Robert Plant was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the 25th annual Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville, Tennessee on September 16.
The ceremony was held at the Ryman Auditorium in the city. Following his acceptance speech, Plant performed “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” and “Angel Dance”.
In his speech (which you can read in full below), Plant said: “We look at our world with concern and apprehension. How would Lead Belly sing it out in this maelstrom that we live in?”
NPR Music streamed the ceremony through its YouTube channel. Plant’s section lasts from 1:57:40 to 2:14:35:
A video of Plant performing “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” was also posted online:
Here’s Plant’s full speech from the ceremony:
Thank you, Buddy. My brother in arms. It’s a long way to Tipperary.
Such major, illuminating, beautiful talent tonight and talent is a very remarkable word. We use it in England for many other things.
But to say that my life has changed considerably in the last few years. In fact, 20 years ago today on a Nashville Sunday morning, I knocked on a door just up the street from here and I was welcomed as the door opened by the charming Alison Krauss and the formidable T Bone Burnett.
I crossed the threshold apprehensive and eager. I was welcomed with warmth and kindness into their worlds and the worlds within worlds as an amazing adventure unfolded for me.
Now, in the sixties – I’m doing well with this prompter. Down a bit! In the sixties, I spent time in the sphere with Fairport Convention, with Sandy Denny, with Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, Anne Briggs, Martin Carthy and the incredible, truly Incredible String Band. It was a fine schooling for me. And with Allison and T Bone, our momentum in the studio introduced me to a host of very special characters who I can now call my friends.
Now, the sixties British vein of song and mood drifted through times I related to like Anglicana goes west. That could be a problem!
How vast this ocean of expression from Shreveport to Clarksdale, from Nashville to Asheville, from Memphis to Como, from every valley and town the songs and the stories spun around me. The same themes in black and white communities.
I imagined Alan Lomax with Shirley Collins. I imagined Britain’s Cecil Sharp, A. P. Carter, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, all these guys capturing for generations to come the echoes from these immigrant worlds.
Time, the wheel, rolls on. Themes wrapped in songs reflect the time of their conception. We look at our world with concern and apprehension. How would Lead Belly sing it out in this maelstrom that we live in?
I salute the song, the singer and the craft. Instruments and voice. I salute Patty Griffin, John Prine, Howlin’ Wolf, Alison Krauss, Steve Earle, Bukka White, Jack White, Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Townes Van Zandt, Mavis Staples, Bob Dylan, Nora Brown, Ralph Stanley, Charlie Rich and George Jones. And of course Sister Rosetta. I offer a debt of thanks and for the shining of a light so special that radiates through all idioms to lift the heart with a smile and joy that is Dolly Parton. Thank you.
And here are some photographs of Plant at the ceremony, both on stage and backstage:
Over the past two decades, Robert Plant’s musical output has been consistently disappointing. Despite his stated aversion to being confined to a Zeppelin-style band performing jukebox hits, he continues to rearrange Zeppelin classics and produce uninspired, uncalled-for remixes of folk country music. This creative direction has led to a significant decline in his quality of work, and I have refrained from purchasing any of his country albums. His recent releases have consistently failed to meet my expectations.