Robert Plant with Saving Grace and Suzi Dian with special guest Rosie Flores

On Saving Grace, which was six years in the making, Plant and this group of distinguished musicians—vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown—explore the evolution of roots music both vintage and modern. The band members were drawn together by a shared love of roots music—blues, folk, gospel, country, and the sounds that lay in between. Saving Grace began at Plant’s home on the Welsh borderlands in 2019; this new collective of like-minded collaborators had been experimenting for barely a year, even serving as an unheralded opening act on a handful of dates for Fairport Convention, when the pandemic intervened and any formal plans were temporarily shelved.

Once protocols permitted, Plant and Saving Grace began to record informally in a barn setup or outdoors, then booked themselves in small venues without fanfare. The self-produced album breathes fresh life into songs by Bob Mosley (Moby Grape), Blind Willie Johnson, The Low Anthem, Martha Scanlan, Sarah Siskind, and more.