Robert Plant and Alison Krauss live!
Centennial Hall
Tucson, AZ
Jun3 15, 2023
by Mary Andrews
This is Robert Plant’s first appearance with bluegrass star Alison Krauss in Tucson. The singing stars were welcomed by a sold out crowd at the University of Arizona’s Centennial Hall. Most music fans are well aware that Plant was the frontman for the infamous band, Led Zeppelin. Since the band dissolved, Plant has appeared thrrough the years performing rock, pop, folk, and sometimes country music. Plant is always a welcome sight for Tucson music fans.
Krauss, twenty years Plant’s junior, has been a country, bluegrass fiddle player and singer from the early age of eight years old. She did her first recording at the age of 14. Her performances have resulted in the public’s renewed interest in bluegrass music. Pairing rocker Plant and Krauss, seemed like an unlikely move. But sometimes it’s the devation from what is expected that helps make magic. 2007’s “Raising Sand” album won them six Grammy Awards that included the two highest honors, album and record of the year.
Their sophomore album, last fall’s “Raise the Roof,” felt very much like a belated sequel. The newer album has not achieved the same pop-culture heights of the first album, but the magic hasn’t worn off for fans of the pair, who loved that the follow-up had T Bone Burnett back producing the second album. Both albums are all-cover collections except for a single that Burnett/Plant co-write on the latest one, “High and Lonesome”.
The two singers quietly took the stage with drummer Jay Bellerose, Dennis Crouch on the upright bass, multi-instrumentalist, on second fiddle, mandolin and dobro, Stuart Duncan. Alison’s brother, Viktor Krauss played guitars and some keyboards during the show. Guitarist JD McPherson filled out the band, on guitar.
A second fiddle means there must be a first, and needless to say that speaks to Krauss. Krauss doesn’t actually have credits for violin on a lot of the songs on the two albums she’s done with Plant. Krauss is world-class violinist and that counted tremendously during the concert. With Duncan, Krauss formed a string section for what probably counted as the highlight of the show for many, a version of Zeppelin’s classic “When the Levee Breaks.” Anyone can name “Levee” as a peak moment, but the real high point was the Zeppelin cover that immediately preceded it, “The Battle of Evermore.” Plant is the primary lead singer on a lot of the material in the show, especially with three Zeppelin songs being part of the set list. Plant played the maracas.
They opened with the opening song of their first album, the slow brooding “Rich Woman,” with the throbbing rhythm and the duo singing the sweet harmony lead vocals about how “she got the money, and I got the honey.” Duncan opened the Calexico cover “Quattro (World Drifts In)” playing a twangy nylon stringed guitar, and the two singers found another unique harmony to carry the lead. This is the song that Krauss said in an interview that convinced her they needed to sing together again,
Plant and Krauss worked steadily through “Last Kind Words Blues,” with Duncan supporting on acoustic dobro, and electric mandolin, both Duncan and Krauss playing violins that sounded just incredible together on “You Led Me to the Wrong.” Allen Toussaint’s “Trouble with My Lover” got a bit of the New Orleans back beat, with Krauss taking more of a lead on the vocal.
“Rock and Roll” was placed earlier in the set as the fifth song to assure the Zeppelin fans that Plant would not be boycotting the early Zeppelin favorites. Unlike the perhaps surprisingly faithful attitude taken on the other two more Zeppelin numbers, “Rock and Roll” deviated to be turned into a country hoedown.
There was nothing from Krauss’ solo/Union Station catalog. That, along with the fact that Plant carried the weight of speaking to the audience giving the idea that he was the leader of the duo. Plant seemed to be having as much fun as the fans.
The main set closed with a rocking version of the Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks.” They dove into the bluesy song, originally written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, with Krauss and Duncan both on violins, leading into the hottest jam of the evening. The Everly Brothers’ influence was felt during the night with “The Price of Love” and “Gone Gone Gone” (saved for the encore). It was a magical night that Tucson fans will gladly repeat anytime Plant and Krauss would like to return.
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