Resmirch recently featured Please Read the Letter as their song of the day and had a few good words about Raising Sand:

I am not a country fan. When I first heard about Robert Plant mixing it up with the country songstress Alison Krauss I put aside all of my hesitation towards country. It was Robert Plant after all, a rock god in so many respects. I am glad that I did because the album Raising Sand is one of the best albums in my library.

I love how they sound together. It is fantastic, majestic, haunting and every song sounds amazing! I would recommend the album to anyone. My mom randomly asked me what new music she would like, saying how she hasn’t bought a CD in a long time. I told her about Raising Sand and she was all about it (random but that is what got me thinking about it). So now I know what to get her for Mothers Day. Plus it is pretty cool that my Mom asked me about music.

Entertainment writer and blogger Stephen Humphries sums up Robert Plant’s appearance at WOMAD Abu Dhabi and included a selection of videos.

Read it.

Roland Hughes writing for The National reports that Robert Plant was attending the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 26, 2009. He writes:

Former Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant has been seen milling around the paddock, although so far it’s been a Grand Prix short of the traditional big names. Plant is here less than a day after headlining at Womad festival in Abu Dhabi.

Isadora Papadrakakis, Performing Arts Advisor for ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage) lists Robert Plant’s appearance at WOMAD Abu Dhabi as one of the most outstanding performances:

There were many outstanding performances throughout the weekend, probably one of the most magical experiences of the entire festival was Robert Plant singing with the Abu Dhabi skyscrapers lighting the sky behind him. His magnetic presence, movement and voice blended perfectly with Justin and Juldehs’ Rock and African sounds.

According to a Real World Records tweet, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara will appear on Radio 4’s Today show on Saturday, April 25.

You can listen to the program on the Radio 4 website.

Adams and Camara will also be appearing at WOMAD Abu Dhabi that day along with Robert Plant.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss made a couple of small rises in the Billboard Charts with Raising Sand.

Top Internet Albums
This week: #21, Last Week: NA, Two Weeks Ago: NA, Weeks on Chart: 32

Top Country Albums
This week: #22, Last Week: 21, Two Weeks Ago: 17, Weeks on Chart: 78

The Billboard 200
This week: #96, Last Week: 100, Two Weeks Ago: 91, Weeks on Chart: 71

Billboard Comprehensive Albums
This week: #105, Last Week: 106, Two Weeks Ago: 93, Weeks on Chart: 61

Real World Records is offering a digital deal for those who can’t wait for the May 11 release of Tell No Lies, the newest album from Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara. Just preorder the album on CD, and you’ll be able to download a digital version instantly while you wait for the CD to ship.

Special Offer

Stephen Dalton, writing for The National Newspaper, catches up with Robert Plant, Justin Adams, Juldeh Camara, Martyn Barker and Billy Fuller at Real World studios where they are rehearsing for their Womad appearance. The article talks about how they are working together on their performances. Dalton ends his article with:

He may have disappointed millions of Led Zeppelin fans by turning down a comeback tour, but there is something admirable about Plant’s preference for putting passion before profit. He continues to take the road less travelled, soaking up sounds from all over the globe, treating music as a voyage of discovery and shared cultural adventure. Womad is just another step in this never-ending journey.

“This is so straightforward,” Plant says, “without any big production deals or anything like that. It’s where music came from. And as time goes on, the less the hassle and the more the adventure, the more stimulating it is for me. This is just another one of those moments along the way.”

Steve Forstneger writing for the Illinois Entertainer ponders the question “Hits and Nothing But the Hits”, or whether it’s acceptable for long-lived bands to basically do shows of all their “hits” just to fill concert seats. He says:

The jazz credo goes, “First you play for yourself, then you play for the band, and then you play for the audience.” Rock ‘n’ roll, as it stumbles oafishly through middle age, could do with a bout of such selfishness. Golden anthems like “Satisfaction” and “Born To Run” have been rendered meaningless under the guise of giving the people what they want. There’s nothing wrong with “the hits” per se, but there’s no way Eric Clapton is in the same place now as he was when he recorded “Cocaine.” Reinvesting in songs (written in the throes of youth) is totally acceptable; tossing them out like Tootsie Rolls and guitar picks is not. Robert Plant gets it. Musicians are obsessed with protecting their work nowadays, but never are they so negligent than when it comes to how they handle their legacies in concert.

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara will release their second album, Tell No Lies in May, 2009. The album was recorded in the Wooden Room at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. The record was intended to achieve a raw live feel reminiscent of 1950s Bo Diddly and Muddy Waters.

Read more at Real World

Robert Plant will be joining Justin and Juldeh at Womad on April 25, 2009.