At the outset, I’d like to make a few things clear. I am no fan of what Robert Plant has done the last number of years. Moreover, I have not been impressed with the direction he has taken his music the last number of albums.

His last album, Raising Sand with Alison Krauss, was my emperor has no clothes moment with Plant. I’d been buying in (and buying) for years, convincing myself I liked what he was doing. I didn’t, and haven’t listened to any solo CD he’s released since 1988 in years, unless it was within six months of release.

Of course, it’s not all awful. And of course, bad Robert Plant beats good Dr. Dre. And of course, at least he’s doing something, following his muse, unlike Dr. Page who has talked a better game than he’s played for too many years now. On the other hand, John Paul Jones got busy with Them Crooked Vultures and it was great. Jason Bonham’s Black Country Communion sounds like it’s going to be good, and the one song they’ve released, One Last Soul, is better than anything Plant has released in I don’t know how long.

So it was with trepidation that I heard he was continuing the same old path. Oh, this was different I heard: Allison Krauss was gone, and Buddy Miller was the musical director on this project, and he was only on from the previous touring band, but had no responsibility for the music itself. The music, I heard, was newer, edgier. The songs all from the last ten years. The first single, Angel Dance, was released and my hopes rose. While he still sang like he didn’t want to strain himself, it was the best thing he had done in a number of years. So yes, there was trepidation, but also a spark of hope. Maybe, just maybe.

Maybe not.

There is good news, and bad news actually. The good news is, some of the songs are good, very good. And it is, at times edgier, grittier. The bad news is, not often enough, and that Plant is still singing with caution, not a rock and rollers exuberance. And while some of the songs have life to them, there’s not enough there to sustain fourty-five minutes of interest.

The album mixes rock and country with some blues, some rockabilly, a little Beatles, a little Sea of Love, and always with an eclectic instrument mix.

It opens with Angel Dance, the above noted single. Weeks after first listen, it still sounds good. This one falls lovely into Plant’s singing style, and he hit’s the chorus with a bit of emotion, shows some of the old Robert Plant impeccable sense of timing. It also tells us something about what‘s to come. While it is a pretty grinding mid-tempo rocker, there’s a mandolin coming out in the mix. A really good song and also, a bit sadly, the class of the album.

House of Cards adds the backing vocals of Patty Griffin. This adds that Alison Krauss feel, but again, with dirtier kick-ass guitars. Vocally, this could be on Raising Sand, but musically it’s a gem.

Central Two-O-Nine is ‘old timey,’ mandolin and resonator guitar based up-tempo dirge. Did they have distortion in the depression? If they did, this is what it would have sounded like.

Silver Rider is the first fail on the album. Slow and weighty, Silver Rider sounds like Dreamland at 16 RPM. All that I haven’t liked in the past number of albums, slowed down.

You Can’t Buy My Love is an Early Beatles-esgue rockabilly. Chorus is all Beatles, as is the guitar solo. And is that a Rickenbacker bass? But after a very Hendrix like introduction it steps into Plant singing over a rockin’ drum beat and little else. It’ll remind you of John, Paul George and Ringo, and then just when you think you have the influence nailed, they pull it away.

You Can’t Buy My Love could have been the best song on The Honeydrippers.

I’m Falling in Love Again: speaking of the Honeydrippers, here’s my initial note on this song: Sea of Love meets Sea of Love. It’s that tempo, it’s that groove and it’s that feel. A solid 50’s croon and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Only Sound That Matters is mundane with far too much steel guitar. Plant sounds like he’s mailing it in and letting his country buddies run the show. The feeling is that this could be a really good song, but not here, not like this.

Monkey sees us right back to Raising Sand. Boring nothing over an un-interesting backdrop. Psychedelia on Quaaludes and the Quaaludes win. Wake me up when he has something interesting to sing.

Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday is Gallows Pole with a happy ending. Another old timey gem, this would be near perfect if they replaced the pedal steel guitar with a mandolin. But that’s nit-picking on a good arrangement of the song. However, if your looking for how Plant is singing different as he enters his senior discount years, compare this with Gallows Pole. Plant never, ever reaches for a note that might fail, never brings the voice out of his comfortable range.

Harm’s Swift Way: this album is starting to sound tired. Reminiscent of old Steve Earle - think Guitar Town - it’s the same tempo, the same vocal range as too many songs on this collection.

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down: if In My Time Of Dying had been played on a banjo, it would be Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down. But whereas In My Time of Dying gets away with being eleven minutes long, Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down is saved by being only 4:16.

Even This Shall Pass Away sounds like an outtake of Poor Tom recorded on a boat. As Poor Tom was itself an outtake, that could be a bad thing. But there’s nothing wrong with Even This Shall Pass Away. Mostly vocals over drums, it has a rockabilly tempo and feel, but harder. And what’s with the foghorn?

Robert Plant and the Band if Joy comes in at a nice 45 minutes. It’s not one of those overlong discs that have become the norm the past 20 years. This is a plus, as much of the disc is in too restricted a vocal and tempo range. It is, however, the best thing Plant has done in a number of years. It has it’s weak moments, but far more strong ones.

Bottom line, if you have liked the direction Robert Plant has been moving in his music, you’re probably going to love this. If your like me and have found Plant disappointing in recent years, give Band of Joy a listen, you might be pleasantly surprised.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129178865

You can listen to the whole album, or song by song.

Track List

Angel Dance
House of Cards
Central Two-O-Nine
Silver Rider
You Can’t Buy My Love
I’m Falling in Love Again
The Only Sound That Matters
Monkey
Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday
Harm’s Swift Way
Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Even This Shall Pass Away

Tight But Loose has an excellent review with notes on original sources.

Sometimes life brings the smallest pleasures, and it was so with my TBL before I even opened the envelope. On the envelope itself there was four of the Royal Mail album cover stamps. I had a relation send me a set of these, so I recognized them immediately, but it’s nice to have some proper ones, that have been enveloped and post marked. So there I was sitting looking at the envelope, complete with London Calling, Ziggy Stardust, Tubular Bells and Led Zeppelin 4 (he even got my favourites of the albums), enjoying TBL before I even opened it.

You know when you love the envelope, inside is going to be a treat. So it was with TBL. For the Zeppelin addict, it is a 32 page treasure trove of information and, most impressive, newspaper clippings. Besides a Led Zeppelin knowledge base that’s second to none, Lewis appears to have a phenomenal collection of Led Zeppelin articles, reviews and clippings. The magazine is littered with scans from old newspapers, and each story is better for them.

From an information standpoint, TBL misses nothing. The feature story on this edition was a review of Zeppelin’s live appearances in 1970 (part 1). But it has reviews of Them Crooked Vulture concerts, interviews with a trio of former Robert Plant guitarists (none of them called Jimmy Page or Robbie Blunt unfortunately - my two favourite RP sidemen), an interview with NME’s Nick Kent and very early mentions of Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience and Black Country Communion - who were still sorting out their name at the time of publication.

Lewis has a statement in the Editorial:

…web sites are for browsing, the TBL magazine is for reading again and again.

He’s right, and in second reading this week, the most interesting article was an interview with BCC singer/bassist Glenn Hughes. When I first read the interview in June, Black Country Communion were barely a story, there were even rumours of a rift within’ the band before it had even started. Since then, they have an album, a release date, and a song available. They are a going concern, and the Led Zeppelin fan who’s getting excited about the upcoming CD will find the interview excellent.

I want to thank Dave Lewis for the preview edition of Tight But Loose, which I loved. So much so that I bought a subscription for the next two editions, and am looking forward to receiving #27 in the next couple of weeks. And Dave, I hope you made a note of which stamps I already have (although I can never have too many Zeppelin IV stamps).

With ties to all three of heavy rock’s most iconic bands –Black Sabbath,Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin – Black Country Communion is a modern supergroup to rival Them Crooked Vultures. BCC comprises Glenn Hughes, once of Purple and Sabbath, on vocals and bass; Jason Bonham, son of Bonzo on drums; Joe Bonamassa America’s new blues hero, on guitar and vocals; and Derek Sherinian, formerly of pro-metal masters Dream Theater, on keyboards. The music is as expected: blues-based heavy rock with a late-‘60s/early ‘70s feel. But where the Vultures are jam-driven, BCC have great songs, from badass single One Last Soul to Bonamassa’s Hendrix-meets-Zep showpiece Song Of Yesterday. And with 58-year-old former cokehead Hughes singing as powerfully as he did in ’74, Black Country Communion is one supergroup that really lives up to its billing.

They give it four stars.

Based on what I’ve been hearing, and One Last Soul, I’m looking very forward to this release. And I’m pleased to report that I will have an advance review sometime in the next week or thereabout.

Currently the following dates are listed:

Oct. 8: Dawson Creek, B.C. - Encana Events Center
Oct. 9: Prince George, B.C. - CN Centre
Oct. 12: Edmonton, AB - Northern Alberta Jubilee
Oct. 13: Red Deer, AB - Enmax Centre
Oct. 14: Calgary, AB - Southern Alberta Jubilee
Oct. 16: Regina, SK - Brandt Centre
Oct. 17: Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre
Oct. 19: Minneapolis, Minn. - State Theatre
Oct. 20: Milwaukee, Wis. - Riverside Theatre
Oct. 21: Merrilville, Ind. - Star Plaza
Oct. 23: Montral, QUE - Metropolis
Oct. 25: Quebec City, QUE - Grand Theatre
Oct. 27: Hamilton, ON - Hamilton Place/Great Hall
Oct. 28: Kitchener, ON - Centre in the Square
Oct. 29: Toronto, ON - Sony Centre
Oct. 30: Rochester, N.Y. - Auditorium Theater
Nov. 2: Boston, Mass. - The Orpheum
Nov. 3: Red Bank, N.J. - Count Basie Theater
Nov. 4: Englewood, N.J. - Bergen PAC
Nov. 6: Philadelphia, Pa. - Merriam Theater
Nov. 8: New York, N.Y. - Nokia Theatre
Nov. 13: Jacksonville, Fla. - Florida Theater
Nov. 14: Clearwater, Fla. - Ruth Eckerd Hall
Nov. 16: Houston, Texas - Verizon Theatre
Nov. 17: Tulsa, Okla. - Spirit Bank Event Center
Nov. 18: Dallas, Texas - Fairpark Music Hall
Nov. 21: Riverside, Calif. - Fox PAC
Nov. 23: Los Angeles, Calif. - Pantages Theater
Nov. 26: Portland, Ore. - Schnitzer Concert Hall
Nov. 27: Seattle, Wash. - WaMu Theater
Nov. 29: Vancouver, BC - The Centre PAC

A review will appear in these pages after the October 28th Kitchener, Ontario show - more or less my hometown.

Hughes is the former bass player from Deep Purple, replacing Roger Glover in 1973. He stayed with Deep Purple until they broke up in 1976. Their biggest song of his era would have been Burn, from the album of the same name. Although Hughes was also considered a singer, he debuted with Deep Purple at the same time as their new singer, David Coverdale (who would, years later, form Coverdale Page with Jimmy Page).

Joe Bonamassa is considered a guitar prodigy. He has played with a vast array of blues artists including Eric Clapton and BB King. But he is mostly known for a successful solo career, that includes an excellent, but radio friendlier version of a song I have long loved: Tim Curry’s Sloe Gin.

Derek Sherinian is a keyboard player who played keyboards for Alice Cooper during the  ”Trash” and “Hey Stoopid” period. He would go on to tour with Kiss, including playing on their Alive III album before beginning a solo career in 1999.

Their first single is One Last Soul, available for free download at the Black Country Communion website. A sneak peek can also be had on the groups MySpace page.

Of all the post 02 Zeppelin material to appear to date, One Last Soul has been the easiest to like. Known for his funky, soul tinged bass lines, Glenn Hughes blends with Jason Bonham to create a tight rhythm section which drives the song.

It is, in point of fact, a very rhythmic song, having a classic rock groove without sounding 30 years old. The chorus has a solid hook, sticking in your head once the song is done.

At the same time, in looking for a point of comparison, One Last Soul is not immediately reminiscent of any other song.

One Last Soul is a nice introduction to what looks like it may be a solid rock band in the upcoming year.

The album, “Black Country Communion,” will be released Sept 21, 2010, and the band expects to tour in 2011.

Black Country Communion features Bonham on drums with Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals and Derek Sherinian on keyboards.

The self titled debut album will be available Sept 21st. Pre-orders are available, as well as t-shirts. A free download of One Last Soul is also available - use the promo code OLS2010.

Meanwhile, here;s a live video from One Last Soul from March. This band, based on the one song, sounds really good and I am looking forward to this album.

For you on Robert Plant’s 62nd birthday, his new single, Angel Dance, from the forthcoming album Band of Joy.

The disc came in a red plastic, semi-transparent envelope. Notice the sticker on the top left corner.

 The last line, left of the bar code, is the logo for Record Store Day. Here’s the disc, front

and back

Pity Jimmy Page, who has suggested he has new material to release this year, didn’t put up a tease for Record Store Day. Guess a cool picture disc will have to do.