Concert Review: Robert Plant and Saving Grace
Robert Plant enjoys digging up obscure songs to present to his fans. Maybe it’s a response to the hyper-popularity of songs from his Led Zeppelin legacy. Or perhaps it's simply an enjoyable musical hobby. In the jazz world, Cecile McLorin Salvant does the same and she doesn’t have the heavy legacy of her past hanging over her like Plant does. The liner notes to Plant’s album Saving Grace (Nonsuch, 2025) hint that musical sleuthing is, indeed, a fun and continuing project for him. The notes discuss the origins of some of the songs, with references to multiple prior versions, alternative titles, contributing composers and cover versions. The notes conclude, “This is just a fraction of the references we found on the origins of these traditional songs. Welcome to the labyrinth…”
Saturday night at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Plant and his band, also named “Saving Grace,” played most of that album, interspersed with some Led Zeppelin favorites and a couple of miscellaneous, yet interesting additional tunes.
Plant formed the band Saving Grace in 2019 and planned to take the show on the road shortly thereafter, but COVID-19 put those plans on hold. Then, a reunion with Alison Krauss materialized in 2021, followed by a tour with her. The reunion produced Raise the Roof (Concord Records, 2021) as a follow-up to the multiple Grammy-winning Raising Sand (Rounder Records, 2007). Having completed that errand, Plant got back together with Saving Grace to pick up where they’d left off.
Saving Grace, both the band and the album, are primarily acoustic affairs. The band that played Saturday night was the same as on the album. A cello played by Barney Morse-Brown anchored the low end. Ollie Jefferson was the drummer. The band featured two other string players who, together, played well over a dozen instruments throughout the evening. Matt Worley had an arsenal of seven or eight acoustic string instruments flanking him. He also contributed backing vocals and sang lead on “Soul of a Man.” Tony Kelsey alternated between myriad acoustic and electric guitars, often opting for a highly synthesized sound that was effective at setting a mystical atmosphere so important in Plant’s 21st-century music.
Speaking of the current century, Plant has invested considerable time performing with female vocalists. Krauss is the most obvious, but folk/Americana singer Patty Griffin was a key part of Band of Joy, with whom Plant recorded and toured in the early 2010s. His current harmonizing partner is Suzi Dian, a relatively unknown musician (at least until now). Her voice compares favorably to Krauss’s but is perhaps just a touch huskier. Nevertheless, her harmonies with Plant Saturday night were exquisite and contributed mightily to the ethereal environment that seems to be Saving Grace’s stock in trade.
Plant, now 77, sounded great. The main difference between 2025 Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin Robert Plant is his range and a little less wailing. On a few of the Zeppelin tunes, seared so indelibly into Baby Boomer brains, he resisted big jumps into the stratosphere. Where the original from over 50 years ago may have featured an octave leap, on Saturday night, Plant usually stayed on the same earth-bound note. Otherwise, his distinctive tenor was intact and performed like it was still under warranty.
The evening began with one of those old songs that has been passed around among musicians in England and on this side of the Atlantic, primarily in the Appalachian Mountains. “Gospel Plough” has had several other names over the years, as well as spellings, including “Plow.” “Higher Rock” was of more recent vintage, having been composed by Martha Scanlan, a singer-songwriter from Montana. On this one, Plant pulled out his harmonica for some Delta-blues inflections.
The first Zeppelin cover appeared as the third song of the set. “Ramble On” fit in well with the minor-key atmospherics of the evening. As Plant has done throughout his career, to one degree or another, Saving Grace blends the sounds of traditional English folk music that goes back centuries with the similar sounds of American blues. Although the musical forms evolved mostly separately, they both rely heavily on minor keys and chords and blue notes. The subject matter is often similar as well, with tales of lost loves and untrue lovers. While “Ramble On” evokes J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the ambience remains the same. This song is one of those Zeppelin tunes that toys with contrasting light and heavy passages. On Saturday night, Saving Grace punched the heavy section of the song effectively despite the potential handicap of a cello holding down the lower register. And, in a move that would become traditional throughout the evening, Dian donned an accordion for this tune. Yes, Led Zeppelin with an accordion. Why not?
One of the non-Zeppelin, non-Saving Grace tunes soon appeared. “Let the Four Winds Blow” is a tune from one of Plant’s prior albums, Mighty Rearranger (Sanctuary Records, 2005). For this tune, Dian picked up an electric bass that looked a bit like Paul McCartney’s iconic Hofner bass, only a little smaller (the women’s version?). This gave the band a double low end, a bit like Dumpstaphunk in the Nick Daniels era with the two-bass attack.
Another Zeppelin tune soon appeared, “Four Sticks,” from Led Zeppelin IV (Atlantic, 1971). Since its inception, this song has managed to be both quirky and heavy simultaneously. Quirky, because of its time signature that alternates between 5/4, 3/4 and 6/8. Heavy, because, well, it’s Led Zeppelin. Unlike songs like “Ramble On,” the original version of “Four Sticks” was a driving tune from start to finish, although an interior passage in 6/8 gets a little dreamy. The version Saturday night, however, slowed down that 6/8 section to a soft ballad-like interlude that appeared more than once. Another divergence from the 1971 version was the three-part vocal harmonies during those soft parts. And then there was the accordion solo. At this point in the show, I considered whether those original Zeppelin tunes were lacking an accordion part, as well as some cello, for that matter. Conclusion: No, they didn’t need those instruments. But the Saving Grace versions did. It’s a different century, after all.
Plant confessed to being a fan of the 1960s band Moby Grape, so Saving Grace then launched into one of that band’s tunes, “It’s a Beautiful Day Today.” As the name implies, it’s a bright and sunny song and proved to be a sharp contrast to what came next.
That turned out to be one of the stronger cuts on Saving Grace, “As I Roved Out.” The album liner notes indicate that Plant has traced the origins of this song back to 1790 in Scotland. In the song, the protagonist is out for a walk on a cold winter’s night when he spies his former girlfriend. That brings back memories of her beauty and her treachery and he wishes he had never been born or had died young. He concludes by asking, “Did you ever feel such pain?” The distinctive aspect of this song is the delicious vocal harmonies. The recurring vocal harmony is F# above B natural, known as an augmented fourth and sometimes referred to as a “tritone.” The effect is so haunting that the Catholic Church had to get involved by banning the interval during the Renaissance era, labeling it “the devil’s interval.” When Plant and Dian hold those notes for almost 10 seconds at the end of the album version of the song, they definitely evoke a supernatural quality. Saturday night, they didn’t hold it quite as long, but it was highly effective, nonetheless.
This is another similarity between centuries-old British folk songs and American blues because theological officials long ago branded the blues as the devil’s music. This could eventually cause a problem for Plant if he has plans to someday climb that stairway to heaven.
Although “Everybody’s Song” was only composed about 20 years ago, it’s cut from the same cloth as “Roved.” It was written and performed by the indie rock band Low, from Duluth, Minnesota. Again, minor chords and haunting harmonies predominated. On this one, Plant and Dian did hold their last note for several seconds. Afterward, Plant commented on Denver’s altitude.
The other non-Saving Grace, non-Zeppelin tune followed, “For the Turnstiles,” written by Neil Young. Dian sang lead on this one, which carried on the ambience of the prior tunes and thus, fit right in. The main set concluded with another Zeppelin song, “Friends,” from Led Zeppelin III, (Atlantic, 1970). That one didn’t need much remodeling, as the original was already sonically adjacent to the Saving Grace vibe. Dian took the floating “ah-ah” part to good effect.
The encore featured three more Zeppelin tunes, “The Rain Song,” from Houses of the Holy, (Atlantic, 1973), and then a medley of “Gallows Pole,” from III, and “Black Dog,” from IV. “The Rain Song” is another one of those that alternates between the soft and the firm. Saving Grace’s version hewed to the original, but without an electric bass, it lacked a bit of the punch of the 1973 version when the storm began. “Gallows Pole” was an obvious choice for Saving Grace. It’s a centuries-old traditional folk song with many variations and different titles. The recurring theme of the various versions is someone sentenced to die pleads with the hangman or others for the commutation of his or her sentence through a well-placed bribe. “Black Dog” is one of Led Zeppelin’s most popular songs. On this one, Plant recited the first half of a lyric and waited for the audience to respond with the rejoinder. After a rough start on the first one, the crowd figured out what to do and sang on cue (and occasionally in tune).
The liner notes on Saving Grace thank some of Plant’s past collaborators, including Alison Krauss, Patty Griffin, T Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller “for opening the door…”
Set List
Gospel Plough
Higher Rock
Ramble On
Soul of a Man
Let the Four Winds Blow
Too Far From You
Four Sticks
It’s a Beautiful Day Today
As I Roved Out
Everybody’s Song
For the Turnstiles
Friends
Encore
Rain
Gallows Pole >>
Black Dog >>
Gallows Pole
Robert Plant and Saving Grace
November 15, 2025, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver
By Geoff Anderson
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