Provogue/Mascot (label)
25 February 2022 (released)
28 January 2022
Beth Hart is an artist who always delivers, never spares herself her backstory and, from my perception of her, never half-asses anything. She did a version of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ at a live show a while back and was asked to do a whole album of Led Zep covers but refused because she could only do it if she was in the right headspace but had put all that anger behind her. Then, along came Covid and the frustrations of not being able to tour and the result has been this collection of Zeppelin classics.
Covering Led Zeppelin isn’t easy. All of the tracks here are rightly considered classics and it’s difficult to see how anyone can bring something to them that actually adds to the songs but when you have the vocal dexterity and sheer power of Beth Hart, coupled with the depth of emotion she has in her voice, then you have a chance. And when the producer is Rob Cavallo then the chances are greater and add to that, access to some superb musicians and you are clearly batting with power.
Hart doesn’t try to be Robert Plant in a dress, she brings a totally different level of sexuality (let’s face it, Plant was always about macho-sexuality and strut) and groove to the vocals and Cavallo’s production makes subtle changes to the songs with some strings and horns that fill in the gaps in the soundscapes of the originals.
For me, it is all about Beth Hart’s vocals and kicking off with ‘Whole Lotta Love’ somehow, her vocal brings the song a new dimension, an earthiness that is different from the ballsiness of Plant.
Listen to her on ‘Stairway To Heaven’, possibly the single most overplayed Zeppelin track ever, and there is a level of sympathy in Hart’s vocal that actually give the song a new dimension – its probably the first time in years that I have listened to ‘Stairway…’ without cringing.
‘No Quarter Babe’ has a chilling and almost occult feeling to it, with her vocals really amping up the mood and the strings creating a very different feeling to the original.
Zeppelin are/were iconic and it takes a great deal of talent to cover them without either parody or pastiche and I think Hart manages to create new versions of some very familiar numbers . Overall, a triumph.
