Robert Plant and Saving Grace release Gospel Plough as second single

Robert Plant and his band Saving Grace have released Gospel Plough, the second single from their forthcoming album Saving Grace, due September 26 through Nonesuch Records. The track continues the group’s exploration of roots music through a contemporary lens, transforming a centuries-old African American spiritual into a hypnotic folk-tinged ballad. The album, a 10-track collection described as a “song book for the lost and found,” was recorded over six years in the English countryside and the Welsh borders, and blends blues, gospel, country, and traditional songcraft with a modern sensibility.

Saving Grace marks a long-in-the-making project for Plant and a distinguished cohort of players: vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown. The group first came together in 2019 for intimate theater shows, and after a hiatus of several years, they regrouped to complete the album, which also features reimaginings of tracks by Memphis Minnie, Bob Mosley, Blind Willie Johnson, Martha Scanlan, Sarah Siskind, and Low Anthem, among others. The project’s origin during lockdown has been described as a...