What better way to end a tour than to have one of the biggest rock legends in history come up on stage and sing a song?  That’s exactly what happened at the final gig of the fall tour with Francis Dunnery and the New Progressives, this past Friday in Oswestry UK.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Mr. Robert Plant.

If you can’t see the video, follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRG7gPwPGCo


We’d been touring throughout the UK and have had some great musical guests sit in for a song or two, on any given night.  The buzz among the band was that for the last show, Robert Plant would come and sing  “Calling To You” with us (we recorded a new version of the song on Francis’ new CD).   Mr. Plant had fun with it, complete with stream-of-consciousness jokes about progressive rock that you can hear at the beginning of my keyboard solo.

It went something like this:

“It’s getting really ‘prog’ now.  Ooh.  Mountains come out of the sea and they just stand there.  I used to know Jon Anderson, you know.  And I worked with Jethro Tull too.  It was fantastic!  All that standing on your own like that with a flute….”

Less than 24 hours later, we were on a plane back to the US, a bit exhausted but still laughing about it all.  Thanks to all the friends, old and new, who came to see the tour, and thanks to Francis, Dorie Jackson, Brett Kull, Jamie Bishop, and Paul Ramsey for being such a great band to be a part of.

Tom Brislin and Robert Plant, November 2009

Tom Brislin and Robert Plant, November 2009