Monday's Music Moves Me: Unconventional Duets

Welcome to another episode of Monday's Music Moves Me. This a bloghop. If you want to see who else is playing or sign up to join the fun you can visit this site. I hope your minds are open to let your feet dance in this genre bending and swapping event. Today's theme is unconventional duets. The theme was Stacy's idea.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Robert Plant will always be known as the singer from the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin. Alison Krauss is gifted with a beautiful voice whose music falls in somewhere in the contemporary bluegrass, country, category. The two musicians came together for a platinum selling, multi-Grammy Award winning album.

"GONE, GONE, GONE"

U2 AND BB KING

U2, the Irish Rock Band who fills stadiums with their tours, is quite different from blues legend BB King. However, they got together for a few songs and had some success.

"When Love Comes to Town"

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

A Beatle and the King of Pop together.

"Say, Say, Say"

Is Paul McCartney and the surviving members of Nirvana more unconventional?

Paul and Nirvana

"Cut Me Some Slack"

Taylor Swift and Def Leppard

Taylor Swift went from a Country Artist to become a Pop Empire. Somewhere along the way she teamed up with these rockers...

"Pour Some Sugar on Me"

I could go on and on but I think I will leave you with these five.

Monday;'s Music Moves Me: Autumn Edition

Robert Plant and Alison Krause "Killing the Blues"

The lyrics in the first verse capture the romance of the season.

But Fall is more than just leaves, sometimes there is the cold "November Rain"

Of course, "Ramble On" combines Autumn Leaves and Rain

Well I have a lot of travel planned this month, but I should be blogging before November but this is a great song..

Hope you enjoy and see you soon!

Battle of the Bands: When the Levee Breaks

Storms to the left Irma and storms to the right Harvey plus some showers have me thinking of the classic song "When the Levee Breaks" made famous by Led Zeppelin. It is on the famous fourth album. It rocks, I heard it once at a rain delay at a baseball stadium and the drums really came through. I'm avoiding that version.

Contender One: The Original Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie

Contender Two: Alison Krauss

Vote for the one you like the best  in the comments and I will be back in a week or so with results. If you are looking for more battles check the master list here. I'll be back with a new post soon.

Happy Birthday: Robert Plant

Today is Robert Plant's 69th birthday. When we celebrate a musician's birthday on my blog that means plenty of music and today will be no exception.

Last week Robert Plant gave us the presents by announcing an upcoming release and sharing the first single from that album. Here it is for your enjoyment..

                 "The May Queen" from Carry Fire which will be released October 13, 2017

               Working down his career here is "Rainbow" from his previous release..

From the Band Joy..."The Only Sound that Matters"

Yes he was in another Band of Joy "For What it's Worth"

Robert Plant with Alison Krauss...

"Shine it all Around" from Mighty Rearranger"

"When the World Was Young" with Jimmy Page

From 1993 "Calling to You"

"Tie Dye on the Highway"

"Ship of Fools"

I could go on three more solo albums, The Honeydrippers before I even get to that Led Zeppelin Band. Well I hope you enjoy these and I will be back with a Monday Music Moves Me post.

Battle of the Bands Results: Fortune Teller

Another blow out on the Battles of the Bands. It was rigged! How was it rigged? I liked all artists who were involved.

The results were 12-3 in favor of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. If I was going to vote I think I would have given the nod to the Stones. I like that early, vintage Stones sound. 

Some of you mentioned Alison wasn't featured as much on this song. That is correct. Some tracks on the disc are truer duets than others. Both Alison and Robert were given songs to take the lead in as well. In this case Robert was given the green light.

I think the real hero of the Raising Sand project is T-Bone Burnett. His production got mixed reviews in the comments. However, he has a golden finger when it comes to production. Handling two big vocals (and  perhaps egos) Burnett was able to create a musical masterpiece that dominated the Grammy Awards.

I must admit it was cool to see him play guitar as well. As you know on my results posts I feature additional music. Instead of the obvious choices of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss I am going to choose T-Bone Burnett.

"Driving Wheel"...

"Shut it Tight"

Here he is with Robert...

 I will leave you with this one...

Battle of the Bands: Fortune Teller

One of the greatest songwriters in New Orleans and perhaps the World passed away recently. I paid tribute to him with this post. His songs offer so many choices so I will narrow it down to one.

The rules are simple I pick a song and present a couple of bands battling it out with the song. You pick the one you like best by casting your vote in the comments. The why's and other comments are always welcomed.

Please check out the other battles:

 list of Battle of the Bands participants..

 I snagged it from STMcC Presents 'Battle of the Bands': 

@ ‘FAR AWAY SERIES’ by clicking HERE.
@ ‘TOSSING IT OUT’ by clicking HERE.
@ ‘YOUR DAILY DOSE’ by clicking HERE.
@ 'BOOK LOVER' by clicking HERE.
@ 'CURIOUS AS A CATHY' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THE SOUND OF ONE HAND TYPING' by clicking HERE.
@ 'DCRELIEF - BATTLE OF THE BANDS' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THIS BELLE ROCKS' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THE DOGLADY'S DEN' by clicking HERE.
@ 'CHERDO ON THE FLIPSIDE' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'ANGELS BARK' by clicking HERE.
@ 'JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE' by clicking HERE.
@ 'WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME' by clicking HERE.
@ 'J.A. SCOTT' by clicking HERE.
@ 'NOVELBREWS' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'HOLLI'S HOOTS AND HOLLERS' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'QUIET LAUGHTER' by clicking HERE. 

It's a win win really. They get another visit and they treat you with some more battles featuring cool songs, musicians and bands!



Today's song "Fortune Teller"

Contender One: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Contender Two: The Rolling Stones

Short and sweet today. One great song writer. One of the greatest Rock and Roll bands, one of the greatest voices in Rock and the awesome voice of Alison Krauss. I hope you enjoy! It is all up to you, just vote in the comments for the one you like the best! I went to the Fortune Teller and she told me the winner is...stay tuned!

Robert Plant Birthday Celebration

It is the third year in a row I have marked Robert Plant's birthday with a blog post. This time I am dubbing it a celebration. When I mark someone's birthday on the blog I do celebrate their work with some clips so it is not a stretch to call it a celebration.

Robert Plant onstage in 2011 at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC photo by me..



The first time I blogged about his birthday I celebrated John Hiatt's birthday as well. You can enjoy that post here. Here is a link to last year's post. Sharing the links because they contain additional music so you can celebrate a bit longer.

This one is dedicated to my Battle of the Bands friends. They may be thinking "It's been a long tome since I Rocked and Rolled" considering my recent contests in that wonderful blog hop.

Led Zeppelin "Rock and Roll" live from Madison Square Garden...

To those who like my musical blends if late here is Robert Plant with Alison Krauss enjoy.."Killing the Blues"...

More in that in vein but different Robert Plant and the Band of Joy.."Harm's Swift Way"

Something rare from the first Band of Joy before Led Zeppelin.."I Gotta Find My Baby"

From his latest release "Rainbow"...

To some he is a Golden God, to others he was the "Tall Cool One"..

Going to end it with "Thru with the Two Step"

Hope you enjoyed the celebration! What is your favorite Robert Plant song, memory? Feel free to share in the comments. I will be back soon with a new post!

Happy Birthday John and Robert

Today I am going to celebrate two birthdays on my blog. John Hiatt turns 61 and Robert Plant turns 65. I thought I would pass on Plant since I covered his concert this summer and I had just posted about Led Zeppelin's birthday but I thought 65 was quite a milestone.John Hiatt is a great songwriter. The best way to celebrate these artists is through their music so sit back and enjoy..

Here is John Hiatt with Sonny Landreth (one of the best slide guitarists on the planet) performing a song B.B. King and Eric Clapton made famous "Riding with the King"

We will start the Robert Plant celebration with "In the Mood"

This song is perhaps my favorite John Hiatt song "Have A Little Faith In Me"

Yes this is a cover song, here is Robert Plant from his Honeydripper days.."Sea of Love"

Here is John Hiatt with a song you might know "Perfectly Good Guitar"

Here Robert Plant covers the beautiful "Song of the Siren" from his Dreamland project...

Here is John Hiatt performing "Thing Called Love" with the great Bonnie Raitt...

Stepping away from the covers with Robert Plant here is "Ship of Fools"

Both artists may be in their 60s but literally I could keep adding songs from both of them all day. I could go back to Roberts pre-Zeppelin days, or the Led Zeppelin days, continue on his solo years, I didn't even touch on his Alison Krauss project, or his new Band of Joy, there is simply so much. John Hiatt has written songs performed by Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jimmy Buffett and many more. I shared a few songs but trust me he has  written so many more gems. I thank them both for their music, I look forward to what music they might still create, and I wish them both a Happy Birthday! 

Alison Krauss

Cool, the blog is working again. Sorry, I haven't been posting lately due to some technical problems. A week ago, I had the privileged to see Alison Krauss and Union Station at Wolftrap in Vienna, Virginia a week ago Sunday.

A pretty easy review to do considering Alison's angelic voice and Union Station's talents. You can read my review here. Here is a taste of what I got to see and listen too. A taste of what you missed. She opened with this song:

The opening act was the band Dawes. I would have like to have heard more from them but they were only allotted about 20 minutes. Here is a song they performed but from another venue:

More blogs to come!

Robert Plant New Album and Tour

Robert Plant will have a new album coming out, with another new band.No, he did not do another album with Alison Krauss however it appears it will be in the same sort of genre. It will be his second release on Rounder Records. Plant will do a 12 city mini-tour before launching into a larger tour later this year.

You can read my entire article here.

I am also going to update the you tube area with some Robert Plant related videos. I have been a slacker updating that side. Really, March and April I was really swamped with writing on top of my regular stuff. This month will be busy but hopefully not as busy. I will return to making more blog appearances and other news...

Alison Krauss/Robert Plant Tour dates

A second leg of U.S. Tour dates has been announced! They will also be playing at the New Orleans Heritage and Jazz Festival. If you are a music lover I highly recommend that festival. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will play Bonnaroo. I know the die hard Led Zeppelin fans are disappointed since it was rumored Led Zeppelin would be headlining the festival.

Here is a link for tour dates: Link

I am really looking forward to the tour. I like both artists a lot. I am also really impressed by T-Bone Burnett.