All pics by Martha Haynes

Set List included

Black Dog

Down To The Sea

Angel Dance

Black Country Woman

Houses Of The Holy

Central Two O Nine

Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go

In The Mood

Ramble On

Gallows Pole

Encore

Rock And Roll

A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall

As the crowd waited for Robert Plant and The Band of Joy to take the stage at the Wanee Festival on the banks of the Suwanee River in Live Oak, Florida last Friday night at 6:30 p.m. EDT, there were mumblings about whether he would do any Led Zeppelin songs in the set scheduled just prior to the Allman Brothers Band. Any fears of a LZ-free performance were dispelled when the opening notes of “Black Dog” filled the balmy north Florida evening. Plant and the Band of Joy played full on and the crowd responded in kind. It was a love fest from the first note to the encore ending with Dylan’s “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”.

Plant seemed comfortable in the Spanish moss studded oak-shaded outdoor setting, commenting between the initial songs, “It’s been a long time since I could see anybody…because it’s usually dark! This is a nice stage!” He introduced the some 20,000 festival goers to several songs from the new album, saying, “This is an interesting afternoon for the Band of Joy.” Starting with “Angel Dance”, he led the band through “House of Cards”, “Monkey”, “Central Two O Nine”, and others. Buddy Miller hammered out an inspired solo on “Gallows Pole”, and both Patty Griffin and Darrell Scott took solo turns.

Led Zeppelin fans were far from disappointed, singing along with “I’m In the Mood for a Melody”, “Houses of the Holy”, “Rock and Roll”, and “Ramble On”. Plant’s voice was particularly haunting and beautiful on “Please Read the Letter”. He seemed to be having a good time and enjoyed the crowd as much as we loved him, noting, “You make a lot of noise, considering there’s no roof on this place!”

Review Martha Haynes