![Robert Plant: “Zep, Fame, Bluegrass & Me”]( "Robert Plant: “Zep, Fame, Bluegrass & Me”")
Robert Plant: “Zep, Fame, Bluegrass & Me”
FOR THE last four decades he’s been used to wailing in his own inimitable way. Recently, however, he’s been forced to adapt his style to fit the more controlled and disciplined approach of bluegrass – an approach that defined his collaboration with Alison Krauss on this year’s Raising Sand album.
“It was a bit intimidating, initially, for both of us,” he smiles bashfully, describing the studio vibe during the collaboration. “I didn't know how to harmonise. It's just a really weird place to go for me, to be so strict and actually follow set paths in a vocal. Alison had to teach me.”
Plant is no stranger to rootsy vocal collaborations, his most notable duet emerging in 1971 on Led Zeppelin IV’s The Battle Of Evermore where the late Sandy Denny added to the track’s ethereal sense of melancholy. Denny’s role was then reinterpreted by Indian vocalist Najma Akhtar on the Unledded tour.
“She sang the Battle Of Evermore in a totally different way. But those were accidental harmonies and drifting of vocals,” nods Plant. “This is completely different. It's the first time in my life I have ever actually thought: I'm going to try to do something with somebody I hardly know, who I believe in, but I don't know, I may have to face the fact that I can't do this.”
In truth, Plant needn’t have worried. Raising Sand was released to universal acclaim just as Led Zeppelin confirmed their one-off return. For Plant, the album celebrates a scene he’s grown close to and whose revival, as far as the mainstream is concerned, harks back to the release of the Coen Brothers’ 2000 big screen caper, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother Where Art Thou was a comedy film with a very serious impact on bluegrass…
It was, I suppose, kind of like a self-realisation for America because it was so successful. It was almost as if America was reaching right into its roots, its fantastically varied roots. When I saw the movie I was thrilled to find out that the Down From The Mountain thing (the concert held at the Ryman Auditorium in May 2000) was going to follow it and that the Coen Brothers had put that together because it was just absolutely captivating. I think America just suddenly pinched itself and said, “My God! This music comes from the core of our understanding of our own country, yet listen to it, it's splendid and it's humorous, it resonates right across all the different sort of communities.” And it was great to see America embrace it like that.
It's funny how British audiences seem to have embraced American roots music over the years – perhaps even more so than US audiences. Back in 1965, you were attending blues shows by visiting American musicians…
Well, can you imagine what it was like for an American kid on campus to be suddenly exposed to that kind of music? I mean, we didn't really experience the same kind of racial tension. There was racial tension in the UK but it wasn't on the same scale, with the same cultural resonance in the UK as it was in the US. I don't think it was the same, because when I was going to see American blues musicians I was just peering into another world that was completely bewildering. I had no understanding of the issue of the blacks in the South. I didn't really feel anything like that until I went to America in '68 or '69. So it wasn't quite the same, but to the American youth it must have been spectacular to hear what was happening at the Newport Folk Festival. And how embarrassing, to find that your black brothers could kick ass, could make you shudder, and give you all this fantastic subterranean poetry in song. It was great!
The Song Remains The Same is out again on DVD. How do you feel about it now?
It's kind of like a snapshot from all those years ago. It sounds fantastic now. It's been really revitalised and revisited in every respect. It really is something else.
Those shows you did with Zeppelin when you made the film were enormous. Do you miss performing on that scale?
Well, you know I did play with Pink in Serbia a couple of months ago to 60,000. I just do whatever I feel like doing. I think the intimacy thing, especially with Strange Sensation and I think with Alison (Krauss) too, is really about the breath in-between stuff. It's about the subtleties that you can often lose with the sad acoustics in these great big buildings. And also you are tempted with a big gig to get bigger and bigger sound rigs and all that stuff, but in the end, maybe depending on the musical form and the kind of general consensus of the people you're working with, you find that it be contradictory to do that.
I've long had a theory that celebrity corrupts and absolute celebrity corrupts absolutely. Yet you’ve managed to keep the “stardom” aspect of what you do under control…
Well, your comment initially rings so true. And the most finite corruption is the corruption of yourself *with* yourself. That's the place where the damage is done. And I'm so aware of it because I see a lot of it around me. And I just like to *sing*. Of course I've enjoyed the flattery and I'd be a liar if I tried to intimate that it hasn't been a boon to me on the one hand. But on the other hand, when you have the dynamics of a life like mine, you have to be able to dissolve sometimes and hide. Also, if you carry yourself - if your portage is such - you should manage to get through airports almost unhindered. I'm being trite, but you know what I mean. And I'm doing well, just going on down the road.
What fascinates people is that, at times, it seems that you're not really that *into Zeppelin. You don't hate them but you love other things more…
Well, you do something for as long as its initial adventure and its development continue. But then if it goes into other areas that don't have the same harmonious ring, you just keep moving on. I mean look at John Paul (Jones). He's doing great stuff with his mandolin, and the stuff he's doing with Uncle Earl. Being here in Nashville he knows people like Rodney Crowell. The capacity to write is the most important thing to share with other musicians. If that comes to you naturally you can work with anybody.
Interview: Sylvie Simmons.
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2007/11/robert_plant_zep_fame_bluegras.html
