Between Robert Plant teaming up with first Alison Krauss and now a hot pickin’ crew including Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott, and John Paul Jones turning up as the mandolinist in David Rawlings’ band as his latest bluegrass assignment, Led Zeppelin’s reunion as a Bill Monroe tribute band rather than heavy metal gods seems increasingly plausible.
Jones was a casually accomplished cog in a Rawlings Machine that played way above its opening act status. Essentially Rawlings’ long-time partnership with the sweetheart of the old-time murder ballad, Gillian Welch, reversed so that he’s out-front and she’s the harmonic embellishment, this is a machine with a heart as well as plenty of horse power. With three- sixths of Old Crow Medicine Show completing the line-up, the orchestrations of fiddle, mandolin, guitars, banjo and upright bass were rich and robust but beautifully tempered behind Rawling’s passionate singing and brilliantly inventive and expansive playing on his vintage Gibson guitar.
If I Hear Them All turned the ABC into a bluegrass church, Welch soon restored it to a honky tonk with her tale of the wayward Miss Ohio, and Sweet Tooth and Too Easy to Be Good offered the twin novelties of seeing Jones as one third of both a rakish fiddle trio and a dance troupe.
Without Rawlings’ guiding hand, Old Crow Medicine Show by comparison sounded harsh and callow but with obvious crowdpleasing energy and commitment. These last two qualities were channelled very effectively, however, with the reappearance of Rawlings, Welch and Jones for a finale that combined back porch informality with Grand Ole Opry standard pickin’ and singin’.
