A previously unheard Robert Plant song titled “47 Roses” was released on the CD that accompanies Mojo Magazine’s October 2025 issue.
The cover story for the magazine’s 383rd issue is an interview with Plant published ahead of the release of his new album Saving Grace on September 26.
In the interview, Plant “regales us with classic tales and forthright views”, Mojo wrote in its announcement of the new issue.
The issue’s accompanying CD, titled Higher Rock, is a compilation of tracks from Plant’s solo career. It contains “47 Roses”, which seems to have been recorded for a planned sequel to Plant’s 2010 album Band of Joy.
The magazine reports that the track was “written with Buddy Miller and Marco Giovino”, according to Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis.
“It’s basically about the bridge that crosses the Mississippi between Lula, Mississippi, birthplace of Son House, and West Helena, Arkansas, where Sonny Boy Williamson used to present the King Biscuit Flower Hour,” Plant explained in the magazine issue. “About circumstances I was aware of in the middle of that time inspired by crossing that bridge.”
The compilation CD contains two other Plant rarities. “The Blanket of Night” is an Elbow cover that was previously only available on the 2016 British Red Cross charity album The Long Road. And “Too Much Alike” was previously only available on Plant’s 2020 compilation album Digging Deep: Subterranea.
The history of Band of Joy Volume 2
A planned second Band of Joy album, titled Band of Joy Volume 2, was announced through Plant’s website in 2020. “Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up – Part 1)”, a track from the “soon to be released album” was included on Plant’s 2020 compilation album Digging Deep: Subterranea.
Speaking to BBC Radio 6 Music later in 2020, Plant explained the song “originates in Buddy Miller’s downstairs front room,” Plant said. “Buddy Miller is a really great friend of mine and a great producer and he played with us on the Raising Sand tour with Alison Krauss and T Bone [Burnett]. He’s a very renowned Grammy-winning producer and arranger and makes fantastic records with his wife Julie.”
“I had a group called the Band Of Joy which we created after the Raising Sand tour had finished and Patty Griffin joined us and we had this amazing tour and amazing songs that we recorded.”
“And at the end of that tour, at the end of the Band Of Joy tour, Patty went off to work her album American Kid and Buddy and I started creating a Band Of Joy 2 and this was one of the things that we developed along the way.”
“It’s just the three of us. There’s Buddy, Marco Giovino on drums and myself and it’s one of about 13 pieces from that session that is hidden away in my cupboard.”
However, plans to release the second Band of Joy album seem to have been abandoned after 2020. When asked about the album by Mojo Magazine in 2021, Plant reportedly “winces at the notion of reconvening to complete it.”
A glimmer of hope came in 2022, however, when an email sent to subscribers of Plant’s official mailing list said that “during and around all the events this year, RP has been busy working in the studio refining new work from the Honeydrippers collection and reviewing the progress that was made with Band of Joy Vol 2″.
However, no release of Band of Joy Volume 2 or extra material from the Honeydrippers has been announced.
Here’s the tracklist for the compilation CD Higher Rock:
- Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation – Another Tribe
- Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation – Last Time I Saw Her (Remix)
- Robert Plant – Come Into My Life
- Robert Plant – 47 Roses
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Your Long Journey
- Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters – Embrace Another Fall
- Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation – Takamba
- Robert Plant & Band of Joy – Monkey
- Robert Plant & Saving Grace – Everybody’s Song
- Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters – Carry Fire
- Robert Plant – The Blanket of Night
- Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters – Arbaden (Maggie’s Baby)
- Robert Plant & Band of Joy Feat. Patty Griffin – Too Much Alike
- Robert Plant & Band of Joy – Cindy, I’ll Marry You Someday
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Polly Come Home
Having almost all of those songs already in my cupboard…this seems a rehash of past work?
the cd is worth the cover price of the magazine alone great value
I wish Robert would tour the UK with Alison Krauss. I missed their last visit. Also looking forward to the Saving Grace Album. They are a great band.