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Robert Plant On World Cafe

Robert Plant.
Mads Perch
/
Courtesy of the artist
Robert Plant.

As the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant has one of the most recognizable, and some have said, best voices in rock and roll. But what's totally astounding about his career is how Plant has been able to use it – from the ceiling-shaking howl of his Zep days, to his melodic harmony singing with Alison Kraus on their Grammy-winning collaboration Raising Sand, to the majestic and mesmerizing quiet of some of the songs on his latest album, Carry Fire.

I got the chance to talk about all of those musical chapters when we sat down with Robert Plant at the Warner Bros. office in New York City. Plant told stories behind some of Led Zeppelin's songs, including the trip to Iceland that led to "Immigrant Song," and the sunny drive through Morocco that inspired "Kashmir." He also talked about building the sounds on Carry Fire with his current band, the Sensational Space Shifters.

Copyright 2017 XPN

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Talia Schlanger
Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.
John Myers
Since 2017, John Myers has been the producer of NPR's World Cafe, which is produced by WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously he spent about eight years working on the other side of Philly at WHYY as a producer on the staff of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. John was also a member of the team of public radio veterans recruited to develop original programming for Audible and has worked extensively as a freelance producer. His portfolio includes work for the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, The Association for Public Art and the radio documentary, Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He's taught radio production to preschoolers and college students and, in the late 90's, spent a couple of years traveling around the country as a roadie for the rock band Huffamoose.