Review Summary: Everybody's songs.
Robert Plant loves the music he loves. He loves it more than he loves himself or his reputation. That is what drives
Saving Grace to be as memorable as it is.
On his new album, Plant makes a move that is as surprising as it is astute: he relegates his own performances down the billing. In the case of co-vocalist Suzi Dian, this is literally in plain sight - there she is, front and centre on the album cover above the big bison. On the likes of ‘As I Roved Out’ and ‘Soul of a Man’, Plant is shadowing Dian’s willowy timbre. Then you have ‘Everybody’s Song’, in which Plant and Dian nestle together for safety under a truly torrential flamenco performance from guitarist Tony Kelsey. Showcasing Robert Plant is not what
Saving Grace is here to do.
‘Everybody’s Song’ is a deviation from the mean of
Saving Grace in its lack of restraint. More typical is the sunset funeral call ‘I Never Will Marry’. Plant and Dian sing together, almost acapella, and then… and then… the cello. By Barney Morse-Brown. Oh, it is so wonderful. So reverential. So much more impactful for the absence of the other players. This is the sort of song that connects with that feeling deep in your soul when you say goodbye to a loved one.
These 10 songs are all covers/adaptations and the range of selections is cause for a double take. Plant, whose love of pre-war American blues has been an abide of his six decades as a musician, pulls ‘Gospel Plough’ out of the hills of Appalachia while ‘As I Roved Out’ (based on ‘Seventeen Come Sunday’) and ‘I Never Will Marry’ come from English and Irish folk respectively. More surprising is the appearance of songs on whose brow the dew of youth still glistens. Martha Scanlan’s ‘Higher Rock’ (2018), Sarah Siskind’s ‘Too Far From You’ (2015), The Low Anthem’s ‘Ticket Taker’ (2008) and the aforementioned ‘Everybody’s Song’ (2005) are all from this side of the millennium.
The album is named after the band with whom Plant collaborates. In addition to Dian, Kelsey and Morse-Brown, we have Matt Worley (banjo and cuatro) and Oli Jeffersen (drums). Plant and Saving Grace are not newly acquainted; indeed, they have been playing together since 2019. Nonesuch Records’ press release for the album describes singer and bad as “drawn together by a shared love of roots music—of blues, folk, gospel, country and those tantalizing sounds that lay in between”. The sounds range from schmaltzy to spooky, all tuned inwards, and my favourite moments are when the line-up dances together. Plant and Dian sing in harmony with the band behind, then pause, wait, continue… and Saving Grace move with them.
I love these moments because they sum up this album’s most endearing trait: the love that all musicians have for their adaptations. That is what shines the brightest.
