Beth Hart - A Tribute To Led Zeppelin (2022)

Three years after her last studio album "War In My Mind", which made it to number six in the charts here, Beth Hart is back with a new album in 2022. Instead of her own songs, however, the American blues rock musician and singer and esteemed duet partner of Joe Bonamassa has this time taken the work of a legend as her model: "A Tribute To Led Zeppelin" is the name of her cover record.

On it, the Grammy-nominated singer ventures into one of her most profound projects to date, impersonating the voice of Robert Plant

The album's nine-song selection showcases the incredible spectrum in which Led Zeppelin moved, from powerhouse rock to psychedelic, folk, jazz, progressive rock, blues, funk, soul and beyond. Rumors about the album had been circulating for a couple of years. The driving forces behind the project were producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance), who was behind the controls on the previous album, and Doug McKean (Goo Goo Dolls, Adam Lambert, Gerard Way). Cavallo, who contributed some guitar parts himself, assembled a roster of top-notch musicians, including guitarist Tim Pierce (Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner), bassist Chris Chaney (Rob Zombie, Jane's Addiction, Slash), keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac (Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Rolling Stones) and drummers Dorian Crozier (Celine Dion, Miley Cyrus, Joe Cocker) and Matt Laug (Alanis Morissette, Alice Cooper). David Campbell (Muse, Aerosmith, Beyoncé) handled the orchestral arrangements. All that was missing was the final piece of the puzzle … the voice.

Fittingly, the singer had the song "Whole Lotta Love" in her live program for a long time. And she expressed her respect for Led Zeppelin as follows, "They had this huge, unlimited vocabulary. When I started digging deeper into Zeppelin, I realized what a great composer Page was, and I had no idea how erudite Plant was. You have to remember that they were just kids at the time, and Page has always been a genius at finding new ways to make new sounds when he's in the studio producing. It's phenomenal. They are the Beethovens of the modern era. They are insane; this is insane music."

Still, Hart initially decided against the project, saying, "I'm not going to do the whole album. To do Zeppelin, you have to be angry to hit the notes right. I can't do that; I've worked for years to get my anger under control," the singer said. Fortunately, her opinion was about to change: "Then came the pandemic and everything that goes with it. And now I'm pissed off. I called my manager and told Rob and Doug to send me all the music, because now I'm ready to sing the songs."

No sooner said than done: Besides "Whole Lotta Love", which became the opener of "A Tribute To Led Zeppelin", classics like "Kashmir", an enchanting version of "Stairway To Heaven", a funky cover of "The Crunge", the medleys "Dancing Days/When The Levee Breaks" and "No Quarter/Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Now", "Black Dog", "Good Times Bad Times" and finally the orchestral ballad "The Rain Song" made it on the record.

TRACKLIST

01. Whole Lotta Love
02. Kashmir
03. Stairway To Heaven
04. The Crunge
05. Dancing Days, Pt. 1
06. When The Levee Breaks
07. Dancing Days, Pt. 2
08. Black Dog
09. No Quarter
10. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
11. Good Times Bad Times
12. The Rain Song