Today Robert Plant has shared the first of three previously unreleased songs from his upcoming career-spanning new 2-CD set Digging Deep. “Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up – Part 1),” taken from the soon-to-be-released album Band of Joy Volume 2, is available now at all digital service providers. The limited edition collection – also available for streaming and digital download – gathers 30 extraordinary songs spanning four decades, including three previously unreleased new tracks. Digging Deep will be available worldwide via Plant’s own Es Paranza label on Friday, October 2.
“I spent time in the hill country of north Mississippi around Como, dropping back to Clarksdale, the incredible center of black music talent over the years,” said Plant. “I weaved my car through the Delta back roads, listening to the remarkable protestations of Mississippi AM radio. I was looking at my world and my times from this unfamiliar place and found myself exposed to a nightmare world of half-truths.”
Digging Deep showcases landmark tracks from each of the 8x GRAMMY® Award-winner’s 11 masterful solo albums, including a number of songs featured on Digging Deep with Robert Plant. Highlights include the #1 rock hit, “Hurting Kind,” and the GRAMMY® Award-nominated “Shine It All Around,” alongside three previously unreleased exclusives. Included besides “Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up part 1)” will be “Nothing Takes the Place of You” (written by New Orleans musician Toussaint McCall and recorded for the acclaimed 2013 film, Winter In The Blood), as well as a spectacular duet rendition of Charley Feathers’ rockabilly classic, “Too Much Alike” featuring Patty Griffin.
Plant is accompanied throughout Digging Deep by a truly remarkable lineup of musicians, including Jimmy Page, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Phil Collins, Nigel Kennedy, Richard Thompson, and his brothers, Strange Sensation/ The Sensational Space Shifters.
The Digging Deep anthology was originally announced earlier this week as it heralded the premiere episode of the third season of Plant’s acclaimed podcast, Digging Deep with Robert Plant. Five brand new episodes will premiere every two weeks, all recorded earlier this year with BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt before a live audience at London’s Rough Trade East.
