The newswire contains breaking news about Robert Plant, as well as related news and asides. Posts are compiled and written by a HUMAN, not mechanically scraped. For extensive news article archive visit thePressbook.
Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald offers up a list of “surprising (and/or just plain blindingly wicked)” shows of 2008. He puts Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at #2. Gottlieb writes:
2. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, at the Bank of America Pavilion, June 5.
Few thought the combination would work, but the princess of sunny bluegrass and the high priest of heavy metal and deep, dark blues came off like a musical revue co-booked by God and the Devil. The show’s centerpiece was a menacing cover of Zep’s “Battle of Evermore” that, well, to call it transcendent would sell it short. Plant held down the low end while Krauss cooed like a Middle Earth, elvish vixen.
Queen Elizabeth II’s 2009 New Year Honours list includes Robert Plant. Robert has been named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The award is for services to music.
There are five grades of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in decreasing seniority: Knight Grand Cross (GBE), Knight Commander (KBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). Recipients of these awards are nominated by the government and by the public. They are then selected by committees made up of civil servants. The Queen bestows the honors. Only the Knight orders may be called “Sir”. Other orders have no title, but may add the letters after their names.
In another year end best of list, Country Universe’s Blake Boldt adds Please Read the Letter from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at #9 on his 2008 Top 20 singles list.
Also from Country Universe, Leeann Ward also places Please Read the Letter on her list at #20. She writes:
The album from which this song comes seems like an unlikely collaboration. It, however, somehow works as one of the best albums of the decade and any song from it would make my top twenty singles list this year.
George Varga, in SignOnSanDiego.com, writes about concerts reaching transcendence and lists Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at #2 on his list. He writes:
Whether an audience numbers in the thousands, the dozens or somewhere in between, the best concerts are a thoroughly interactive experience between performer and listener. Each relies on the other to achieve a state of temporary transcendence, whether for a few songs or a few hours…
2. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay (June 30)
The genre-leaping musical delights performed by bluegrass queen Krauss and ex-Led Zeppelin singer Plant made the distance between Nashville and London vanish in an instant.
SteveB from Sounding Plumbline lists Raising Sand on his 2008 year end album list. He writes:
2. Alison Krauss & Robert Plant – Raising Sand – 2007. One of the biggest albums of 2007, a record of mostly 50s and 60s cover songs selected by uber-producer T Bone Burnett and perfectly suited to Krauss and Plant’s crystal and wispy voices. I’ve been a fan of Alison Krauss for a handful of years, as well as a fan of Burnett’s work since he masterminded the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. An ethereal carnival, intensely eerie like a flickering candle, deadly wry humor, a storm which takes hours to gather itself.
Blogger and Cruise director John Heald was writing about the kinds of music he likes, including Robert Plant. He waxes humorously poetic about Robert and his concerts:
“Plant is a remarkable human specimen. He is a man for whom the ageing process has had no meaning. He may now be a 107 years old but there are no man breasts, no cuddly tummy and no sign of a hair hole.
I saw Robert Plant in concert a few years ago. There was no unduly long queue for the lavatory cubicles, nobody was flogging bags of drugs, and in the ballads, instead of waving cigarette lighters around, everyone held up their cell phones so their kids could hear the tunes too. Best of all, nobody was beaten up and murdered on the way out. Everyone just piled into their Range Rovers and drove home killing a few polar bears on the way.”
In 2007 Jeff Beck performed a series of shows at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. The best performances of these shows became the album “Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scotts”. Here’s a clip from one of those nights. The songs performed are “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Brush with the Blues”. Robert Plant was one of the concert goers and you can see him sitting in the back. He can be clearly seen at about the 1:55 minute mark of this clip.
In addition to the Top Rock (#11) and Top Country (#8) charts already released, Billboard puts Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and Raising Sand on several more Year End 2008 Charts:
Top Internet Albums: #6
Top Comprehensive Albums: #40
Top Comprehensive Artists: Alison Krauss #78, Robert Plant #91
Top 200 Artists: Alison Krauss #69, Robert Plant #84
Top 200 Albums: #39
Top Country Artists: Alison Krauss #34, Robert Plant #42
Top Country Album Artists: Alison Krauss #14, Robert Plant #19
Top Tastemakers Albums: #5
Shay Quillen, writing in the San Jose Mercury News, mentions Robert Plant and Alison Krauss as #2 in a “10 More Outstanding Shows” aside. He writes:
10 more outstanding shows: Ray Davies @ the Warfield; Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ the Greek; the Cure @ HP Pavilion; My Morning Jacket @ the Greek; Sia @ the Fillmore; Ingrid Michaelson @ Slim’s; Ryan Adams @ the Catalyst; the B-52s @ the Independent; Dolly Parton @ the Greek; Alejandro Escovedo @ Slim’s.
