The Led Zeppelin frontman’s latest band, Saving Grace, riffs on country, folk, rock and blues, but the weekend belongs to female American singer-songwriters
obert Plant is clearly enjoying himself. He may be a rock god, but he’s also a music fan with impressively eclectic taste. Twenty-four years ago he was on this same stage at the Cambridge folk festival with Priory of Brion, reviving 1960s favourites by Them and Love. He has worked with four bands and Alison Krauss since then; tonight he “presents” his new-ish five-piece, Saving Grace, who started in low-key fashion five years ago supporting Fairport Convention, but here give a masterclass in how to revive and rework country, folk, rock and blues.
Dressed in black, Plant trades vocals with Suzi Dian while adding occasional harmonica and bass guitar. First comes the brooding and bluesy Win My Train Fare Home, which he originally recorded at the Festival in the Desert with English guitarist Justin Adams. Next up is a charming rendition of traditional The Cuckoo, backed by banjo, and then a pounding revival of Led Zeppelin’s Friends, with Dian adding accordion. Later come tributes to Los Lobos and Bert Jansch, and a rousing a cappella finale of the traditional Incredible String Band favourite Bid You Goodnight. It’s a thrilling, compelling performance.
Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee as well as Robert Plant, Bernard Butler and Sam Lee were among stellar acts celebrating the late musician in impressive style
The lineup was remarkable, with rock and folk musicians including Robert Plant, Bernard Butler, Sam Lee, James Yorkston and Martin Simpson joining in on Strolling Down the Highway, from Bert Jansch’s 1965 debut album. It was the climax to a celebration of what would have been Bert’s 80th birthday (he died in 2011), and the cast included those who admired or worked with him in the 60s, as well as younger musicians who helped to revive his career after he had fallen out of fashion.
Jansch became a guitar hero thanks to his unique finger-picking style and fusion of folk, blues and jazz. He was also a thoughtful, emotional songwriter and both sides of his work were reflected in a surprisingly slick show in which the constantly-changing cast were introduced by the very funny and impressively knowledgeable Stewart Lee.
Robert Plant with his band Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian on vocals, at the Royal Festival Hall. Photograph: Sonja Horsman/The Guardian
Jansch reached his largest audience with the classic early lineup of Pentangle, who made their debut on this same stage in 1967, and the band’s singer Jacqui McShee opened and closed the show with folk-jazz favourites from the era. Bert’s admirers in the 60s included Led Zeppelin, and Robert Plant has kept his memory alive, recording two of his songs with Alison Krauss on Raise the Roof (2021). Here, playing with his Saving Grace band, he started out on bass guitar as he joined Suzi Dian for a fine and gently gutsy treatment of It Don’t Bother Me.
Bernard Butler, once with Suede, played an important part in bringing Jansch’s music to a new generation, and he played a key role here, first with his electric guitar reworking of Fresh As a Sweet Sunday Morning, then providing backing for Sam Lee and Kathryn Williams, and leading four other guitarists through an adventurous treatment of Veronica. Another fine guitarist, Martin Simpson, was joined by Louis Campbell to revive Jansch’s celebrated arrangement of Angie, and later backed Williams for her powerful and thoughtful treatment of Needle of Death.
Birthday lineup at the Southbank Centre. Photograph: Sonja Horsman/The Guardian
And as reminder that Jansch liked to break down barriers, the Scottish folk star James Yorkston was joined by Indian singer Ranjana Ghatak and Jon Thorne on bass to rework traditional songs from Jansch’s repertoire, while percussionist Sarathy Korwar led his sax and cello trio through his instrumental pieces, Osprey and The Black Swan. It was a moving and impressive tribute.
From blue-eyed soul to English folk, the unlikely dream team’s second instalment of covers is a welcome dose of musical reassurance
It seems lifetimes ago that Plant and Krauss released their six-Grammy-winning album of duets, Raising Sand (2007). That year, the first iPhone came out and Led Zeppelin reunited for two hours. This long-awaited second instalment of enthralling covers is a dose of musical reassurance that, despite the turmoil in which we find ourselves, some things remain constant. Roots music and rhythm and blues have always played a long game in matters of the human condition.
What worked a treat then continues to work now: Plant dialled down to a sultry croon or, on Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces’ Searching for My Love, to a yearning kind of blue-eyed soul, Krauss’s country tones alternately limpid, frisky or timeworn, T Bone Burnett producing deftly. A superlative band creates nuanced tension or percolates away discreetly as required.
What’s new is an uptick in British folk, with versions of Bert Jansch’s It Don’t Bother Me (rolling, resonant) and Anne Briggs’s Go Your Way (fleshed out, electric). Krauss brought in Lucinda Williams’s Can’t Let Go and the whole collection of burnished, lesser-known gems kicks off with a contemporary tune, Calexico’s Quattro (World Drifts In).
