ROBERT PLANT: BAND OF JOY REVISITED

I'm a big Plant fan. Starting of course with Led Zeppelin, and I bought his solo records throughout the 80's and 90's. I enjoyed his post Zeppelin work with Page and like most LZ fans, I yearned for the day that Zepplin might have a reunion. Although I registered for tickets for their British reunion concerts, lady luck was not on my side. I like many others anxiously await the DVD from that concert.

I didn't care so much for his work recently with Allison Krause, only because of the band he abandoned to take up that new project. Strange Sensation was an excellent band with fantastic musicians and great tunes. I followed them with vigor, listening and watching both DVD and concert bootlegs of some really great Strange Sensation gigs. Later, their Austin City Limits gig came out on DVD as did another show they did (I found it at Wal Mart...couldn't believe it!).

When I look at the line up of Band of Joy, I don't see a drummer, just a percussionist. Now there is music without drummers that rocks plenty, and if anyone can pull that off it's Plant, but I like my Plant with drummers, please. I'd grown quite fond of his SS drummer Clive Deamer.

While reading about and listening to the live show recordings of SS, I came across several concerts that Plant did with his old pre-Zeppelin Band of Joy bandmate Kevyn Gammond called Priory of Brion. They did a lot of cover tunes and most of their gigs were small club gigs. The guitarist for the original Band of Joy and for Priory was the same dude, who instead of being a rock star had become a college music professor and had retired sometime before the late 90's when the Priory project occurred. It lasted from 1999 to 2000, then SS took off in the early 2ooo's.

I loved the three guitarists that SS had, along with their drummer and keyboard player. They were all pros, and could boogie and rock like nobody's business. Charlie Jones, the first bassist of SS, is Plant's son in law although he stands on his own as a stellar bassist. He later moved on to other projects.

So unlike the 2 commercial releases that SS had, Priory of Brion had none. Boots were the only way to discover the band, and I never came across any dvd boots, just audio cd boots. Most of these were available on the internet.

So I read in Rolling Stone recently that Plant has "leaked" an advance cut from his latest project, apparently called Band of Joy and it's with singer Patti Griffith and producer T-Bone Burnett.

Here's a review from Rolling Stone about the new disc.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/17385/196472

Here's the lineups over the years per a wiki page on Band of Joy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_of_Joy

Lineups
Robert Plant — lead vocals
Kevyn Gammond — guitar, vocals
Chris Brown — organ
Paul Lockey — bass guitar, guitar, vocals
John Bonham — drums


1968 lineup
Robert Plant - lead vocals
John Bonham - drums
John Hill - bass guitar
Mick Strode - lead guitar
John Kelsey - keyboards


1977 lineup
Kevin Gammond - guitar, vocals
Paul Lockey - guitar, vocals
John Pasternak - bass, vocals
Peter Robinson - drums
Michael Chetwood - keyboards, vocals

2010 lineup
Robert Plant - lead vocals
Patty Griffin - vocals and guitar
Buddy Miller - guitar and vocals
Darrell Scott - vocals, mandolin, guitar, accordion, pedal, lap steel and banjo
Byron House - bass
Marco Giovino - percussion[7]