Robert Plant Books First U.S. Tour With New Band Saving Grace
Robert Plant mapped out the first U.S. tour with his his new band, Saving Grace.
The brief trek kicks off May 12 in Minneapolis and wraps May 23 in Washington, D.C. Tickets go on sale starting March 6 at 10AM local time at the singer's website. The Chicago date is on sale March 16 at 9AM CT, and an artist pre-sale launches March 4 at 10AM ET.
You can see the dates below.
Plant unveiled Saving Grace during several U.K. shows in 2019, beginning with a February gig in Shropshire, England. At that time, the music was described as being "inspired by the dreamscape of the Welsh Marches," covering a dynamic range "from a whisper to a scream."
The lineup features Suzy Dian (vocals), Tony Kelsey (mandolin, baritone and acoustic guitars), Matt Worley (banjo, acoustic and baritone guitars, cuatro) and Oli Jefferson (percussion).
Saving Grace paired the tour announcement with a live snippet of their dark, vibrant cover of Low's "Everybody's Song." Plant and Dian harmonize throughout the track over waves of guitar and pounding drums. (Plant previously covered "Monkey" and "Silver Rider," two other songs from the long-running indie-rock/slowcore band, on his 2010 LP, Band of Joy.)
You can watch the new clip below.
The band also has U.K. dates booked throughout 2020, though it's canceled a summer gig at the G! Festival in the Faroe Islands in response to the country’s annual whale hunting event, Grindadráp.
“We’re disappointed and annoyed with the cancellation," the festival's managing director, Sigvør Laksá, said in a statement. "We’ve been excited and happy with the massive interest and the positive reception to the announcement of Saving Grace – especially the Robert Plant fever that naturally comes with it. It seems somewhat unprofessional for these acts to pull out of a booking without any prior notice or attempt at constructive dialogue, which might have allowed us to address the artist’s concerns."
Laksá added that the cancellation "appears contradictory when an artist is happy to play in countries like Norway and Iceland – which carry out commercial whaling – which Mr. Plant has done in the past, even in 2019. ... This is a severe blow for the festival, which forces us to rethink our approach in producing the G! Festival.”
Plant has yet to announce an album with Saving Grace. His most recent studio project is 2017's Carry Fire, the second LP with backing band the Sensational Space Shifters. In a recent episode of his Digging Deep podcast, the former Led Zeppelin frontman noted that the latter group has accumulated "hundreds of hours of ideas, an unlimited amount of stuff that sounds amazing" but haven't figured out a direction for their next record.
In a November interview with Classic Rock, he said the Space Shifters had roughly "40 different instrumental ideas" pooled for their next collaboration.
In December, the singer issued a singles box set named after the podcast.
Robert Plant and Saving Grace Tour 2020
May 12 — Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theatre
May 13 — Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
May 15 — Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk Music: Maurer Hall
May 17 — Charleston, WV @ Mountain Stage – The Clay Center
May 19 — Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
May 20 — New York, NY @ The Town Hall
May 23 — Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre