Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
Reunited and returning to the stage of Berkeley’s Greek Theatre for the first time since 2008, rock legend Robert Plant and the wildly diverse Alison Krauss put on a performance to remember Sunday evening.
Touring in support of last fall’s Raise the Roof, a belated follow-up to 2007’s Raising Sand, a six time Grammy winner including for record of the year, the duo performed an enjoyable mixture of tracks from their two albums together in addition to a trio of reworked Led Zeppelin songs.
A combination of Rock, Americana, Folk and Bluegrass, the two albums were both produced by the multi dimensional T Bone Burnett, who perfectly blends Plant’s classic/hard rock vocals with Krauss’ country bluegrass chops. Just a night after celebrating his 74th birthday on a South Lake Tahoe stage, the original rock god might not still be able to hit all of the highest notes or falsettos he once could from the Zeppelin catalog, but he still has plenty left in the tank both creatively and vocally.
The younger Krauss, 51, has proved to be a perfect musical muse to Plant, stimulating his creativity while invigorating the pair to dig deep into classic Americana songbooks to select cover material for their collaborations. Krauss’ violin and fiddle help provide a beautiful flourish to much of the live presentation, while her gorgeous vocals provide the perfect compliment to Plant’s increased raspiness on some songs. Her Nashville influence is unmistakable.
Backed by a band featuring guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and drummer Jay Bellerose, Raise the Roof“s track list follows in it’s predecessor’s footsteps with tracks originally written by the likes of rock pioneers and greats such as The Everly Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Merle Haggard and Bert Jansch.
While the crowd quickly settled into an early state of musical bliss, a countrified version of “Rock and Roll,” the fifth song of the evening from Zeppelin’s classic 1971 self-titled album (aka Zeppelin IV), took the fervor up to another level. Later in the show, the folksy “Battle of Evermore” from the same album, on which Plant originally duetted with Sandy Denny, was a natural to be shared with Krauss. A version of the Zeppelin classic “When the Levee Breaks” that incorporated some of the instrumental parts from Led Zeppelin III’s unheralded “Friends” also brought the temperature of the chilly evening up a notch.
Non-Zeppelin highlights of the show included Benny Spellman’s “Fortune Teller,” Plant and Jimmy Page’s 1998 track “Please Read the Letter,” The Everly’s “Gone Gone Gone,” and the rockabilly closer “Can’t Let Go,” a Lucinda Williams’ cover of Randy Weeks original. Still, as expected, the audience’s biggest reactions were saved for the cuts from the most memorable phase of Plant’s career that has now stretched into its sixth decade. At least a couple songs from Krauss’ solo or Union Station catalog would have been well received, but none were provided.
Krauss and Plant clearly continue to bring out the best of each other with their unique partnership. Hopefully it won’t take anywhere close to another decade and a half for their next collaboration.
The Raise The Roof tour continues Tuesday night with a show at the Oxbow Riverstage in Napa before heading to the Great Northwest for a trio of shows in Oregon and Washington.
