Following his 2007 collaboration with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, which garnered six Grammys including Album of the Year, Robert Plant is once again tending to folkier roots. This time he’s teamed up with Nashville songwriter/musician Buddy Miller and singer Patty Griffin to create Band Of Joy.
Released just over a month ago, Band Of Joy is named for the group that Plant and drummer John Bonham were in together prior to Led Zeppelin. Except for one Plant-Miller original, the new album is an all-covers affair that features a few traditionals plus tunes by Los Lobos, Townes Van Zandt, Richard Thompson, and ’60s soul singer Barbara Lynn. Perhaps most surprisingly, Band Of Joy makes room for two tunes from Low, “Monkey” and “Silver Rider,” both of which appeared on the indie rockers’ 2005 album, The Great Destroyer.
I don’t recall how I first came to know Low’s “Monkey,” but the song’s creepy cool easily did me in. A similar atmospheric dread hangs over the cover found on Band Of Joy, though newly infused with a dimension of duality. Often singing in unison, Patty Griffin plays clear-voiced angel to Plant’s plotting devil; if tonight turns out as intended, the hands of one might certainly lead to the arms of the other.
Conjuring up eerie feelings of danger ahead, I suggest putting “Low” high on your Halloween party playlist:
Purchase Band Of Joy – “Monkey” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.
