin's frontman, Robert Plant finally reconciles with his past on Now & Zen. He borrows a few Zeppelin riffs, and even enlists Jimmy Page to play guitar on his hit "Tall Cool One."…

After years of trying to separate himself from his legendary status as Led Zeppelin's frontman, Robert Plant finally reconciles with his past on Now & Zen. He borrows a few Zeppelin riffs, and even enlists Jimmy Page to play guitar on his hit "Tall Cool One." This album is also notable in that it marks his first collaboration with keyboardist Phil Johnstone, who would continue to play and write with Plant on subsequent albums. Musically, the album relies on standard rock arrangements except that the vocals and drums are at the forefront and keyboards instead of guitars are used to fill out the sound.

After years of trying to separate himself from his legendary status as Led Zeppelin's frontman, Robert Plant finally reconciles with his past on Now & Zen. He borrows a few Zeppelin riffs, and even enlists Jimmy Page to play guitar on his hit "Tall Cool One." This album is also notable in that it marks his first collaboration with keyboardist Phil Johnstone, who would continue to play and write with Plant on subsequent albums. Musically, the album relies on standard rock arrangements except that the vocals and drums are at the forefront and keyboards instead of guitars are used to fill out the sound.

Nowadays, what's the point of chronicling this "Remasters" when the group released "Mothership" in 2007, which makes it obsolete? Because this record is historic. It is the first to be officially released under the LED ZEPPELIN name since "Coda" in 1982. The 1985 reformations for Live Aid and the 1988 reformation for the 40th anniversary, with Jason Bonham behind the sons, son of the late John n ' will have been occasional and here, there is no place for a fanfare of the Airship. Jimmy Page just wanted to deliver a compilation worthy of the name years after the band's smashing debut, years after a half-hearted ending. How many of you have known LED ZEPPELIN with this "Remasters"? How many of you have had a breath of nostalgia when you saw this cover?

What seems to be an unlikely pairing of former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss is actually one of the most effortless-sounding duos in modern popular music. The bridge seems to be producer T-Bone Burnett and the band assembled for this outing: drummer Jay Bellerose (who seems to be the session drummer in demand these days), upright bassist Dennis Crouch, guitarists Marc Ribot and Burnett, with Greg Leisz playing steel here and there, and a number of other guest appearances. Krauss, a monster fiddle player, only does so on two songs here. The proceedings are, predictably, very laid-back. Burnett has only known one speed these last ten years, and so the material chosen by the three is mostly very subdued…

What seems to be an unlikely pairing of former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss is actually one of the most effortless-sounding duos in modern popular music. The bridge seems to be producer T-Bone Burnett and the band assembled for this outing: drummer Jay Bellerose (who seems to be the session drummer in demand these days), upright bassist Dennis Crouch, guitarists Marc Ribot and Burnett, with Greg Leisz playing steel here and there, and a number of other guest appearances. Krauss, a monster fiddle player, only does so on two songs here. The proceedings are, predictably, very laid-back. Burnett has only known one speed these last ten years, and so the material chosen by the three is mostly very subdued…

The Led Zeppelin's Sources of Inspiration compilation contains 20 original jazz and blues recordings circa the 1920s and 1930s that would inform some of Led Zeppelin's most revered reworkings and original compositions. In fact many of these sides have been erroneously credited to either Jimmy Page and/or Robert Plant. The authenticity becomes instantly evident from the copious surface noise taken from the original 78 rpm source materials. That caveat aside, there is some vital music here, which could be considered the rock & roll of its era. Most of the titles found on this volume can be easily associated with their obvious counterparts. Case in point, the 1929 recording of "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie as well as Bukka White's "Shake 'Em on Down" from 1937, which Zep dubbed "Custard Pie" for inclusion on Physical Graffiti (1975)…