Rounder

The original Band of Joy – circa 1965-68 – earned a footnote in rock history for providing rock and roll with one Robert Plant. Perhaps because he’s a nostalgic fellow at heart, Plant’s resurrected the Band of Joy name, and while the new group likely bears little resemblance to its predecessor, it’s a worthy tribute to Plant’s roots in core Americana, British folk balladry, early rock and roll, soul, primal blues and West Coast psychedelia. Without straying too far from the formula that earned him and collaborator Alison Krauss an Album of the Year Grammy for 2007’s Raising Sand, Plant, assisted by co-producer Buddy Miller, applies his still-rapturous pipes to interpretations of tunes by an array of writers ranging from Richard Thompson to Townes Van Zandt to the Irish band Low.