Lemon Squeezings: Led Zeppelin News

Announcement: Why this site hasn't been updated

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 04:14:00 +0000

Two words: Life changes.

During my very first hour visiting in Clarksdale, I met some traveling musicians who had just met up with a friend and were going to seek out the farmland where Howlin' Wolf's cabin originally stood. So I tagged along for their jam session; in fact, I drove one of the two cars, and I remember clearly that we listened to Led Zeppelin on the way back. The CD was live on April 27, 1969, at the Fillmore West. When we got to "As Long as I Have You," the guys in my car hadn't heard music like this ever before and their jaws were dropping. I provided the appropriate volume adjustment upward while the young band on my car stereo quoted Spirit, Cream, Miles Davis and Chuck Berry, all before tagging on the "As Long as I Have You" ending. The effect is shattering!

My Led Zeppelin sites have been an on-again-off-again hobby, a way to cut my chops writing a few times a week. I looked forward to finding out the latest news about anyone named Page, Plant, Jones or Bonham and sharing it online with my own approach. In total, I wrote nearly 365 editions of "On This Day in Led Zeppelin History" per year for half a decade. Later, I wrote about 150 Led Zeppelin News updates each year for another half a decade.

The drop-off in my Led Zeppelin writing activity in February 2011 coincided with the first of several changes in my life. That was a road trip through the South, with myself, my car, and a big but portable keyboard. I took off to Mississippi by way of Nashville and Memphis, and all sorts of destinations in Texas and Arkansas. I spent a few weeks in each setting I chose. There's no denying my itinerary was inspired by the people covered here on this site, and their music was part of the journey.

In the South, I was seeing and doing things, having all sorts of new experiences, and I was bringing music to people. And I was soaking in theirs. I basked in the glory of my life's passions: music and travel. One of the effects of my road trip was my decision not to write for a living anymore, to trade in my notepad for a new keyboard. I insisted that live music become the biggest pursuit of my life. It has been that way ever since.

Apart from taking up music full-time, I am thrilled to report that I found an amazing woman and married her. I'm still writing, though much less and barely any of it is on this site. There's tons of Led Zeppelin news being made, and other fan sites are doing a great job of tracking it all. I haven't. My priority has been playing live music, and now I'm 35 and enjoying every weekend playing somewhere with somebody.

On a side note, Jimmy Page is putting together a new band, and I want to be his keyboardist. I'm declaring this on the off chance somebody reading this is interested in getting me an audition.

Reissues series to feature on Carol Miller show

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Tue, 20 May 2014 03:23:00 +0000

New York radio personality Carol Miller will be proudly presenting the Led Zeppelin reissues on her program. The first of six weekly broadcasts dedicated to the original three Led Zeppelin albums will air on her flagship station, Q104.3, next Monday, May 26.

Shows 1 & 2 - Carol Miller's Get the Led Out on the debut album Led Zeppelin
June 3 - The box sets for the first three albums become available for purchase in the United States
Shows 3 & 4 - Carol Miller's Get the Led Out on Led Zeppelin II
Shows 5 & 6 - Carol Miller's Get the Led Out on Led Zeppelin III

Throughout the six weeks, the show will also be airing the recording of Carol Miller's "exclusive conversation with Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page." From the show's official press release: "Page was intimately involved with the re-mastering process of the original Led Zeppelin material and also with the bonus tracks that will be included on the new deluxe editions of these classic albums."

The radio show is distributed nationwide to classic rock stations. If your classic rock station doesn't already get the Led out properly with Carol Miller, then you'll be missing out! Call your program director and ask for Carol Miller's Get the Led Out. As a disclosure, I contribute to the show, and I'm a fan too.

It just so happens that at the time the last of these six shows airs in New York, I'll be 132 miles away, onstage with the band Get the Led Out, The American Led Zeppelin, at the Ocean City Music Pier, Moorlyn Terrace, in Ocean City, N.J. This will be my ninth time sitting in with the band, playing all the keyboard parts. We'll be performing live the album versions of songs from all over Led Zeppelin's catalog, not just the first three albums.

Just think of all the things I might be brushing up on playing now! Maybe the Clavi on "Trampled Under Foot."What about the synths on "All My Love"? Perhaps the fluty recorders and electric piano on "Stairway to Heaven"? See you in Ocean City!

Well, that settles it. No Led Zeppelin reunion, and that's all anyone ever cared about

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 05:14:00 +0000

Isn't it interesting that nearly all of the Led Zeppelin news coverage anywhere on Thursday was centered on Robert Plant's declaration that there was "zero" chance of another Led Zeppelin reunion? In case you missed it, that's what he told the BBC in the very last second of a six-minute chat aired on BBC radio Wednesday morning and was available online for listening all over the world.

It's what he said in the very last second, the "zero" chance comment, that stole the headlines. Because there's always been an interest in a Led Zeppelin reunion, no matter when the last one was, or how discouragingly bad the last one was, or how astonishingly good the last one was. But Robert's closed the door.

Jimmy admitted, in his separate interview, also broadcast April 23, that he's more surprised than anyone there's not been a reunion. Furthermore, he's not the one to ask about a Led Zeppelin reunion. He's only the guitar player. He's not the singer. You should ask the singer. And so they did, and the singer said no. It was an outright no. And as Brian Gardiner astutely observed on his site, this is exactly what he could have said a long time ago and saved us all some agony.

I'm feeling really badly for Jimmy now. I think he put a whole lotta stock in the inevitability that Robert would change his mind once again. It's possible Jimmy didn't want to get any kind of a studio or live project going again unless Robert was going to be the frontman. Luckily, John Paul Jones doesn't feel that way, and we've gotten Them Crooked Vultures, Seasick Steve, Minibus Pimps, I won't repeat myself...

What was really cool is the fact that neither of the two Led Zeppelin bonus tracks premiered by the BBC at the same time was anything ardent fans have ever heard before. (Correct me if I'm wrong!) Jimmy truly dug into boxes of tapes, and took two years doing it, to arrive at the best stuff there is. And so far, this is stuff that never leaked to the masses.

We've now heard a minute's worth of the Led Zeppelin III outtake "Key to the Highway" (none of the "Trouble in Mind" portion expected later) and learned it was recorded 30 minutes after "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper." It features Robert Plant singing through the same reverberating filter also heard on another studio outtake already distributed and well known among bootleg collectors. But it's a totally different melody, and the chord progression features a nice two-five turnaround seldom heard in the blues.

Representing Led Zeppelin II's bonus disc is a rough mix of "Whole Lotta Love" with an alternate vocal. This is nothing that came out with the multitracks when they leaked online in February 2012. Hmm, just over two years ago, which we can now surmise is when Jimmy started working on this remasters-plus-bonus project taking advantage of technological advancements of the past two decades since the first remastered Led Zeppelin CDs ...

And this is all in addition to the sweet first track of the live CD accompanying the Led Zeppelin remaster, which we can stream on Spotify now whenever we want.

Also, it was fun hearing Robert admit he was imitating the stylings of Steve Marriott on "Whole Lotta Love." Isn't it funny how Jimmy wanted Steve Marriott as the singer and instead got a Steve Marriott imitator? Not that Robert was a Steve Marriott imitator all the time. He says he was this for one three-minute song, then onto something else entirely different for another. Great point!

It sure would be nice hearing from John Paul Jones on these matters. I wonder why not.

Anyway, now that Robert closed the door to any future Led Zeppelin reunions, what impact will that make on whether Jimmy picks up a guitar again, in his 70s, and goes out there with somebody else?

Video for 1st Led Zep album showcases live audio, memorabilia galore

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:23:00 +0000

The first minute of audio from a previously unreleased Led Zeppelin concert in Paris 1969 is contained in a trailer posted online today for the upcoming expanded re-releases of the group's self-titled first album.

This official trailer also showcases a plethora of memorabilia from Zep's first year flashing by the screen, including photos from the era, ads, promo items and white labels from original, rare vinyl. Tickets and posters shown from 1969 appearances include US clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles and the Boston Tea Party, as well as UK destinations the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Bath Festival. Another feature of the trailer is pieces of handwritten studio notes from the album's recording process.

As previously announced, Led Zeppelin's first album package comes out June 2 (June 3 in the US) with several different editions available. Packages developed for the second and third albums will be released are the same day, so similar trailers for those packages can now be expected.

One of the first people publicizing the link for the trailer soon after it was posted was John Davis, who was involved in the remastering project for these releases. On Twitter, Davis (@daftfader) wrote: "official trailer for Led Zep remastering project I just finished!" Also nearly as fast in sharing the link was the official Facebook page for John Paul Jones.

Minibus Pimps LP proves Jonesy'll do anything to progress in new ways and old

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:45:00 +0000

Say there is a new album featuring John Paul Jones. You'll never know what to expect. Come on, the guy's hard to pinpoint. The top session bassist and in-demand arranger in the 1960s, Jones has always been all over the map, arranging strings for the Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield, playing bass for Tom Jones and Memphis Slim, and maybe even subbing in on bass for the Yardbirds in the studio (though he denied that vehemently when I interviewed him a dozen years ago).

The soundtrack to this post:

No matter what instrument or how daunting the musical task at hand, here is a man whose career has been defined by a constant (if not nagging) mantra of "Jonesy'll do it." There was the custom manufacture of a triple-neck guitar -- mandolin neck included -- exclusively to accommodate everything he had to reproduce simultaneously on live renditions of "Ten Years Gone" with Led Zeppelin, all while Jimmy Page was satisfied with two guitar necks at once. As a rule, Jones was always expected to handle bass duties even if it meant with his feet because his hands were otherwise engaged with other instruments. If there was a female call-and-response vocal part to cover at live shows, "Jonesy'll do it." This was demanding work!

Even apart from being a major contributing force in Led Zeppelin's songwriting and musicality, Jones persisted in finding time to dedicate his varied talents to discs by the likes of Roy Harper and Madeline Bell. Whatever the session called for, he's been there.

For instance: Need string arrangements on four -- count 'em, four -- of R.E.M.'s singles in 1992? "Jonesy'll do it."

If you were avant-garde singer Diamanda Galás in 1994 and you wanted to write a full-length album with somebody on bass who would also bust out a lap steel guitar to complement your unique voice, who else would you naturally turn to but the same guy who'd just co-produced the last Butthole Surfers album? "Jonesy'll do it."

The same guy composed three Spanish-language songs for a CD recorded by the Harp Collective called Amores Pasados, released in 1995. When that music resembled baroque from the 1600s, the question became inevitable: Is there anything Jonesy won't do?

While the decade proceeded, Jones's focus progressed. Frustrated that the perennial sideman hadn't been considered as a sideman for the widely acclaimed Page/Plant projects of the '90s, he concentrated on putting out two proper solo albums under his own name. On 1999's Zooma and the 2002/2003 release The Thunderthief, Jones really branched out, grabbing anything he could play, be it that triple-neck guitar, various keyboards, mandolin, ukulele, harmonica, koto, autoharp, mandola, yadda yadda yadda. By the second album, he wasn't even content with just instrumentals; he relented and even recorded his own lead vocals. (It really wasn't his first time singing lead on a John Paul Jones album; two cuts he sang on and cowrote with his daughter Jacinda made their way onto the 1985 movie soundtrack for Scream for Help, which was his first full-length solo project.)

Perhaps a more notable attribute on that pair of solo releases was Jones's demonstrated mastery of a burgeoning digital soundscape environment known as Kyma. This sort of thing was nothing he hadn't attempted even in the Led Zeppelin days. When music reviewer Julian Marszalek recently called to mind the mysterious droning intro to the In Through the Out Door track "In the Evening," Jones was quick to take credit for most of the sound. He boasted:

Oh, thank you! That was me! Jimmy put some guitars on it, too, but I did that on the Yamaha GX-1. I found this programme where you have all the filters on the edge where they break up and keep trying to do something else and they keep coming back again. Yeah, that was great, that.

Consider Kyma as just an updated way of achieving a seemingly unlimited array of sounds, which allowed Jones's 1999-2003 solo recordings to take on whole new levels. Thus, if asked to name an artist who at that time was providing a new kind of fanfare for the millennium, one proper response would have been, "Jonesy'll do it."

In 2005, Dave Grohl said he wanted the Foo Fighters' next album to be a double album harnessing the broad musical diversity found on Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti 30 years earlier. Jones, who found himself in Los Angeles for the Grammys anyway, hopped on over to the Foos' recording studio and wound up guesting on the album. Need piano on an acoustic song called "Miracle"? "Jonesy'll do it." Need mandolin behind the harmonica solo on "Another Round"? "Jonesy'll do it."

Once he'd sufficiently made the rounds in the bluegrass/Americana/old-timey music circuit, Jones was the natural pick to produce Uncle Earl's third full-length release. Their session for a hoedown fiddle number for cloggers called "Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat" saw Jones playing some barrelhouse piano while one of the g'Earls served as a Chinese-language square dance caller. Oh, and what about some excess hollering in the background too? "Jonesy'll do it."

The following year, whilst producing Sara Watkins's self-titled debut album, Jones overdubbed three of his own instrument parts -- electric piano, mandolin and bass -- all onto an original of hers called "Will We Go." Even with the great Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers band at his disposal, Jones took it upon himself to lay down the keyboard parts on two other songs as well. He joined the three-part harmony chorus of Sara's catchy album opener, "All This Time," while his bass skills graced about a third of the album as well, once again proving, "Jonesy'll do it."

His next in-studio collaboration with Grohl was a writing and recording project conducted in secrecy throughout much of 2009, resulting in a "supergroup" (like it or not) called Them Crooked Vultures and an eponymous disc that was an hour-plus of heavy yet trippy alternative rock. For this release, his supply closet was stocked with an array of keyboards (including keytar) and basses, plus a lap steel guitar and -- why not? -- mandolin. Round things out with some backing vocals, and you've got yourself a job to do. But fear not: "Jonesy'll do it."

If you were California-born bluesman Seasick Steve, and you'd gone in a short time from busking in obscurity to being suddenly pronounced Mojo magazine's Best Breakthrough Act and a festival mainstay, what would you do to further your the whirlwind acclaim you've been experiencing worldwide? Might a little name recognition help push your next two studio efforts in 2011 and 2013? The first time, how about getting John Paul Jones to play bass on two songs and mandolin on another? The second time, how about getting him back to play on no less than nine songs, this time adding to the instrument mix some Hammond organ, backing vocals, and even (yes, it exists) lap steel ukulele? "Jonesy'll do it."

By no means is this a comprehensive list. For more of his session, production and arranging work back in the day, I could have recited the familiar (hackneyed?) litany of names like Lulu, Donovan, Herman's Hermits, Engelbert Humperdinck, among many others. Led Zeppelin aficionados have been reciting these credits of Jones's since the earliest Led Zeppelin press releases at the end of the 1960s highlighted his earlier achievements. Since then, other studio accomplishments of his ranged from working with Sir Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Ben E. King, the Mission UK, Heart, Cinderella, Robyn Hitchcock, and under-appreciated New Zealand garage rock revivalists the Datsuns, whose Jones-produced 2004 CD Outta Sight/Outta Mind is a personal favorite of mine. Still, that less-than-comprehensive list represents the bulk of Jones's studio work available up until last week.

Bearing all of that in mind, whether or not you're aware of the operas Jones has been composing in his spare time, it was difficult to imagine what to expect when earlier this year the Norwegian indie label SusannaSonata announced the March 3 release of Cloud to Ground, a near 30-minute album featuring four live collaborations between Jones and fellow record producer Helge Sten (a.k.a. "Deathprod"). Together, they call themselves Minibus Pimps.

When you've long been conditioned to expect the unexpected, it may come as less of a surprise to realize this latest John Paul Jones album project resembles almost nothing else mentioned above. The Minibus Pimps album -- sold as a 180-gram LP that's packaged with a musically identical CD -- resides in a category all by itself, all but for the sheer fact that there's a lot of improvisation involved in the music.

Improvising is not a first for Jones by any stretch of the imagination, which anyone who's ever paid attention to any Led Zeppelin's live recordings could tell you. (In the above-referenced interview, Jones is quick to namecheck Zep's funk throwback "The Crunge" as their most avant-garde moment caught on album.) In the case of Minibus Pimps, improvisation is inevitable given their modus operandi consists solely of two skilled musicians battling each other in the live arena using not conventional instruments but stealth weapons of digital software. (There's that Kyma stuff again!)

This disc's four distinct titles were culled from live performances they'd made in multiple concert appearances. Here are eight observations about it after I've had a week to take it in.

Most (and hardly not all, right?) pictures of the album cover currently shown online include a yellow sticker that is actually part of the plastic shrinkwrap. Remove the shrinkwrap, and the sticker is gone. So that yellow bit is not really part of the cover art.
There aren't really any liner notes to speak of.
The artist/title/label/catalog number info on the spine, so it's not exactly repeating the feat pioneered by Zep's untitled fourth album.
They do list the song titles on the inside of the record. Side one of the LP consists of "Black Aurora" in four parts, 16 minutes total. It isn't obvious from looking at the vinyl where to drop the needle if you wanted, for example, to start with part 2 or 3 or 4. Discerning listeners can tell from listening where one part ends and the next begins.
The album's flip side consists of three separate titles: "Cloud to Ground," "Arc" and "Superbolt." At roughly four minutes each, these are about equal in length to the four parts on side one.
The US iTunes Store sells the album digitally, and that full album purchase is the only way iTunes lets you obtain "Black Aurora" in all its 16 minutes as one track. The remaining three songs can be acquired separately ($1.29 apiece) without the full album purchase.
The CD included in the LP package contains a total of seven tracks. Evidently, the decision was made to separate "Black Aurora" parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 into CD tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The remaining three titles comprise tracks 5, 6 and 7.
As far as physical copies are concerned, I didn't check everywhere the Interwebz had to often, nor did I even bother my local record store. That being said, my limited comparison on pricing for Cloud to Ground persuaded me to buy mine from Bull Moose, an indie record shop located in Maine, thankfully with a Web presence. Unless I'm mistaken, they're offering the best deal for American consumers hoping to own a physical copy of this limited-edition release. On the Bull Moose site, the LP/CD package was available for $19.97. (Compare to upwards of $50 direct from the Norwegian label when you factor in international shipping to US customers!) Now, Bull Moose charges $3 for standard shipping, but there's a loophole: They offer free shipping for orders of $20 or more. The Minibus Pimps release falls three short of qualifying for free shipping, so all you have to do is find another product in their store priced between $0.03 and $3.00 and you can make out like a bandit. For my shipping-free purchase, I opted to invest in a 2012 Michael Kiwanuka single for the princely sum of $1.97. It's like the place was paying me to put another record in my shopping cart!

Minibus Pimps collaborator Helge Sten, who perhaps most famously worked in the past with the group Supersilent, comes across as an obvious Zeppelin fan. As evidence, I'll refer you to one particular remark he made during Julian Marszalek's joint interview with him and Jones published last month by online music publication The Quietus. Quoth the Deathprod mastermind:

"I think there's so much interesting stuff going on in all of their [Led Zeppelin's] music. There's so much variety and energy going on there and that's what sets it apart from so much other music."

At this point, I must clarify that I myself am no stranger to ambient and avant-garde music. Whenever it's late at night and I'm zoning out, or trying to lull myself asleep, or just simply winding down from an adrenaline-filled night where I've just played a live classic rock tribute gig and still facing a few more hours of driving before I'm home again, I'll tune my radio to WXPN in hopes that a show like "Star's End" or "Echoes" will provide a soothing soundtrack to complement my trip into Dreamland. However, for me, this Minibus Pimps album is a little more nightmare-inducing.

Maybe it's also the pain meds I've been taking to mask a back injury I mysteriously suffered last week. Or maybe I was just off-put by the pitch-shifting sounds my questionable turntable was making when I sought to embark on the record's maiden voyage. Or maybe I'm just plain sour (Sauer?).

But so far, I'm deciding to file this Minibus Pimps release away with Jimmy Page's 2012 archival release, Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks. That particular mood doesn't often strike me, but I'll know where to go the next time it does.

If The Quietus's Julian Marszalek is to believed, he intends to "drop some mushrooms to [the album] and watch the Aurora Borealis." In that case, my only complaint would be the album's length. Is thirty minutes really enough to take it all in?

Moreover, does there remain anything musical Jonesy hasn't done?

John Paul Jones' duo Minibus Pimps readies album for March 3 release; Cloud to Ground pairs him with Helge Sten

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 06:03:00 +0000

Source: Fact Magazine

A duo project featuring John Paul Jones is ready to release an album. Jones's partner in the project Minibus Pimps is Helge Sten, a composer and performer of ambient music. The album is due March 3 with the title Cloud to Ground.

"The music is highly avant garde electronic music," advises an announcement by the label SusannaSonata.

Sten worked as a solo artist under the moniker Deathprod and as a member of Supersilent. Jones jammed with Supersilent in live settings part of each year between 2011 and 2013. On other occasions over the same years, Sten and Jones also performed as a duo, using the name Minibus Pimps. Live clips follow after the jump.

Jones, aside from his live work with these acts, and an upcoming opera, most recently appeared on the two most recent studio albums by Seasick Steve: 2013's international release Hubcap Music and the UK-only 2011 release You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks. Prior to this, in 2009, Jones surprised everyone by releasing an album and touring extensively with the high-profile studio trio/live quartet Them Crooked Vultures.

For more insight on Sten's past work, try this Spotify playlist.

For more insight on Jones's thoughts on composing, try this Youtube video from an event last year in Sweden.

Minibus Pimps debuted at the Punkt Festival in 2011...

Jones and Supersilent jammed at Moldejazz 2011 ...

... and went on tour in 2012, including in Barcelona ...

Part of the Minibus Pimps onstage two-man collaboration last year in Oslo, Norway, is shown here.

Jones and Sten already have another collaboration available to the public. The two provided some of the instrumental backing to this cut by Susanna, the actual namesake of the record label releasing Cloud to Ground on March 3. The name of this song is "We Offer," and it was recorded Aug. 9, 2013.

A second track of Susanna's featuring Jones and Sten is titled "For You." Currently, it is available exclusively on WiMP, a music streaming service currently available in only five countries (Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden). However, after a six-month period expires, it is set to become available on other music streaming services.

Classic Led Zeppelin posters unearthed for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 04:42:00 +0000

In case you somehow missed these two big news items today:

Happy 70th birthday to Jimmy Page!
Robert Plant has just announced plans to tour Europe and Japan this June, July and August. Fourteen live shows are on the books with his band the Sensational Space Shifters. Check out his website for all the details.

Here's another item that will be of interest to collectors of Led Zeppelin concert posters. We've probably all seen these UK posters from the Bath Festival 1969 and 1970.

The Bath Festival in 1969 featured Led Zeppelin fourth on the bill.

Although Led Zeppelin headlined the Bath Festival 1970, all band names were printed in the same size, much to the chagrin of Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant.

Henrietta Bannister, daughter of Bath Festival promoter Freddy Bannister, emailed me today about two forgotten posters her family had just discovered. Reprints are now available for sale through her company, Rock Music Memorabilia.

Bath Pavilion 1968

One is the poster for Led Zeppelin's show at the Bath Pavilion half a year before the first Bath Festival. The date was Dec. 16, 1968, within two weeks before the group left for their first tour of America. An earlier version of the poster advertised the Jeff Beck Group as the headliner, but Beck was becoming unreliable at that time and canceling shows. This was one of those instances. As the Rock Music Memorabilia website explains: "At short notice we received a phone call from Peter Grant's office saying Jeff Beck was unable to appear, but if we wished we could have the New Yardbirds, now known as Led Zeppelin." Henrietta Bannister's email to me expands on this: "Led Zeppelin replaced Jeff Beck because of illness. In fact, my father was quite annoyed because in 1968 Jeff Beck was a much bigger attraction than Led Zeppelin." The concert poster reprint being sold today lists Led Zeppelin in Beck's place and contains a disclaimer about the previously advertised headliner. This poster should also be of interest to fans of Muddy Waters and The Who as their own Bath Pavilion dates are also listed.

Alternate Bath Festival 1969

The other newly discovered Led Zeppelin artifact is an alternate Bath Festival 1969 poster. As the original poster features a faceless and bare-chested woman, some store owners complaining that it was obscene refused to advertise the show with it. They were given this alternate poster design instead, which features the side of the woman's face in a lot more detail.

For a limited time only, a set of these four posters is available from Rock Music Memorabilia at a special discount of over 30 percent off. For more specific information, visit www.rockmusicmemorabilia.com. In the spirit of full disclosure, I've been offered one of these sets for mentioning this here.

RIP Phil Everly

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 03:26:00 +0000

We mourn the loss of the remarkable Phil Everly, who today has died at the age of 74. Here's Robert Plant singing not one but two Everly Brothers songs with Allison Krauss on 2007's Raising Sand.

In 2008, Plant picked up an award for one of those Everlys tunes and said, "I'd like to thank Don and Phil Everly for getting me through my teenage years, and I'd like to thank Alison for helping me get through my late 50s."

Speaking of Robert's age, he is now decidedly in his mid 60s, specifically 65. John Paul Jones just celebrated his birthday today, making him 68. Jimmy Page is set to become the first Led Zeppelin member to make it to 70 this Thursday.

Ushering in 2014, Jimmy Page announces future releases

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:57:00 +0000

"It's good news for the New Year," says a message posted Jan. 1, 2014, on Jimmy Page's website. "The first of the Led Zeppelin releases - comprising of Led Zeppelin I, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III and their companion discs - will be released this year."

(Editor's note: So the title of Led Zeppelin's first album is Led Zeppelin I, Jimmy? What's the title of the one after Led Zeppelin III?)

In the New Year's message, Page also:

announces some solo material -- "I've also been working on some of my own material from the archives that will be unleashed in 2014."
sends fans his well wishes -- "Hello there and Happy New Year to you all. I hope you are enjoying the holidays. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the support you've given the website." [www.JimmyPage.com]
references a blues song when he closed with the words, "Let The Good Times Roll!"
and signs the message with his name and autograph.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), New Year's Day 2010 was when UK's The Independent caught Page admitting that he was already "a year behind" on a project with "lots of new music to present."

Page followed up in July 2011 by launching his website and using it twice in its first nine months to sell vinyl pressings of his past solo work. The first, Death Wish II, was a re-released soundtrack album Page had originally released on the Swan Song label in 1982. The second, Lucifer Rising and Other Soundtracks, contained instrumental solo material Page had recorded in the 1970s but had not released.

Walking into Clarksdale, the 1998 album he recorded with Robert Plant, marks the last time Page recorded a full album and released it within months. That disc will enjoy its 16th anniversary in April.

A literal interpretation of Page's remark today about future Led Zeppelin box sets holds that fans can expect one release this year, namely, what is presumably a 6-CD box set focusing on the first three Led Zeppelin albums, recorded in 1968, 1969 and 1970. The set would include the three albums in their original running order with as many as three additional discs of bonus material.

This year will then usher in the fourth intentional wave of rebranding and repackaging Led Zeppelin's studio material. Between 1990 and 1993 came the original self-titled 4-CD box set along with the Remasters, Box Set 2 and Complete Studio Recordings sets. A pair of single-CD sets, Early Days and Latter Days, followed between 1999 and 2000, later to be combined and sold as one. Mothership followed in 2007, offering a remastered look at an updated 2-CD summation of the group's studio tracks.

'Stairway to Heaven' goes live on Spotify today

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 06:24:00 +0000

The popular music streaming service Spotify has won exclusive rights to provide listeners, now including mobile listeners, with Led Zeppelin's complete discography.

Four consecutive release days this week, from Wednesday (Dec. 11) to Saturday (Dec. 14), focus on Zeppelin's eight original studio albums, released 1969 to 1979.

Today, Dec. 12, marks the arrival of Led Zeppelin III and its untitled follow-up some insist on calling things like Zoso, Runes or Led Zeppelin IV.

Wednesday's releases were the self-titled debut album Led Zeppelin and its sequel, Led Zeppelin II. The balance of the discography follows Friday (Dec. 13) and Saturday (Dec. 14).

Friday will be the bigger deposit of material of those two days, for one of the two albums it includes was originally released as a double-LP set. Kids, ask your parents if you don't know what those words mean.

Houses of the Holy (1973) and the extra-long Physical Graffiti (1975) are released on Friday. The remaining two albums on Saturday will be Presence (1976) and In Through the Out Door (1979).

The most special day will be the last. On Sunday (Dec. 15), you get a lot of other stuff, including all of the live audio the band has officially released to date.

On Sunday, you get all the studio "hits" in a tidy package with the 2007 studio collection Mothership, which upon its release was meant to supersede all the previous (redundant, obsolete) collections.

On Sunday, you get the outtakes album Coda spanning moments in the studio from 1970 to 1978, with a few post-Zeppelin overdubs added in before its 1982 release. (One must remain hopeful Coda will include the eight original tracks plus an assortment of rare gems like "Baby Come on Home" and "Moby Dick/Bonzo's Montreux" that were included with the Coda editions shipped with Complete Studio Recordings. However, subsequent precedent reversed the trend as the iTunes Remastered release of Coda this year did not include those tracks. We find out on Sunday.)

On Sunday, you get all the live and studio material on BBC Sessions, recorded parts in 1969 and 1971. This will include the rarities "Travelling Riverside Blues" and "The Girl I Love (She Got Long Black Wavy Hair)."

On Sunday, you get the 1972 live performances heard on How the West Was Won.

On Sunday, you get the 1973 live performances from the soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same.

On Sunday, you get the 2007 live performance with Jason Bonham from Celebration Day, including the newly Grammy-nominated track "Kashmir."

Join me in spinning some tunes! Er, rather, streaming!

Multiple Led Zeppelin box sets to arrive in 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 03:34:00 +0000

Individual box sets of newly remastered Led Zeppelin's audio catalog, along with bonus materials, are to be released at different points throughout 2014, Jimmy Page said today when asked in London.

"Each of the albums has been remastered, but it also has a companion disc with it," the guitarist told broadcaster Nicky Horne for Team Rock Radio. "Each disc will give a really intimate picture of the group."

They were in London, where Page was taking part in the Classic Rock Awards because not only was he presenting an award, but also Led Zeppelin was receiving one.

Film/DVD of the Year went to Led Zeppelin's DVD "Celebration Day," the playback of the band's triumphant 2007 reunion show, also in London.

Horne began his four-minute Q&A session with Page by asking him for some recollections about that concert. Before long, Horne switched gears and asked for some follow-up on the Led Zeppelin remasters.

They made news when Page's answers began to provide more specifics about the nature of the releases. For one, he said the work is already complete on the sonic aspects of the box sets. He explained that each album's companion disc would contain goodies such as alternate mixes and alternate takes.

As an example, he said Led Zeppelin III would appear in remastered form, as part of an individual box set, and on its companion disc we will find an alternate version of their blues number "Since I've Been Loving You."

"There's an incredible version of that," he said. "It's very raw in its approach. It's quite dramatic. It's cool."

Page did not divulge any other previously unreleased material that could be expected, so as to maintain the element of surprise.

When asked when the box sets would be released, Page could not point to any precise date. He stressed that they would be released not all at once but separately over time.

Acknowledging last year's remarks that these releases were to have started happening in 2013, and that the current year is almost over, Page said, "I'd rather hoped it would come out this side of the new year, but it will come out in the new year."

Then he trailed off and said something about it possibly not even being ready for this time next year. I chose to ignore that part, and you can too. The audio is available courtesy of Team Rock Radio's Soundcloud page.

On a side note, I'm sorry for the sporadic nature of this so-called "News" site; this is only the second news alert I've written this year. I am pleased to report that while I'm not doing as much writing, I am doing a lot of playing. Musically, that is.

Twice last year and once this year, I toured with the band Get the Led Out, filling in for one of their members. This enabled me to travel a bit -- Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin -- helping to replicate Led Zeppelin's studio recordings in a live atmosphere, much to the appreciation of eight separate crowds. One of the outdoor shows in Ohio this past summer may have had the largest audience I've ever seen.

U.S. tour dates announced for Robert Plant; June-July for world music tour with Sensational Space Shifters

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:19:00 +0000

Robert Plant has new words today on his musical direction or "path," a word he always preferred over "career" anyway. Contained in a press release announcing his June and July U.S. tour dates with the Sensational Space Shifters are these words:

"Keep it fresh, spin the bottle, dig deep, embrace the past - visit it - celebrate it - but don't build a home in it."

Yeah, it sounds like something Plant would say. It helps to understand why so much of their concert has been taken up by playing Led Zeppelin songs. The evidence is on the official live releases he's recorded with them, available as downloads or physical CDs. Just check www.robertplantlive.com.

His 2013 touring band, the Sensational Space Shifters, is fresh off a month of dates in Australia and New Zealand, not to mention Singapore, one destination that never came through for Led Zeppelin back in the day. The Sensational Space Shifters are a reconfigured Strange Sensation, the backing band that accounted for Plant's 2001-2007 output -- up to his collaboration with Alison Krauss and the Led Zeppelin reunion.

The Strange Sensation backed Plant on the albums Dreamland and Mighty ReArranger as well as many performances, including for the WOMAD audience. Since then, guitarist Justin Adams recruited riti player Juldeh Camara from the Gambia. Also coming from that country with experience in sabar drumming is Dave Smith, a jazz drummer and orchestral percussionist said to have "Ginger Baker-like energy." Meanwhile, guitarist Skin Tyson and bassist Billy Fuller played in the 2010 project Men from Mars, recording "in the hills of Snowdonia" a self-titled album available for download at Bandcamp. Keyboardist John Baggott has been composing for TV and film.

Plant's press release reveals that he was a "timid English boy" early in his teens, growing up in a "sanitized shelter." He grew immensely, finishing out his teens having just become a quarter of the lineup of Led Zeppelin.

An array of sonic influences continued to develop Plant's singing throughout the years, not the least of which is the music of the Mississippi Delta: "a world of field holler, despair, Levee camp and chain-gang moans; of Saturday night fish-fry and Juke Joint foot stomp."

Plant has also learned "from the sounds of Southside Chicago Electric Blues; of Griot mantras from West Africa; from Louisiana Dance Halls; Greenwich Village Folk hangover; Haight Ashbury indulgences; Moroccan medina breakbeat; the early English radical techno materials, Texas two-step and Bristol Dubstep."

The Sensational Space Shifters and Plant, this June and July, are coming to the United States to play 21 cities spanning both coasts and a few in between. Fifty years after being that "timid English boy," Plant is "drawing from a lifetime of adventures, tracking the dark, beautiful resonator." While speculation about any kind of a possible Led Zeppelin reunion can be put off for the near future, it's said that "Plant follows his heart and lifts his voice higher and joyous ever away."

What the press release doesn't indicate is whether they'll be unveiling any new music at this time. UPDATE, 2:34 p.m.: A publicist for Plant says the set list has yet to be determined and added "no new record [is] scheduled to be released." Tour dates follow, after the jump:

Tour dates:

June 20: Dallas, Texas - Palladium
June 21: Houston, Texas - Bayou Music Center
June 23: Austin, Texas - Moody Theater
June 26: Los Angeles, Calif. - Shrine Auditorium
June 28: Santa Barbara, Calif. - County Bowl
June 29: Berkeley, Calif. - Berkeley Greek
July 2: Jacksonville, Ore. - Britt Festival
July 4: Quincy, Calif. - High Sierra Festival
July 6: George, Wash. - Jambase Festival
July 7: Portland, Ore. - Portland Blues Festival
July 10: Morrison, Colo. - Red Rocks
July 12: Chicago, Ill. - Grant Park
July 13: Memphis, Tenn. - Live In The Garden
July 14: Louisville, Ky. - Forecastle Festival
July 17: New Orleans, La. - Mahalia Jackson Theater
July 19: Atlanta, Ga. - Verizon Amphitheatre
July 20: Cary, N.C. - Koka Booth Amphitheatre
July 22: Vienna, Va. - Wolftrap
July 24: Uncasville, Ct. - Mohegan Sun
July 25: Boston, Ma. - B of A Pavilion
July 27: Brooklyn, N.Y. - Prospect Park

Led Zeppelin field questions at New York press conference

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:29:00 +0000

Led Zeppelin's three surviving original members gathered for a question-and-answer session in New York today, promoting their concert film "Celebration Day."

The film, which captures their 2007 reunion concert as Led Zeppelin, is set to be released in theaters for a limited time next week before Blu-Ray, DVD and CD editions are released in stores in November.

During the press conference, Jimmy Page said part of the reason they decided to go forward with their reunion concert at London's O2 arena was because they hoped to overshadow previous reunion concerts that hadn't gone as well as planned.

"We just really wanted to get it right and go out there to play to people who maybe never heard us, who had heard about this reputation and what we were about, and basically go out there, stand up and be counted for what we were," said Page.

John Paul Jones spoke about the chemistry the band felt instantly upon rehearsing again for the first time in all those years. "The feeling was there," he said. "It clicks again. You don't have to work at it."

Referencing a Funkadelic song, Jones added, "Once the fingers got going again, the brains followed, as did our asses."

Robert Plant praised the efforts of drummer Jason Bonham, who filled in for his late father on drums. "I think we were really propelled by Jason and his enthusiasm," Plant commented.

Plant dismissed the possibility of Led Zeppelin playing live again in the future, even though he heralded their collective performance in 2007. "I think that night back then, we were just hanging on for dear life, watching each other," he said.

"We were so happy that we were actually getting it right and really enjoying it and taking it beyond what we thought we were about that night. There were moments in it where we just took off and pushed off into some place. The responsibility of doing that four nights a week, for the rest of time, is a different thing."

Jones expressed similar comments about the feeling onstage. "There was an immediate feeling of relief, of course, that we actually got through it and did well," he said.

Page argued the possibility of any further Led Zeppelin reunion has decreased because so many years have passed since their gig. "At this time four years ago, we'd have been rehearsing to get to the O2," Page said.

"In December, it'll be five years since the O2, and so that's a number of years have passed in between, so it seems unlikely if there wasn't a whisper or a hint that we would do -- get together to do something or other, even two years ago or whatever, seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it?"

Carol Miller, host of the syndicated radio show "Carol Miller's Get the Led Out," and producer Denny Somach, were among those who attended today's press conference. Photos provided by Denny Somach.

Robert Plant says he's forever committed to Buddy Miller

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:36:00 +0000

As Robert Plant picked up one of the big prizes at a Nashville awards ceremony last night, he did more than just thank his touring bandmate Buddy Miller: He pretty much committed himself to having Miller involved in all of his musical projects from here on out.

Plant delivered his remark at the Americana Music Association's annual Honors and Awards ceremony, while accepting the Album of the Year award for his Band of Joy CD. Miller earned two awards of his own at the ceremony.

Before Plant and Miller co-produced the Band of Joy album released last year, they were already touring bandmates from the Raising Sand tour with Alison Krauss. Plant said it on that 2008 tour that he basically decided on sticking with Miller into the uncertain future: "When we toured the Raising Sand tour, I said to the forces that be, I said, 'We can't go anywhere without Buddy Miller,' and I'm never gonna go anywhere without Buddy Miller, ever."

The live audience in Nashville cheered Plant's comments about their hometown hero, who in a few minutes would be named Artist of the Year -- ironically, beating out Plant in the category.

Earlier, upon winning Instrumentalist of the Year, Miller had proclaimed himself "really, really not that good." He said, "I feel like I get away with murder with what I do." Miller mentioned Plant by name, along with Emmylou Harris and Jim Lauderdale, thanking these "wonderfully, incredibly talented people" for letting him "sneak in there behind them."

Plant was much more complimentary of Miller's abilities as an instrumentalist. To him, Miller is "the consummate player of all the licks and the beauty and the soliloquy of great American music that I'd ever heard in my life."

Plant thanked not only Miller in his acceptance speech but also Krauss and his more recent female collaborator, singer Patty Griffin. Said Plant, "When we were making the Band of Joy album, it got to Christmas a year or so ago, and I said to Buddy, 'There's something missing, and it's getting a bit too pastoral.' And so, I have to thank Patty Griffin for really turning the record round."

The British singer also recalled a pivotal encounter with Americana music from even before he was a teen-ager." When I was 12, I heard 'The Mountain's High' by Dick and Dee Dee," he said. "I never looked back. I just kept dreaming of American music and coming over here, and I did. I stole a great deal with my old companions."

The Band of Joy, with Greg Leisz filling in for the absent Darrell Scott, performed the song "Monkey" -- but not before Allman Brothers Band leader Gregg Allman got in a quick comment: "Did you ever think you'd be sittin' here in the Ryman [Auditorium] watching Robert Plant and the Band of Joy?"

Obituary: Guitarist Bert Jansch dies at 67; influenced Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin songs

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Photo credit: Chris Barber

Folk musician Bert Jansch, one of the most revered figures in British folk music, has died. Reports say his death today followed a bout with cancer that saw Jansch being forced to cancel some live performances recently.

Of particular note to Led Zeppelin fans is Jansch's 1966 album Jack Orion, which contains some instrumental work that influenced Led Zeppelin's own Jimmy Page.

The disc begins with an instrumental track on acoustic guitar and banjo called "The Waggoner's Lad." On Led Zeppelin III released in 1970, certain passages of Page's guitar playing between the verses of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" echo some of Jansch's licks on this track.

More significantly, the flip side of Jack Orion includes a song called "Blackwater Side." On this track, Jansch sings a vocal melody over the reprise of a guitar arrangement heard on the earlier album cuts "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "The Gardener." On the debut Led Zeppelin album released in 1969, Page's guitar instrumental "Black Mountain Side" is essentially an instrumental rewrite of "Blackwater Side" complete with Page playing both the melody Jansch sings on "Blackwater Side" and much of the same guitar arrangement.

In interviews, Page mentions the popular British folk group Pentangle was an influence on him. In that group, Jansch played alongside fellow guitarist John Renbourn and vocalist Jacqui McShee.

In a May 1970 interview with that group conducted by Lemon Squeezings friend Rick McGrath for Vancouver's underground newspaper Georgia Strait, Jansch and McShee expressed their frustration with Page's sole writing credit on Led Zeppelin's "Black Mountain Side."

McShee said, "Actually, I think it's a very rude thing to do. Pinch somebody else's thing and credit it to yourself. It annoys me. ... In all the English papers at home he's always talking about Bert. Says he's influenced. I mean, why say that and then put something on an LP and say Jimmy Page?"

Putting it more simply, Jansch, laughing, said of the Led Zeppelin track, "That's my song."

Robert Plant, Patty Griffin debut Crown Vic lineup in Marfa, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:30:00 +0000

Well, this may be an early indicator of what Robert Plant's career may look like next. And no, it's not with Led Zeppelin.

But it does include their music.

@SoundcheckMag

No, Robert's not taking his own "Hot Dog" advice from 1979: "I'll never go to Texas anymore." He's long broken that rule.

On Thursday night, he appeared in Texas, as rumored, at Marfa's El Cosmico for the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music & Love. He and native Texan Patty Griffin sang with a band of Lone Star Staters called the Crown Vic.

Something tells me that name may already be copyrighted.

@SoundcheckMag

The band's got electric guitar, mandolin, keyboard and accordion, electric and acoustic bass, and drums. Griffin's on mandolin, too, besides singing and doing her one and only dance.

In uploading a video of their first song on YouTube, MarcDurbin identifies the band members with Plant and Griffin as "David Grissom (electric guitar), Michael Ramos (organ, accordion), Glenn Fukunaga (acoustic & electric bass), [and] Dony Wynn (drums)."

As has been the case with just about every Robert Plant band of the last 20 years -- wait, make that 41 years -- they do "Black Dog." Hmm, that could have been predicted.

Plant's set puts a Texas town seven hours west of Austin on the map. Hundreds are attending the festival in Marfa, reports Nathaniel Miller for Odessa American Online.

View Larger Map

Plant and Griffin are said to have been rehearsing in Austin with the group of local musicians. When Griffin goes on the road with Buddy Miller, Plant is expected to remain in Austin to continue working with Crown Vic.

Robert Plant's name does not appear on the festival poster. His appearance was rumored but not officially announced until the day of the festival opening. Previously, Patty Griffin was scheduled to appear with "special guests" who would be a surprise.

@SoundCheckMag posted on Twitter:

"Incredible! Mostly killer blues rock w/ some Louisiana accordion & beats. A few slow tunes too. [T]heir harmonies are perfect."

Miller added via Twitter that "Rock and Roll" also made Griffin and Plant's set list. KGSR's Andy Langer has uploaded "Misty Mountain Hop" to YouTube. (Hey, it seems like Plant's been listening to Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album!)

Swan Percussion via Facebook

From Miller's report on Odessa American Online:

Singer Patty Griffin appeared on stage and introduced her band, including one of the most famous lead singers in rock history.

"I'd like to introduce you to my dear, dear friend, Robert Plant," Griffin said to an explosion of cheers.

About 300 people from around the state gathered in Marfa for El Cosmico's sixth annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, and the crowd seemed remarkably calm and quiet. Attendees and vendors gathered to listen to music, eat food and drink beer.

Isadora McKeon, producer of the event, said the event was also helping those in need. "Five dollars of each preregistration ticket sold will go to the Central Texas Wildfire Relief Fund," McKeon said. ...

What started out as friends coming together at the building's location, turned into a two day festival of music, vendors and fun. "I'm proud of what we created,” McKeon said.

Since its inaugural festival, the event has grown into three days, with a show added on Thursday, and it will continue to hold events such as the baseball game between Marfa and Austin on Saturday, and have numerous vendors selling art, clothing and food. ...

People who attended the show said they were aware Plant would be at the show, but did not know for sure if he was really going to take the state.

Shop launching on Jimmy Page's official site to offer limited edition of 'Death Wish II' vinyl

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:31:00 +0000

Jimmy Page's 1982 soundtrack for the movie Death Wish II is to be rereleased next month in a limited quantity, a news item on the guitarist's official website has announced.

The Death Wish II soundtrack was the first album released by any surviving member of Led Zeppelin after the group disbanded in 1980.

It was 30 years ago on Sept. 15 that Page recorded an instrumental that was used as the film's main title sequence but was not available on the original soundtrack album.

That instrumental, an early version of the album's song "Who's to Blame" simply called "Synth Track," is said to be added to the track listing of the remastered soundtrack to be issued in October.

Page says the working title "referred to the initial guitar track performed on a guitar synthesiser with further overdubs with guitar synthesiser and melody lines from a Telecaster string bender."

For only 24 hours, the front page of Page's site features a clip of "Synth Track." He says he recently found a white label test pressing of it in his personal collection.

The release is also to include liner notes newly written by Page. He explains on his site:

In 1981, Michael Winner asked me if I would compose the soundtrack to Death Wish II. The songs with vocals were only going to appear in the film for a matter of seconds but I had recorded full versions of them anyway - which is how I ended up doing my first soundtrack and soundtrack album. I’ve re-released this because I wanted it to be available again.

Only 1,000 copies of the remastered Death Wish II vinyl are to be pressed, according to Page's site. They are to be sold exclusively through the forthcoming shop on JimmyPage.com. No plans have been announced for any other reissues at this time.

Page launched his first official site on July 14, saying in an interview published on it four days later, "I think this is the ideal vehicle to present my past, present and future work."

His recollections about Death Wish II, including a track identification log for "Synth Track," are part of the daily "On This Day" feature that keeps the site's front page fresh each day. "It looks random, but it isn't," he explained. "I love the idea that there will be a 'Splash' page everyday and nobody will be able to guess what's coming next."

Will Robert Plant sing again between projects?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:12:00 +0000

Campers arriving next Thursday night in Marfa, Texas, for the 6th Annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, may find out that one of the unnamed "special guests" appearing with Patty Griffin during her set is Robert Plant!

All of a sudden, after one of the most active 12-month periods of live activity in his career, Robert Plant doesn't have many in-concert appearances on his schedule.

He's just gone and spent from July 2010 to August 2011, longer than a full year, on a permanent touring basis with his Band of Joy lineup. They were responsible for the album Band of Joy released one year ago this week, produced by guitarist and bandleader Buddy Miller.

Photo credit: Frank Melfi

Miller, a Nashville favorite, came to Plant for the Raising Sand tour with Alison Krauss that occupied Plant's time for the whole of 2008. Plant, Krauss, producer T Bone Burnett, and the band behind them all, played around the world in far smaller places than a reunited Led Zeppelin might have commanded at the time. But Plant, of course, made his choice.

And when the time came in 2009 for Plant and Krauss to consider a follow-up album, they evidently parted ways, at least for the time being, before things got too far along. After they picked up their Grammy awards, they said adieu. For the rest of the year, Plant kept popping up places, sometimes announced in advance but often not.

He was sitting in with lots of folks: his Fate of Nations touring guitarist Francis Dunnery once for a prog-rock rendition of his own "Calling to You," on which Plant was a little rusty.

On two other occasions that year, once in London but earlier in the unlikely setting of Abu Dhabi, Plant sat in with Strange Sensation axeman Justin Adams, along with Gambian singer and stringsman Juldeh Camara, to recreate some Zeppelin songs in a totally foreign manner.

A rather secretive session that year with producer Daniel Lanois failed to yield anything of public note, and Plant soon found his way back to Miller. Before the year-end rehearsal sessions that also brought Texas-based singer Patty Griffin into their attempted studio band, Plant joined Miller at a pair of shows in California over a few days in early October.

Those two shows, in retrospect, turned out to be the best indication, at the time, of where Plant was headed for his next project. The lineup Miller arranged introduced Plant to solo artists Griffin and Darrell Scott, each with a different voice and other various additions to the mix.

With Plant now having no publicized plans for any shows in the future other than an appearance on Oct. 13 at the Americana Music Association's Honors & Awards Show, and a Band of Joy performance in store for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival on Sept. 30, it should be interesting in the coming months or weeks, if not days, to see how Plant occupies his time as a musician.

It would sure be a gas if, for instance, the campers arriving next Thursday night in Marfa, Texas, for the 6th Annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love find out that one of the unnamed "special guests" appearing with Patty Griffin during her set is Robert Plant!

The night would also give the two an opportunity to jam with another Texan, Barbara Lynn, who wrote and performed Plant and Griffin's radio-friendly hit "You Can't Buy My Love" back in 1965. That would certainly have to make the set list, one should think.

Jason Bonham announces fall Led Zeppelin Experience tour dates; live DVD from Black Country Communion also previewed

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Two bits of news have emerged from Jason Bonham's camp this week: one involving an upcoming live release from his group Black Country Communion, and the other involving his other touring outfit, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience.

First, a release date has been set for Black Country Communion's live 2-DVD set. While Bonham toured Europe with bandmates Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian over the summer, they filmed what looks like a pretty decent performance of tracks from their two studio albums.

Titled Live over Europe, the two-DVD set will be available Oct. 24 with pre-orders being taken beginning Sept. 13. It will be Black Country Communion's second release this year, following the June release of Black Country Communion 2. It hasn't even been a full year since the release of their self-titled debut.

There's already a trailer for the DVD, just released on YouTube this week. And anyone going to the band's official website, bccommunion.com, can register to receive a free MP3 download of one of the songs included on the DVD. Downloading begins Sept. 8.

For more information on the 2-DVD set, visit this page on Black Country Communion's site.

In other Bonham news, his other band has today announced a slew of upcoming tour dates scheduled this fall. Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience began last year as a large-scale vehicle for the drummer to connect with audiences in sharing his own personal story of growing up with the Led Zeppelin family. The stories Bonham tells onstage are complemented by the songs played by hand-selected musicians who aren't lookalikes or even imitators of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.

This will be Bonham's third outing with the Led Zeppelin Experience lineup. They have toured the United States and Canada twice already.

Four of the upcoming live dates were rescheduled from earlier appearances that were postponed at the time due to the illness of singer James Dylan. Tickets from the previously postponed California and Nevada shows will be honored on the night of the rescheduled show.

The four rescheduled dates are:

Oct. 14: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, Calif.
Oct. 15: Alliente Casino, Las Vegas, Nev.
Oct. 17: Crest Theatre, Sacramento, Calif.
Oct. 18: Uptown Theatre, Napa Valley, Calif.

Ten other newly announced shows are to take place in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ontario, Canada. The band will be returning to previously entertained markets in some of these cases. The new dates are:

Oct. 12: Fox Performing Arts Center, Riverside, Calif.
Oct. 13: Fox Theatre, Bakersfield, Calif.
Oct. 27: Bergen PAC, Englewood, N.J.
Oct. 28: Paramount Theater, Huntington, N.Y.
Oct. 29: Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Pa.
Oct. 31: Wilbur Theatre, Boston, Mass.
Nov. 1: Best Buy Theater, New York, N.Y.
Nov. 2: The Webster, Hartford, Conn.
Nov. 4: Town Ballroom, Buffalo, N.Y.
Nov. 5: Casino Rama, Orillia, Ontario, Canada

In addition, the locations of two shows in Quebec remain to be announced later this month.

One will take place Nov. 6 at a venue in Ottawa or Gatineau; details are to be announced Sept. 19. (UPDATE: It takes place at Casino Lac Leamy in Gatineau.)
The other show is to take place Nov. 7 in Quebec City; details are to be announced Sept. 6. (UPDATE: It takes place at the Grand Theatre de Quebec.)

Additional tour dates were announced Sept. 15 as follows:

Nov. 10: The Fillmore, Silver Spring, Md.
Nov. 11: The Chance, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Nov. 12: The National, Richmond, Va.
Nov. 13: Center Stage, Atlanta, Ga.
Nov. 16: Hard Rock Live, Orlando, Fla.
Nov. 17: Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena, Hollywood, Fla.
Nov. 18: Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, Fla.

Jimmy Page coming out of retirement; guitarist makes 2nd onstage visit as Web countdown ends

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:57:00 +0000

Jimmy Page joined the Black Crowes onstage
in London, Wednesday, July 13. They played
"Shake Your Moneymaker," a blues by Elmore
James they last played together on tour
over a decade ago. YouTube: brenotube

Jimmy Page has now found himself back onstage for another surprise performance, the second time since June, following the better part of a decade spent just about anywhere other than stages.

London, where many of Page's post-Led Zeppelin gigs have taken place over the past 31 years, on Wednesday night solidified his intention to make a comeback of sorts.

Wednesday's gig was at Shepherds Bush Empire, a venue where Page might remember sharing the stage in March '98 with Robert Plant, during the tour in support of new material on an overlooked album but whose live sets focused on Led Zeppelin hits from another era.

Singer Chris Robinson marvels as Jimmy Page plays
one of the first guitar solos of a long-awaited and crucial
phase of his career, his coming out of retirement.
YouTube: dsrc18

This time, though, Page stepped on the stage with other folks and for only one song, one that surely wasn't "Stairway." Not even close.

With the Black Crowes, the very group with which Page embarked on his last tour just over a decade ago, he entertained Shepherds Bush on a blues standard, Elmore James's "Shake Your Money Maker."

Meanwhile, fans who've been aware of an imminent change to Jimmy Page's official site, www.jimmypage.com, prepared to check in on the hour, every hour, until something changed.

Kool-Aid drinkers believed Page would come out of retirement, in one way or another, when, 24 days ago, a daily countdown of Roman numerals first appeared on Page's site alongside an active sandglass.

YouTube: brenotube

The guitarist to Page's left is 38-year-old Luther Dickinson,
the Black Crowes' most recent acquisition, plucked from
the North Mississippi Allstars. YouTube: brenotube

YouTube: dsrc18

Jimmy Page surprises Donovan's crowd with onstage guest spot

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Donovan and Jimmy Page play "Sunshine Superman"
Friday night in London.

Jimmy Page sat in with singer Donovan on Friday night in London, in a way reprising an in-studio collaboration dating back to the days before Led Zeppelin was founded.

Donovan recreated his 1966 album Sunshine Superman during his concert at the Royal Albert Hall, with the backing of an orchestra. One of the unnamed "very special guests" teased in advance of the gig turned out to be Page, who recorded electric guitar on the title track while he was one of London's most highly demanded session guitarists.

Page's onstage appearance amounted to adding guitar to "Sunshine Superman" and another one of Donovan's popular singles from that era, "Mellow Yellow."

Donovan, left, and Jimmy Page embraced
after their live rendition of "Mellow Yellow" on Friday.

The gig marked Page's first time playing (or miming) guitar in front of a live audience in more than two years. For the past decade, it was Page's eighth onstage appearance, including the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in 2007.

In recent years, Page has stated he is working on new music and that a return to live appearances would be imminent. He also released a pictorial autobiography last year, participated in the film It Might Get Loud, and planned a possible new group with such familiar artists as John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham.

The guitarist's current project involves developing an official website at www.jimmypage.com.

Jason Bonham part of 3 touring lineups in UK, US, Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 05:47:00 +0000

A summary of Jason Bonham's upcoming tour dates with as many as three different band lineups (updated as time goes on):

UK tour dates with Paul Rodgers
April 15: Blackpool - Opera House
April 16: Sheffield - City Hall
April 18: Newcastle - Metro Radio Arena
April 19: Glasgow - Clyde Auditorium
April 21: Manchester - O₂ Apollo
April 22: Nottingham - Royal Centre
April 24: Bournemouth - International Centre
April 25: Southend - Cliff Pavilions
April 27: London - Royal Albert Hall
April 28: Birmingham - National Indoor Arena

US/Canada tour date(s) with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience
May 4: Wallingford, Conn. - Oakdale Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 5: New Brunswick, N.J. - State Theatre NEW! Tickets available here
May 6: Atlantic City, N.J. - Borgata Resort NEW!
May 7: Concord, N.H. - Capitol Center for the Arts NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 21
May 9: Buffalo, N.Y. - University PAC NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 10: Westbury, N.Y. - Theatre at Westbury NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 12: Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis NEW!
May 14: Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy NEW!
May 15: Greensburg, Pa. - The Palace Theater Tickets available here
May 17: Indianapolis, Ind. - The Murat Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 18: St. Louis, Mo. - The Pageant NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 18
May 19: Kansas City, Mo. - Harrah's Casino NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 26
May 20: Denver, Colo. - Ogden Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 19
May 21: Salt Lake City, Utah - The Depot NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 18
May 24: Fremont, Calif. - The Saddle Rack NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 25: Napa Valley, Calif. - The Uptown Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 18
May 26: Sacramento, Calif. - Crest Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 19
May 27: Los Angeles, Calif. - Greek Theatre NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 25
May 28: Las Vegas, Nev. - Aliante Casino NEW! Tickets on sale beginning March 26

US tour dates with Black Country Communion
June 9: San Diego, Calif. - Civic Theatre Tickets available here
June 10: Anaheim, Calif. - City National Grove of Anaheim Tickets available here
June 11: Salt Lake City, Utah - The Depot NEW! Tickets available here
June 13: St. Louis, Mo. - The Pageant NEW! Tickets available here
June 15: Indianapolis, Ind. - Murat Theatre NEW! Tickets available here
June 17: Hampton Beach, N.H. - Casino Ballroom NEW! Tickets available here
June 18: Sayreville, N.J. - Starland Ballroom NEW! Tickets available here
June 19: Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club NEW! Tickets available here

European tour dates with Black Country Communion
June 23: Vitoria, Spain - Azkena Rock Festival
June 30: Stuttgart, Germany - Killersberg
July 1: Frankfurt, Germany - Jahrhunderthalle
July 2: Liepzig, Germany - Parkbuhne
July 4: Munich, Germany - Zenith
July 5: Berlin, Germany - Zitadelle
July 6: Hamburg, Germany - Stadtpark
July 10: Weert, Netherlands - Bospop Festival
July 14: Bonn, Germany - Museumsplatz

UK tour dates with Black Country Communion
July 23: Llandudno, Wales - Llandudno Cymru Arena NEW!
July 26: Leeds, England - O₂ Academy
July 27: Newcastle, England - O₂ Academy
July 29: Glasgow, Scotland - O₂ Academy
July 30: Manchester, England - O₂ Academy

Travel package 'coming soon' for ZepFest 2011, site repeats

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:21:00 +0000

By Steve Sauer

ZepFest 2011's Twitter page says a travel package is coming soon for attendees of the Memorial Day weekend event to be held in Washington, D.C.

That's good to know since it's already mid-March, almost St. Patty's Day, and we should be booking hotel and flights shortly, wouldn't one think?

"ZepFest travel package coming soon." Sound like a tune you were humming last Halloween? Here's why that is.

Update: New tweet from ZepFest tonight reads:

Well, since you are watching this so close: VERY poor form - come May 27th we will see how 'shaky' this is - have to adjust the invite list.

The remark appears to be a reaction to a Lemon Squeezings reader who posted on Facebook:

"I think this zepfest is really shaky."

Also posted later on tonight by ZepFest:

"'Shaky' - oh yeah it will be & it will also be rattlin' & rollin' with: ✫Grammy Winners ✶Grammy Nominees ✬Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Members"

Interview portends discouraging view on future live releases from Led Zeppelin era

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:55:00 +0000

By Steve Sauer

Unconfirmed rumors have it that a new legitimate, official release from Led Zeppelin is in the works. It would be the long-awaited video of Led Zeppelin's reunion concert, staged on Dec. 10, 2007, at the O₂ arena in London.

At that concert, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jason Bonham performed a two-hour stage show of Led Zeppelin material. There has been no official announcement of a DVD release, but rumors suggest such a release is forthcoming, with a possible shelf date much later this year.

Meanwhile, a new interview with producer Kevin Shirley about his past work on Led Zeppelin projects contains an overall discouraging view on the prospect of any future live releases of performances from the original Led Zeppelin era.

LedZeppelinNews.com contributor Wyatt Brake picks up the story with his own observations, originally posted to the discussion groups Royal Orleans and For Badgeholders Only:

There are several discouraging aspects to this interview.

The Zeppelin camp (at least as of 2002-2003) thought they had tons of live recordings to sift through in preparation for public release, and they (mistakenly) believed that these recordings were being adequately stored over the past 20+ years.

Kevin Shirley, who is now the Zepsters' go-to guy when it comes to this stuff ('03 DVD/HTWWW/Unledded/TSRTS) has declared to the members that 'there really isn't that much there' because the performances are unworthy of release. That's obviously a judgment call from a guy they now trust, and the judgment seems unlikely to be reversed because there's little desire - apparently even on Page's part - to delve in and determine if they agree with that determination. A convincing argument could be made that even without that declaration on Caveman's part that Page (the meticulous guy who gave us the original splice-a-thon of 1976 on TSRTS) would have come to the same conclusion, but now we might never know.

The confirmation of something we've long suspected - that Page's role as a producer and even as an "in the cutting room" overseer is over and done. From another KS interview that came out in 2007/2008 in the wake of the remastered TSRTS, we know that Plant was actually the one to 'take the lead on that release and that he was the guy sitting next to Caveman taking an interest in what was being done.

Hopes for an Earl's Court retrospective combining elements of all five (or at least the last three) nights, or a How The (Far) East Was Won, or a more complete Knebworth... all those things seem much less likely to come out in light of what Shirley had to say in this interview. Maybe we'll get an upgraded version of the 2003 LZDVD on Blu-ray, but aside from that, it doesn't leave me optimistic about more archive releases - especially about a release of Japan '71 or Bath '70.

Kevin Shirley admits to run-ins with Jimmy Page

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Sauer) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:01:00 +0000

By Brian Gardiner and Steve Sauer

Grammy-nominated recording engineer Dave Rideau sat recently with producer Kevin "The Caveman" Shirley at his aptly named studio, The Cave, located in Malibu, California.

In the interview for Solid State Logic, Shirley opens up about his career and his recording methods, including working on Led Zeppelin's digital-era releases and discs from current supergroup Black Country Communion.

The resulting 39-minute interview has been published in three parts on YouTube.

In part 1, Shirley tells Los Angeles-based Rideau about having worked on the Led Zeppelin 2-DVD video compilation and the live CD set, How the West Was Won, both of which were released in 2003.

Shirley, who had engineered the 2000 live album by Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes, says he had some rough moments with Page while the live Led Zeppelin releases were in preparation.

"I got to the studio and it was like, well, there's a room full of old tapes, going back from 1968 to 1980. And we're going to do something with them and it was like, 'What are we going to do with them?' And Jimmy Page, at that point, was like, 'Well, I want to be in New Orleans in eight weeks' time to see my son, so we need to do something in eight weeks.'

"And I looked at them, and I opened up the first tape which was, like, a 1968 [sic] recording of the Royal Albert Hall, and the tape was falling apart. I said, 'We gotta bake these tapes.'

"And he was furious. He was like, 'Why do you have to bake the tapes?' And I'm, like, 'Well, there's oxide and tape and glue, and it's coming off, and storing in moldy old England, it'll do that to you.' And he was livid.

"And we finally had to bake the stuff, had to bake everything and transfer everything. So that, alone, took us about three or four weeks to get done. So we started off on the wrong foot."

It's a theme that would carry into the second video:

"When we worked at Sound West, and Jimmy would be upstairs, and he'd come downstairs and say, 'What you doing?' And I'd say, 'Well, I'm just working on this thing over here, I just repaired this one guitar thing.'

"He's like, 'Don't you dare! Let me hear it.'

"And then I would play it to him. He goes, 'Let me hear how it was.' Then I'd play it back to him. He'd say, 'Let's hear what you did to it.' And then he'd listen back. He'd go, 'I'm
going upstairs to smoke.'

"And then he goes, 'I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know. If it sounds better, that's good, but I don't wanna know.'"

Repairs? On Jimmy Page's guitar work? Surely not? Well, yes, and call me Shirley:

"There's one obvious one in the Zeppelin DVD where, that great fanfare that marks the end of the solo in 'Stairway to Heaven.' He goes up high and he does that fanfare right at the end of the solo.

"If you watch that performance on the DVD, which I think is from Earl's Court, the high string breaks, and so he has to go and play the fanfare down an octave ... I have taken the liberty of pinching the fanfare from another performance and putting it on there. So if you look you can see that it's played an octave down, but sounds an octave up."

Shirley confirms, too, that there is much more unused Led Zeppelin material sitting in the vault. Not all of it, however, is useable:

"I got to the studio and it was like, 'Well, there's room full of old tapes, going back from 1968 to 1980 ... And by the time we started looking at it, it really wasn't that much. There was some really shaky performances, and there was a lot of drug use going on in the band in the '70s. So there were performances that really weren't good at all."

"The Caveman" didn't work just with Led Zeppelin. He was instrumental in putting together "these guys called Black Country Communion." Shirley shares the story of "crafting" their first album:

"I booked the studio down the road, and we just booked two days, and I had everyone come into the studio ... Shangri-La, just down the road here. And they came in for two days, and ... Joe and Glenn had written nuggets of ideas, so we cut it all in bits and pieces ... And then, they all went away, and in the evenings I cut it all up together when I was working on an Iron Maiden album in the Bahamas and I had time to spare. I put the headphones on and my laptop and I edited it all up, and that's how this [debut] record came about ...

"It's interesting… to see like 10,000 reviews that [say] you can hear that these guys are all playing live. Well, they are playing live. It's just, they weren't playing quite as you hear."

The third part is more technical, but still a fascinating watch.