Robert Plant's Digging Deep podcast has returned for its fourth season. He and co-host Matt Everitt pick up their conversation on the season opener with "Bluebirds Over the Mountain," a song written and recorded by Ersel Hickey in 1958 and made a hit by Ritchie Valens that same year. Plant recorded a version for his 2017 Nonesuch album, Carry Fire, with guest vocalist Chrissie Hynde. You can hear the podcast episode and watch the video for Plant's take on the song here.

The latest episode of Robert Plant's new podcast series, Digging Deep, digs deep into the title track from his latest album, Carry Fire. "The way that we've been constructing music for the last couple of albums with the Space Shifters has been pretty modular," he says. "Each guy in our cooperative creates ideas and sends them to me or to each other and they go up to the misty mountains ... There's a lot of sketches, some of them are black-and-white, some of them are going into color and that's how all these songs are developed." You can listen to the episode and watch a live performance of "Carry Fire" here.

The line-up for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has been announced, and among the performers are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Kronos Quartet, Robert Plant, Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, and Yola. The free, annual outdoor music festival returns for the nineteenth year to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, October 4–6, 2019. You can hear songs from all these artists in a playlist here.

The latest episode of Robert Plant's new podcast series, Digging Deep, digs deep into "Bones of Saints," a song from his latest album, Carry Fire. "It's about vitality. I can't hold back the hands of time or anything like that, but I can only be in environments where people really, really mean it musically," Plant says of creating new music with his band the Sensational Space Shifters. "We have a kind of inherent capacity to start a new project and know that we have business to do ... If it gets anywhere at all, this music, it ought to be saying something, it ought to be reflecting." You can listen to the episode and watch the video for the track here.

Robert Plant will launch a new podcast series, Digging Deep, on June 3. Hosted by music journalist Matt Everitt, it uncovers the moments, people, and places that have inspired some of his most treasured music. The series goes on a path that starts in the Midlands, leads to Led Zeppelin, and takes the listener around the world, discussing people and places that have inspired some of his music. "I am going to be picking out some songs from here and there along the way mixing constant shifts in sound and intention from across this long old time," says Plant. 

Robert Plant and his band the Sensational Space Shifters will return to North America to tour this fall. The new dates, which follow a previously announced Scandinavian summer tour, start with a set at the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival in New Brunswick on September 13 and continue in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, and Utah, culminating at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon, on October 3. 

Congratulations to Robert Plant, who has been nominated as UK Artist of the Year in the 2019 UK Americana Awards. The awards will be presented at a ceremony held at Hackney Empire in East London on January 31, 2019. Plant was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 UK Americana Awards ceremony.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters will return to tour the US this fall. The tour starts with a set at LouFest in St. Louis in September and continues throughout the month in Kansas City, Santa Fe, Telluride, Del Mar, Tucson, Tulsa, Louisville, Dallas, and Lubbock, culminating at Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater on September 29. Seth Lakeman is special guest in Kansas City, Sante Fe, Tucson, and Tulsa; Lucinda Williams is special guest in Texas.

Artist Shepard Fairey has shared a video featuring Robert Plant's song "New World," from his new album, Carry Fire, and images by Fairey and fellow artist Ernesto Yerena inspired by photographs by Aaron Huey. Watch the video and read what Plant had to say about it here.

Robert Plant was on CBC's Q. He spoke with host Tom Power about his new album, Carry Fire, traveling the world, his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers football club, musical influences, eight-year-old drummer Yoyoka Soma's take on Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times," and more. Watch the conversation here. Plant's North American tour continues out West this weekend and heads to the Pacific Northwest next week.

Robert Plant, currently touring North America with his band the Sensational Space Shifters, was a guest on House of Strombo while in Toronto for the tour. The show welcomes 100 fans to the home of host George Stroumboulopoulos for an intimate conversation. Plant talks about his latest album, Carry Fire, performing Led Zeppelin songs on tour, watching the World Cup, and life on the road. "You've got to subscribe to nonsense," he says. Watch the conversation here.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters have returned to North America for a three-week tour celebrating his new album, Carry Fire. The tour begins in Atlanta tonight and continues through the end of the month, with shows in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and more.