Plant is a Zen master who has always marched to his own flute. So it's almost fitting that he's forgoing a much-rumored Led Zeppelin reunion tour in order to revive the band he fronted in the mid-Sixties. First time around, Band of Joy were a British blues-rock footnote. Now they're an American roots crew in which Plant shares vocal duties with alt-country star Patty Griffin. The first offering from Plant and Band of Joy's forthcoming album, "Angel Dance" is a bluegrass cover of a 20-year-old Los Lobos lullaby, with a sound that recalls Plant's Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss. Over some mandolin-picking and a fat, subtly distorted low end, Plant punctuates lyrics of fatherly self-assurance ("Goodbye, don't cry/Tomorrow, bring us a brand-new day") with classic predatory aahs and uhhs straight out of "Whole Lotta Love." The result is sweet, elegant NPR folk that still swings like Satan's barn door.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."