Robert Plant and Saving Grace with Suzi Dian "All That Glitters..." (2026 Record Store Day EP)
For Record Store Day 2026, Robert Plant's current band Saving Grace issued a limited edition vinyl EP containing four new studio tracks. The 12-inch, 45 rpm EP, titled All That Glitters..., was limited to 3,500 copies.
Saving Grace was also the name of Plant's most recent album from 2025, recorded with the titular U.K.-based band, featuring co-vocalist and accordionist Suzi Dian. The sound of Saving Grace is mainly acoustic, and is inspired by folk, blues, Gospel, and Americana styles. Their mostly gentle sound is far more reminiscent of Plant's work with Alison Krauss than of his work with Led Zeppelin, but it has a more Celtic ambience, and an occasional touch of psychedelia. The 77-year-old Plant is no longer the heavy metal screamer that he once was. His vocals on Saving Grace are understated and controlled, and Dian's vocal accompaniment provides a "sweeter" counterpoint. The songs on the album are covers drawn from various genres, usually rendered with a roots-based acoustic treatment.
The four songs on All That Glitters... also are covers, favoring folk music from different times and places. Each side of the disc ties two songs together thematically. The first side begins with "The Blackest Crow", based on an 18th-century English folk ballad (listed as number 422 in the Roud Folk Song Index). The song is about a person who mourns the death of their true love, and longs for the day when the two of them will be reunited in heaven. The song is given an accessible, contemporary folk-rock spin, with Plant's and Dian's voices blending together well. That song is followed by a rendition of Gillian Welch's 1996 folk ballad "Orphan Girl", about a young woman without a family who yearns for the day when she will be reunited with them in heaven. Dian's lead vocal is poignant, and the gentle recording uses some electric instrumentation in contrast to the neo-Appalachian sound of Welch's original. The second side begins with "Two Coats" (aka "I Laid Off the Old Coat and Put On the New"), a 1914 Gospel hymn written by American Methodist minister Frank Graham. This song is rendered as a kind of baroque folk duet, sung from the point of view of a person who is inspired by God to turn away from their old ways and change who they are. Ironically, that song seems to lead right into the darker "Poison", Bert Jansch's 1969 British folk tune sung from the point of view of a man undergoing a crisis of faith. This one is mainly sung by Plant, and it gives off ominous electric instrumental tones, coming as close to Zeppelin -- or at least to Plant's earlier solo works -- as the EP gets.
All That Glitters... is a solid continuation of the Saving Grace album.
(Rarebird's inside joke: If you play the opening track "The Blackest Crow" at 33 rpm instead of 45, you will hear one strange song of mourning, with instrumentation that still makes sense...kinda like a folk-rock tune from Disturbed).
Robert Plant and Saving Grace with Suzi Dian "All That Glitters..." EP (Nonesuch 075597893359) 2026
Track Listing:
1. The Blackest Crow -- (traditional, arr. by Robert Plant and Saving Grace)
2. Orphan Girl -- (Gillian Welch)
3. Two Coats -- (traditional, arr. by Robert Plant and Saving Grace)
4. Poison -- (Bert Jansch)
Saving Grace was also the name of Plant's most recent album from 2025, recorded with the titular U.K.-based band, featuring co-vocalist and accordionist Suzi Dian. The sound of Saving Grace is mainly acoustic, and is inspired by folk, blues, Gospel, and Americana styles. Their mostly gentle sound is far more reminiscent of Plant's work with Alison Krauss than of his work with Led Zeppelin, but it has a more Celtic ambience, and an occasional touch of psychedelia. The 77-year-old Plant is no longer the heavy metal screamer that he once was. His vocals on Saving Grace are understated and controlled, and Dian's vocal accompaniment provides a "sweeter" counterpoint. The songs on the album are covers drawn from various genres, usually rendered with a roots-based acoustic treatment.
The four songs on All That Glitters... also are covers, favoring folk music from different times and places. Each side of the disc ties two songs together thematically. The first side begins with "The Blackest Crow", based on an 18th-century English folk ballad (listed as number 422 in the Roud Folk Song Index). The song is about a person who mourns the death of their true love, and longs for the day when the two of them will be reunited in heaven. The song is given an accessible, contemporary folk-rock spin, with Plant's and Dian's voices blending together well. That song is followed by a rendition of Gillian Welch's 1996 folk ballad "Orphan Girl", about a young woman without a family who yearns for the day when she will be reunited with them in heaven. Dian's lead vocal is poignant, and the gentle recording uses some electric instrumentation in contrast to the neo-Appalachian sound of Welch's original. The second side begins with "Two Coats" (aka "I Laid Off the Old Coat and Put On the New"), a 1914 Gospel hymn written by American Methodist minister Frank Graham. This song is rendered as a kind of baroque folk duet, sung from the point of view of a person who is inspired by God to turn away from their old ways and change who they are. Ironically, that song seems to lead right into the darker "Poison", Bert Jansch's 1969 British folk tune sung from the point of view of a man undergoing a crisis of faith. This one is mainly sung by Plant, and it gives off ominous electric instrumental tones, coming as close to Zeppelin -- or at least to Plant's earlier solo works -- as the EP gets.
All That Glitters... is a solid continuation of the Saving Grace album.
(Rarebird's inside joke: If you play the opening track "The Blackest Crow" at 33 rpm instead of 45, you will hear one strange song of mourning, with instrumentation that still makes sense...kinda like a folk-rock tune from Disturbed).
Robert Plant and Saving Grace with Suzi Dian "All That Glitters..." EP (Nonesuch 075597893359) 2026
Track Listing:
1. The Blackest Crow -- (traditional, arr. by Robert Plant and Saving Grace)
2. Orphan Girl -- (Gillian Welch)
3. Two Coats -- (traditional, arr. by Robert Plant and Saving Grace)
4. Poison -- (Bert Jansch)
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