For his follow-up to Raising Sand, his multi-everything collaboration with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett, Robert Plant is teaming up with some of the musicians from that album such as Buddy Miller and bringing in new folks like singer Patty Griffin to play his latest spin on Americana called Band of Joy. 
True Percy fans know that Band of Joy is the name of the group that Plant and John "Bonzo" Bonham were in before they got the hen-picked by Jimmy Page to join Led Zeppelin.The 2010 edition of Band of Joy played an intimate showcase show Sunday night at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC to promote their eponymous new record, which comes out today. One lucky attendee was "Super" Dave Walsh, who in addition to being my brother, is one of the preeminent Zeppelin authorities on the East Coast. He filed this dispatch:
I got to The Bowery Ballroom at about 7 pm, about 30 minutes before the doors were supposed to open. There were about 100 or so people in front of me. At about 7:50 they let us in. After hanging out in the bar, I grabbed a spot just to the right of the stage five or six feet away. What an intimate venue. It was a bit cramped, but to be expected with Standing Room Only seating and an artist of The Golden God's stature.
Robert Plant and Band of Joy came on just after 9 pm and played for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. He was in incredible voice. His band was quite tight and Patty Griffin complements the band greatly with her vocals. Robert opened with Low’s "Monkey" They played a wide range of songs — from the current Band Of Joy album, Raising Sand, past solo efforts, plus four nicely reworked Zeppelin cuts: "Misty Mountain Hop", "Houses Of The Holy", "Rock And Roll" and "Gallows Pole":
While introducing "Harm's Swift Way" "by the great Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt," Plant mentioned the great American music from Tennessee, Texas etc. I shouted out "Memphis!" He said "Memphis is good too". Pretty cool - not the kind of thing that happens at MSG.
The Band of Joy closed with the standard "And We Bid You Goodnight," a tune the Grateful Dead used to close with sometimes as well. All in all a great show and memorable one.
After the show, I made my way downstairs to the bar. I was there for about ten minutes when Band of Joy members Darryl Scott and Buddy Miller entered the bar area. I told them how much I enjoyed the show. I mentioned to Buddy about my Memphis comments to Robert during the show. He said it's quite tough to hear anything up there. Then he said Robert would be down in a few minutes, so I was psyched that I was probably going to meet Robert Plant himself.
A minute or two went by and a Bowery security man comes up to me and asks me for my badge. Well, I didn't have one and didn't realize that this was an after-show party for Rounder Records guests only. It was so easy to access this area and there was no notice of this being private. I was kindly escorted from the area. Oh, well. I didn't get to meet Robert, but at least I got to talk with Daryl and Buddy for a bit. TCB.
Buy Band of Joy on iTunes here.
Here's a nice version of "Houses of the Holy" from the Bowery:
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