“Robert Plant Shocks Fans With Surprise Album Drop:Get Ready Ready For a Rockabilly Revolution!
Since the official dissolution of Led Zeppelin in 1980, Robert Plant has largely maintained a distance from the band. But throughout the years, especially on his current Can not Let Go summer tour with Alison Krauss, he has gone back and reworked a few songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s repertoire.
The pair released their captivating live rendition of the legendary country blues song “When the Levee Breaks” on Friday, June 7. The song is well-known for being amplified to arena-blasting proportions on Led Zeppelin IV. The 1929 song by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy is covered by the duo, who turn it into a melancholy country ballad and Celtic dirge that features fiddles and hand drums to enhance their layered vocals.
Their first new music release since their Grammy-nominated 2021 album Raise the Roof, the version they have been playing live since 2007 contains echoes of the Middle Eastern influences found on the 1994 Page and Plant album No Quarter live album. Krauss doubles his voice, adding an even more menacing feel to the already menacing arrangement. Plant croons, “Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan/ It is got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home.”