I’ve had a running list of rock stars already straddling the fence of rock and country and
could probably make a pretty great straight-up country release (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey)
and then there’s those that you never considered for that list but when their name come up to
do something in that vein you say “Hmmm, yeah that could be cool.” This story from Nashville
newspaper, The Tennessean falls into category 2.
Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin) and bluegrass diva Alison Krauss are the collaborators in question.
After Plant was spotted at several “see and be seen” Nashville restaurants and clubs in recent days,
columnist Beverly Keel started sniffing around and discovered that the seemingly unlikely pair have
been in the studio, recording an album of duets under the watchful ear of producer T Bone Burnett.
Release date for the album has yet to be announced.
The two have recently become label-mates, as Rounder Records Group has just released Plant’s first
ever live performance DVD, Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation, from a 2005 PBS Soundstage
production.
Twang note – for a great Zep cover from a great band check out Devil in a Woodpile’s cover of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp(mp3) on their release In Your Lonesome Town
Maybe Plan isn’t a complete stranger to twang. Listen to “Hot Dog” on In Through the Out Door. Definite twang going on there. I once played this song on a jukebox in a central Texas cowboy bar in the early 80’s and didn’t even get my ass kicked!
Good one, I forgot about Hot Dog. Listen to “Down By the Seaside” from Physical Graffitti – smooth psychedelic twang.