Robert Plant joined NPR’s World Cafe host Raina Douris to talk about Saving Grace, the band and the album that carries the same name. Plant and the band also performed three tracks live during the session: “It’s a Beautiful Day Today,” “As I Roved Out,” and “Everybody’s Song.” The episode is available to hear now, and it is an intimate look at a project that clearly means a great deal to him.
Plant describes ‘Saving Grace’ as “a song book of the lost and found.” The album took shape during lockdown, when Plant connected with a tight-knit group of musicians in the English countryside: vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown. Produced by Plant and the band, it was recorded over six years in the Cotswolds and on the Welsh Borders.
The source material is as eclectic as the setting. ‘Saving Grace’ draws on songs by Memphis Minnie, Blind Willie Johnson, Bob Mosley of Moby Grape, The Low Anthem, Martha Scanlan, Sarah Siskind, and Low. It is a record rooted in folk tradition but shaped entirely by the people who made it, and it lands with warmth and genuine depth.