I was very excited when I heard the news that the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center was on the schedule for the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss tour. I've been a fan of Led Zeppelin for almost 40 years. I was introduced to Alison by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The Birmingham show was last night.
Krauss and Plant seems like an odd pairing - Alison's note perfect vocals and bluegrass fiddling with Zeppelin's lead singer. But it works! The show was fantastic.
Krauss and Plant started their set with the opening track of last year's collaboration, Raising Sand. That song segued into Zeppelin's "Black Dog," slowed way down. It was great.
They did pretty close to everything from the Raising Sand CD, a couple more radically reworked Zeppelin songs ("The Battle of Evermore" and "When the Levee Breaks"), and Krauss' big song from O Brother, "I Went Down to the River To Pray."
T-Bone Burnett, who produced Raising Sands was a member of the band. It was almost surreal watching Robert Plant dancing happily while Alison was playing Loretta Lynn to T-Bone's Conway Twitty on "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man." T- Bone did two songs off his new album while Plant and Krauss took a short break.
I admire Robert Plant for taking his music in a new direction. He certainly could coast at this point, both musically and financially, if he chose.
The capacity of the BJCC is 17,500. Its a large venue and I have been to some shows there where the sound quality was bad. This wasn't one of them. The individual band members and the lyrics could be distinguished.
The top section was of the civic center was not sold - I would guess that the economy and the $55 - $65 ticket prices had something to do with that. But the show was well worth the price. It was two hours of great entertainment and the time passed too quickly.
If you are even a casual fan of Led Zeppelin or Alison Krauss, if it's stopping anywhere near you, don't miss this show.
