Review: Robert Plant and the Sensational Shape Shifters

Throughout his career, Robert Plant has been interested in music from all over the world. Starting with the blues that originated in the deep south of the U.S., he has explored the sounds of Europe, Asia, Africa and all over America. The last couple of times through Denver, he employed Juldeh Camara, a North African musician who played various obscure stringed and percussive instruments. For this tour, Camara has been replaced by Seth Lakeman, primarily a fiddler, but one of those guys who can play about anything with strings. Forty-year-old Lakeman hails from England, perhaps bringing Plant’s worldwide musical quest full circle.

Lakeman opened last Saturday’s show as a solo act singing and accompanying himself on violin, viola, guitar and a lute/mandolin type instrument. His set consisted primarily of original songs telling tales of his home country including a story of the sinking of a fishing boat from a small town which took a sizable percentage of the village’s population straight to Davy Jones’ locker; somewhat reminiscent of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” During Plant’s set with his band, the Sensational Shape Shifters, Lakeman joined in on about half the tunes.

The current tour is in support of Plant’s latest album Carry Fire (Nonesuch, 2017). The album could be Volume II of the prior album, Lullaby and Ceaseless Roar (Nonesuch, 2014). Both establish a laid-back, mysterious minor key groove early on and keep it going through most of the tracks. Compared to the bombast of Led Zeppelin, Plant’s current sound on his albums is a Mercedes Benz roadster compared to a Harley Davidson with straight pipes. Both have their place. Both are fun to drive. They’re just different.

Plant and the Shifters have been together for a number of years now. They originally came together around 2005 for the album and supporting tour for Mighty Rearranger (Sanctuary, 2005). Back then, the band was known as the Strange Sensation. The current band features all the same members except for a new drummer. This band was interrupted by Plant’s dalliances with, first, Alison Krauss and then Patti Griffin.  Plant reconstituted the Strange Sensation as the Sensational Space Shifters for Lullaby and they’ve since been recording and touring fairly consistently since.

Now, on their third time through Denver since 2013 (plus their appearance in 2005), the band has established somewhat of a routine. Recently recorded songs are interspersed with Zeppelin nuggets and maybe a couple other surprises. And, some songs are approaching the status of standards because of their frequency of appearance. Interestingly, it’s neither a Zeppelin tune nor a Shifters tune that’s made the cut every time Plant has played Denver the last five times in a row. “I’m in the Mood for a Melody” was originally released on a post-Zeppelin solo album, Principle of Moments (Es Paranza, 1983). Several other Shifters and Zeppelin tunes were repeated as well, but what continues to keep a grip on the attention is the continual rearrangement and exploration of these tunes.

This is where Lakeman comes in. Whereas Camara lent an aura of brooding African mystery to the Shifters, Lakeman brings a similar minor key sensation but with unmistakable English folk flavoring. A notable example Saturday night was “Gallows Pole,” a traditional folk tune that appeared on Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic, 1970). In introducing the song, Plant traced its roots to Jolly Old England, but he further described the song’s immigration to America where it was adopted and raised by Leadbelly. The Led Zeppelin version of “Gallows Pole” starts slow and eventually picks up speed, but Saturday night’s version started fast and continued the hoe-down, rave-up intensity throughout. Lakeman stepped out front for a high-octane solo that could have originated in the Scottish Highlands, the Emerald Isle or the dark hollers of Appalachia. It was that aesthetic that Lakeman brought to much of the proceedings through the evening.

Another consistent entry on the set list has been Bukka White’s “Fixin’ to Die.” This one goes back to at least 1969 with Plant because during Led Zeppelin live sets, it frequently found its way into the traditional medley that would start and end with “Whole Lotta Love.” Saturday night, it was a stand-alone piece featuring Justin Adams on some yearning and churning guitar solos. Following the tradition established back in the ‘60s, “Whole Lotta Love” made an appearance, this time as the closer and amidst several other songs, as is its wont to do. One of those, “Sanntianna,” is an old sea shanty about a battle in 19^th Century Mexico; not your usual fare for a rock concert, but some fun nonetheless.

Plant’s 69-year-old voice remains in good shape although he has lost the upper-level screeches that helped make Led Zeppelin so edgy in its day. He still got fairly high, register-wise, on a few songs, most notably Zeppelin’s “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” On the highest reaches of this one and a few others, some pretty intense reverb/echo kicked in to either emphasize or assist Plant’s excursions skyward. 

So Plant can still rock. He just chooses to do some other things most of the time.

Set List

New World

Turn it Up

May Queen

Rainbow

That’s the Way

All the King’s Horses

Please Read the Letter

Gallows Pole

Carry Fire

Babe I Know I’m Going to Leave You

Little Maggie

Fixin’ to Die

Misty Mountain Hop

Encore

I’m in the Mood for a Melody

Bring it On Home/Whole Lotta Love/Santianna/Whole Lotta Love

The Band

Robert Plant, vocals, percussion

John Baggott, keyboards, vocals, percussion

Billy Fuller, bass, vocals

Justin Adams, guitar, mandolin, percussion, vocals

Dave Smith (from Boulder, CO), drums, percussion

Skin Tyson, guitar

Seth Lakeman, violin, viola