It’s a satisfying, full circle moment when Robert Plant and Allison Krauss close their summer set with “When the Levee Breaks.” Not just because of the continuing truth of the 80-year-old meteorological prognostication in an era when flooding is on the rise.
As in the first of two shows at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA, the two are bringing a palpable yet atmospheric feel of the 1929 blues song that Plant and his band had rocked up so much to end their bestselling Led Zeppelin IV that they freely added their own names to the songwriting credit of originator Memphis Minnie.
Like much of the rest of the set on a sizzling summer night, the two were bringing their thoughtful, expansive interpretations closer to the original nuggets of American music that so inspired them both. Still, the sold out crowd would give standing ovations only when they covered Zep songs, however differently arranged, which happened a couple of other times too.
Plant, at 75, with signature curls now a wild silvery mane, was steady on vocals, returning at times to the mercurial oscillations of his past band and his unexpected ad libs and yelps. No longer stalking the stage bare-chested like a rock god, he more often gestured like a courtly gentleman, particularly in deference to his collaborator Krauss, 52, who in her high necked blouse and jeans appeared like a Wild West schoolmarm.
Raised in bluegrass but with an affection for rock ’n’ roll, she harmonizes surprisingly well with Plant. And like that other seemingly odd recording duo, Norah Jones and Billy Joe Armstrong, they have found their North Star in the Everly Brothers—whose songs, it turns out, were heard as often as anything from Led Zep, with “The Price of Love” early in the set and two tuneful ditties, “Stick with Me Baby” and “Gone Gone Gone” to cap the encore.
Plant’s love for old American blues and R&B has always been constant. He led on Benny Spellman’s “Fortune Teller” early in the set and mentions in his band’s old “Rock and Roll”—“it’s been a long time since we did the stroll.” But the way they do that song now is almost tongue-in-cheek, done up despite its title more like a hoedown, led by Nashville ace Stuart Duncan’s fiddle and a percussive touch by drummer Jay Bellerose light years away from John Bonham’s original.
It was quite a remarkable band overall, with Duncan switching effortlessly from fiddle to mandolin to guitar; and the tasty Bellerose often playing both drums and percussion simultaneously, with shakers or other items in the same hand as the drumstick. Guitarist JD McPherson, who opened the show with a jaunty set with his own band, held his own on rock guitar early in the show before the tone settled into a kind of swampy atmospheric mist that carried from one song to the next.
It was surprising that Krauss, who has won awards for fiddling since 14, didn’t pick up her instrument until half way through the set. Most of her Grammys—and she’s second only to Beyoncé in the number of wins for a female—have been for her clear, affecting vocals, though. Even so, she didn’t lead on many songs, determined instead to support the collaboration at hand. It was satisfying that she filled some of this void by performing a solo a cappella “Down to the River to Pray” to begin the encores—something that’s not always included in the set.
Some of the Zeppelin songs fit surprisingly well among the dusty selections from such little known figures as Geeshie Wiley and Ola Belle Reed. The original version of “The Battle of Evermore,” also on Led Zeppelin IV, was on mandolin and had female vocals (from Sandy Denny); “Gallows Pole,” adapted from an English folksong, had the acoustic backing and death day woes of any other old time music. In the show, it came as part of a medley that began with “In the Mood,” Plant’s solo single from1982 and the old English ballad “Matty Groves.”
Plant mentioned a couple times how he was glad to be back to play the show that was originally scheduled a year ago but postponed at the last minute—not because of COVID, as it would have been the case a couple of years earlier, but because of air quality caused by drifting smoke from Canadian forest fires. The makeup dates made for a good warm up for the two to join the big touring Outlaw Music Festival later this month, on the bill with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, where their keen-eyed take on Americana will fit right in.
SETLIST
Rich Woman
Fortune Teller
Can’t Let Go
The Price of Love
Rock and Roll
Please Read the Letter
High and Lonesome
Last Kind Words Blues
You Led Me to the Wrong
Trouble With My Lover
In the Mood / Matty Groves / Gallows Pole
When the Levee Breaks
Down to the River to Pray
Stick With Me Baby
Gone Gone Gone
