Alison Krauss and Robert Plant played a great set at Merriweather Post Pavilion last week. Joined by producer and player T- Bone Burnett, they featured many songs off their acclaimed, in some ways unprecedented Raising Sand album from last year, as well as additional Americana songs and creative reworkings of songs from their respective catalogs of work. It was a superlative end to my June week of four outstanding concerts in seven days. (I felt like I was on tour!)
More adventurous fans of Plant and Krauss probably turned up for this one. They had played my hometown in Roanoke a week earlier, their first stateside date after being in Europe. I was disappointed the Roanoke Civic Center, where I graduated high school in 1989, was only half full. It was still a great concert, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Raising Sand's first single was a cover of the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone"
They did at least a few Zeppelin songs each night on the tour. Here's "Black Dog" picked out on a banjo by none other than Marc Ribot.
"The Battle of Evermore" was a highlight, in no small part due to Alison Krauss' keening vocals. The lyrics to this song are ridiculous, but, as you know, this woman could sing all strata of silly songs and make them compelling...
Two songs I hoped to hear were "In the Mood", a reworking of Robert Plant's early 80s hit. Amidst a crushing tide of new wave synthesizers in those years, Plant sustained a memorable wash of melody. (This song features one of the most incongruous videos I've ever seen. The genre juxtapositions are so off the wall, they're like outtakes from David St. Hubbin's failed hip-hop crossover.)
They did do "In the Mood," entwining it with an early 20th century murder ballad. I missed, however, their Bo Diddley tribute "Who Do You Love?" Unfortunately, they didn't play it, but 47 miles of barbed wire and cobra snakes for neckties were definitely there in spirit.
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