Review | Review: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss put on a magical four-star show

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

July 5 at the Budweiser Stage, Toronto

In the process of raising sand and raising the roof, they raised our spirits.

In what can only be described as an enchanting evening, two of music’s most distinctive voices — legendary rocker Robert Plant and bluegrass nightingale Alison Krauss, along with a dream team of sidemen — offered up a brilliant set of songs at Budweiser Stage Wednesday night under the umbrella of Americana, but whose roots stemmed from numerous genres.

Before you ask, yes, vintage Led Zeppelin songs were prominent in the mix but reimagined in such a manner that it sometimes took a few bars before familiarity set in. Once it did, the listener was compensated with highly imaginative, tasteful and mind-expanding renditions that offered left-field moments of pure aural pleasure and satisfied the palates of those searching for something other than copycat playbacks of the original records.

Performing against a billow-curtained “ballroom” backdrop, the duo’s first Toronto appearance in 15 years began with a pair of numbers from their 2007 Grammy Album of the Year “Raising Sand”: the New Orleans obscurity “Rich Woman” by Li’l Millet and His Creoles, and the Allen Toussaint-penned “Fortune Teller.”

“Rich Woman” began with a brisk but relaxed tempo goaded by the reverberating guitar of JD McPherson before the resplendent Krauss and the handsome and trim Plant joined each other at the microphones to share lead vocals, followed by the equally ringing “Fortune Teller” with which the 74-year-old took his first lead, with his counterpart’s angelic singing providing harmony.

“Are you ready to rock?” Plant inquired of the receptive crowd.

“Tough!” he joked, plunging into the first of two selections from 2021’s “Raise the Roof,” as things took a livelier turn with “Can’t Let Go” before settling back into an understated groove with the first Everly Brothers cover of the night, “The Price of Love,” tendering the first Krauss lead vocal of the 90-minute set.

Then Plant repeated his initial question.

“Are you ready to rock?”

Fiddler Stuart Duncan launched into an elaborate intro that revealed itself to be the Led Zep classic “Rock and Roll,” but reworked as country blues with Plant restraining himself from singing full bore, yet offering a take as potent as the original.

On “Please Read the Letter” — a Plant and Jimmy Page original — Krauss performed her own lyrical phrasing on fiddle; although she and Duncan are both technical prodigies capable of playing circles around each other, Krauss left the more difficult passages to her sideman and focused on providing more ambient nuance.

This relinquishing of the heavier lifting was due in no small part to the stellar accompanists the tandem employed as backup: drummer Jay Bellerose was a constantly driven tastemaker, using everything from brushes to mallets to deliver rhythmic diversity on his kit. Dennis Crouch on standup acoustic bass and Alison’s esteemed brother, Viktor, on multiple stringed instruments filled out the exquisite sound, and both McPherson — who had opened the show with a fine, but unremarkable set — and Duncan on guitar, fiddle and mandolin were revelations.

Credit here should also be given to Plant, who has made a career of challenging himself and moving forward stylistically when he could easily have rested on his Led Zeppelin laurels. He’s always been a bit of a musicologist with a particular predilection for older and obscure blues, R&B and rockabilly, and teaming up with Krauss for the occasional album and tour plays to his strengths and love for this kind of music.

Toward the end of the show, the pair took it up a notch: a medley of “In the Mood” from Plant’s “The Principle of Moments” gave way to a stunning Krauss rendition of the Northern England traditional folk song “Matty Groves” before concluding with a dazzling “Gallows Pole.”

After an entertaining take on another Zep classic — “The Battle of Evermore” — the pièce-de-résistance arrived: a jaw-dropping rendition of “When the Levee Breaks” that began with the twin fiddle atmospherics of Krauss and Duncan before jumping into an extended jam of exotic rhythms and concluded with Plant almost whispering the tune’s final words.

Simply, it was masterful and that mastery continued with the encore tribute to the Everly Brothers, as Plant and Krauss wove their harmonies together for “Stick With Me Baby” and “Gone Gone Gone.”

The only mystery is why more people weren’t present to enjoy this heavenly duo, as both Plant and Krauss were in fine fettle: a liberal estimate of 10,000 attended in a venue that accommodates almost 16,000.

At one point, Plant said it had been 14 years between albums for him and Krauss, and joked it might be another 14 before they make it a trio.

Let’s hope the wait doesn’t last that long: the world could use more of this type of song.

A magical night — and a concert of the year contender.

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