A recap of some shows and LA Music Scene recommendations for the end of 2021 – Robert Pant and Allison Kraus collab, Love Revisited, Dime Box, Uni Boys, the Walking Trees, Billy Idol’s latest single.
Originally LA Music Scene was going to write about the band Rival Sons’ recent concerts in Los Angeles. However, after hearing less than stellar reports on their closing concerts, we decided to go another way and offer up a potpourri of recent offerings from the world of music. Yes, we passed on Rival Sons’ last concert in Orange County at the House of Blues because as one concert goer put it, “there were no goosebumps!”
Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant’s recently released collaboration with Allison Krauss titled “Raise The Roof” is a noteworthy Blue Grass genre and is a departure from his screaming Led Zeppelin frontman days. Hisvocals blend smoothly and flawlessly with Krauss who is a seasoned Blue Grass veteran performer with the voice of an angel. The pair croon their way through such tunes as “Can’t Let go,” “It Don’t Bother Me” and “High And Lonesome” with a quiet strength that drives its listeners wild with anticipation for what is coming next.
However, this isn’t Plant’s first soirée with Krauss as they’d teamed up for a 2007 release titled “Raising Sand.” My favorite off of that one was a remake of “Fortune Teller.” In 2009, the duo swept the Grammy Awards in all the categories they were nominated in: Best Contemporary Folk/Americana album, Overall Album Of The Year, Best Country Collaboration with vocals, Best Pop Collaboration. Yet, this was a first at the time for Plant who, up to that point, had not one for a song or album. In 2014, Led Zeppelin won Best Rock album for “Celebration Day.” A few Hall of Fame awards and a Lifetime Achievement award, but not “Best of.”
Make no mistake, we adore Plant through all of his incarnations from Led Zeppelin and to his solo work to his collaboration with Krauss, and have seen him in concert three times. When he finished his concert in Fresno my journalist friend Debbie Speer and I went over to the university to a friend who was manning the school’s radio station and played a set of songs to say goodbye to Plant…we knew he paid attention to college radio at the time.
This was in spite of the fact that a bunch of jocks had rushed the stage at the Fresno concert and I was slammed up against the stage. I thought that I was done for when Speer came up and yanked me out of the mob. Speer did save my life that night and I owe her…big time. Turns out she had played “Powerpuff” football when she was a kid.
The last time the LA Music Scene saw Plant in concert was at the Universal Amphitheater in 1990. It was an awesome show and was on cloud 9 when a roadie named Dick came out from back stage with a friend of mine to tell me that Plant and Led Zeppelin axman Jimmy Page would be going on tour together the next year… gave him the businesscard for my nightclub “The Cave.”
It was around this time that we had agreed to dance with the soldiers at 29 Palms Marine Base for the USO and ended up on the cover of the LA Life section of the “Daily News” dancing with a soldier. Plant’s song “29 Palms” reminds me of that wonderfully magical night.
The first time I ever heard Led Zeppelin was at Marie Clewley’s pad in Panorama City when “Whole Lotta Love” came on the radio and we took off to a record store on Victory in Van Nuys. We pounded on the door of the place until a guy answered and opened back up to buy the albumit came off of – “Led Zeppelin II.” Clewley is a friend from college, the same college that we had met Speers at sometime later while studying journalism.
Plant’s “Tie Dye on The Highway” always evokes a line from a poem I wrote that was published in the “ZoSo Magazine” some years ago:
“She remembers the taste of love’s forbidden fruit and the stallion and the mare prancing along the sands of Kashmir. “
On Sunday, November 28, 2021 LA Music Scene went to see Love Revisited’s last show for 2021. As was to be expected, the show rocked and many members of the Love tribe were in attendance to witness the music that defined our generation and keeps picking up, up and coming generations as can be seen at any gig they play. The Federal upstairs was packed and enjoyed by all. A person that the LA Music Scene dated back in the 1990s even came to see the show with a friend. We had no idea he was a Love fan.
At the Love Revisited show back in June of 2018 we had snapped a photo of Love Revisited’s drum case which had the band’s logo printed on it and we decided to use it for this year’s Christmas cards. Love revisited played songs from “Forever Changes” and “De Capo” and was met with enthusiasm by their audience.
Opening for Love Revisited was a band called “Dime Box” which is in reference to a practice many decades ago of putting a “dime box” on the stage where an act was performing so that the audience could pitch their dimes into it to tip the performers. Among the songs they performed are “Amanda Ruth,” “Cotton Pickin’,” “All of Nothing” and “What Went Wrong.” Must confess that at first we kept calling them “Dime Bag” and found their name’s source enchanting enough to write about it. The act was great and hope to hear from them again. Their music is Americana.
New to the world of Rock N’ Roll stardom are two acts that super manager Vicky Hamilton has recommended to the LA Music Scene; Uni Boys and the Walking Trees. Both sound great and are young up and coming artists. Coming out of London, England with a Punkish edge, The Walking Trees are crafting a piece titled “Creating Lines” and should be announcing tour dates for 2022 soon. Uni Boys released “Rock N’ Roll Dream” in August 2021 and it has a great groove to it. Uni Boys are local guys looking for some action. Both acts are on Instagram.
Don’t miss Debbie Speer’s article on Hamilton for Pollstar by visiting my Twitter page and scroll until you find it at #musicmaven9. It is titled “Hamilton’s Appetite For Discovery.”
In closing, LA music Scene would like to recommend to its readers to check out Billy Idol’s recent release “Bitter Taste” as it has a nice beat to it with interesting riffs and the official video is powerful…especially the end where Idol sings “you shoulda left me way back by the side of the road.” Powerful music, lyrics and voice by Idol and I don’t think we’ve heard such excellent crafting since “White Wedding” and, yes, there are goose bumps with this song.