Led Bluegrass

Tiffany and I got free tix to the Robert Plant - Alison Krauss concert tonight. We just got home, and I'm trying to process the experience. I'll first start off by saying that Mrs. Krauss has the voice of an angel. You already knew that. For those of you who aren't exactly sure who Robert Plant is, he's the lead singer from Led Zepplin. If you don't know Led Zepplin...I don't know what to tell you. The two released an album some months ago, and it's great. Go buy it.

Two greats coming together to do a show. However, the show was mediocre at best. You could teach a graduate level class on rock-n-roll and only study Led Zepplin - and Alison Krauss is one of the few good things that country music's got going for it (1, 2, 3) But neither of them shined. 

Here's how I think it all came to be. Robert Plant saw Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and thought the music was awesome, rightly so. He dug a little deeper into who made the music. This led him to Alison Krauss. Obviously, he fell in love with her voice and music, as anyone would. He began sniffing around to see if there was any way he could get involved with that good ol' country stuff. His manager called T Bone Burnett and they decided that it'd be awesome to make an album. The album happened. Somebody said, "Hey you should take this on the road." Not knowing Robert Plant, Alison Krauss' posse said, "Sure." And next thing you know - they've got a tour of the world scheduled. 

They should have stopped with the album. Robert Plant never rocked out, as he should be expected to do, and meek little Alison Krauss couldn't do her deal cause Robert Plant wouldn't give up the lime-light. Alison was obviously embarrassed, and Robert Plant didn't act like a rock star. 

Talk about a weird crowd. Led heads and blue-grass fans everywhere. The sad thing is that neither group got to see what they paid good money for. As for the set list, boresville. All the Led Zepplin songs were slowed down, and all the bluegrass had Robert Plant singing. As for the covers and the stuff they sang off the album, it was good, but no body on the stage seemed to be that into it.

Two or three times over the course of the night, little moments of magic started to happen. Alison Krauss stepped out of her comfort zone and sang like a rock star - while Plant's famous voice reared it's head and reminded the die-hards what he used to be like. But they never committed. Oh how I wish they would have, it could have been great. As for Plant stepping into the blue-grass world - not a chance. 

It became very clear that Robert Plant was all about Robert Plant, and he wasn't about to share the spot light with anyone - even if she did have the voice of an angel. He even tried to sing as one of the 3 part harmony voices while Alison Krauss sang I Went Down To The River To Pray. He and the other two shared a single mic, and he butchered it. He didn't sing the harmony, he just sang an octave lower than her. The other two, who are blue-grass wizards, you couldn't hear cause he was yelling. 

Tiff said, "It was totally worth everything just to get to hear Alison Krauss sing the couple of songs she got by herself." and I agree. And seeing Robert Plant wasn't that bad.