“I was saved by this angel, Alison Krauss,” intoned Robert Plant from the stage of the Toledo Zoo amphitheater on Friday night, gesturing to his musical partner.
It was an emotional moment at an early summer concert that hit all the right notes.
Plant, the rock titan who formerly fronted Led Zeppelin, has been teamed with Krauss, the bluegrass songbird and fiddle player since 2007 when the duo teamed up to record the Grammy-winning Raising Sand, which critics and music fans ate up. The follow up album, 2021’s Raise the Roof further cemented the fact that the Plant-Krauss team up is one of the best musical collaborations in decades.
To a near capacity crowd, Plant and Krauss made magic. Clad in a black western shirt, Plant, 75, has kept his voice in remarkably great shape all these years, occasionally breaking out the glass-shattering high notes for which he was so beloved during his time with Led Zeppelin. Krauss, 52, possessing a crystal clear angelic voice that perfectly captures emotions ranging from joy to pain, also plays a mean fiddle, adding her own touch to the backing band’s amazing instrumentation.
The band opened with “Rich Woman,” as Plant and Krauss each emerged from opposite sides of the stage to meet in the middle, their voices perfectly in sync as guitarist JD McPherson (who also opened the show) performed an aggressive rockabilly solo. Krauss’s brother Viktor also plays in the band, lending his amazing bass skills.
Plant launched into a stomping cover of “Fortune Teller,” written by Allen Toussaint, and performed over the decades by many performers including The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Iggy Pop among others. Plant’s version, first heard on Raising Sand, isn’t the best version ever recorded (The Stones arguably take that honor), but it was still an awesome effort that did the job.
And yes, there were some Led Zeppelin songs interspersed throughout the set, including “Rock and Roll” from Led Zeppelin IV, “The Battle of Evermore” and “When the Levee Breaks.” Together, Krauss and Plant have given those Led Zep songs new life and inspiration. Before launching into “Rock and Roll,” Plant invited the audience to collectively “shake their hips,” and the crowd wildly obliged, clapping and cheering along with Plant.
Plant and Krauss did a great job of letting each other take the spotlight when it was their collaborator’s time to shine. As Krauss sang her ever-loving heart out on the song “The Price of Love,” an old song from The Everly Brothers, Plant shook the maracas and sang background vocals. When it was Plant’s turn to sing, Krauss deferred to her musical foil, occasionally playing the fiddle.
The show audience, which ranged in age from Boomers to Gen Z, was entertained from start to finish. There was a sea of Led Zeppelin t-shirts in the crowd and the older folks who had been around to see Led Zeppelin play live back in the ’60s and ’70s dazzled the younger generations with their stories of seeing Plant perform back in the day. It was a rare treat to hear Led Zeppelin songs performed by the original singer and there’s no telling when Toledo will get another chance to hear such music.
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