Robert Plant's Saving Grace, his first album with a new band of distinguished players, what he calls “a song book of the lost and found," is out now. Its genesis was during lockdown, when Plant’s customary wandering was all but forbidden. It was in the English countryside that he connected closely to this diverse group of musicians—vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, cellist Barney Morse-Brown—who had a shared lean towards his corners of evocative song. Produced by Plant and the band and recorded over six years in the Cotswolds and on the Welsh Borders, Saving Grace features songs by Memphis Minnie, Bob Mosley (Moby Grape), Blind Willie Johnson, The Low Anthem, Martha Scanlan, Sarah Siskind, and Low.
Robert Plant's Saving Grace, his first to feature a new band of distinguished musicians, is out now; you can get it and hear it here. Accompanied by vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown, these ten songs explore the evolution of roots music both vintage and modern, from deep cuts by Memphis Minnie and Blind Willie Johnson, to treasured gems by Bob Mosley (Moby Grape), Martha Scanlan, Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's Low, Sarah Siskind, and The Low Anthem, an African-American spiritual, and more. “[Robert Plant and Suzi Dian] harmonize while the band reconfigures some of Plant’s favorite musical elements: the blues, Celtic picking, Arabic modes,” the New York Times said in naming Saving Grace one of fall’s Most Anticipated Albums. You can watch the new video for their reimagining of Moby Grape's "It's a Beautiful Day Today" here:
While Plant had already received great acclaim for his GRAMMY Award-winning forays into American roots music with singer and fiddler Alison Krauss—and alongside Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller, in his 2010 GRAMMY-nominated Band of Joy—Saving Grace began at his home on the Welsh borderlands. First united in 2019, Plant and the band members were drawn together by a shared love of roots music—of blues, folk, gospel, country and those tantalizing sounds that lay in between. They recorded informally in a barn setup and sometimes outdoors; across the album, the band incorporates elements of hypnotic, droning grooves, Malian desert blues, and psychedelic folk, with sounds that can seem mysterious, melancholic, and foreboding.
From serving as an unheralded opening act on a handful of dates for Fairport Convention, to touring extensively across the UK and Europe in recent months and years, Robert Plant and Saving Grace will soon perform for the first time in the US this fall. Their tour stops in fifteen North American cities, including shows at NYC's Brooklyn Paramount, Port Chester's Capitol Theatre, Chicago's The Vic, Los Angeles' United Theater, and others, with support from Rosie Flores. Robert Plant and Saving Grace will also return to the US in 2026, with the recent announcement of a headline performance at Big Ears Festival, following a ten-date UK tour just added for December. For details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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