Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Terry O'Neill

Robert Plant will feature in new documentary on the music of New Orleans.

Titled Up from the Streets: New Orleans – The City of Music the film will premier digitally May 15.

“From the street to the studio and from the studio straight through the speakers into my life,” Plant shares of the city’s rich musical fabric in the documentary’s trailer.

New Orleans has long been considered a wellspring of America’s musical traditions.

Founded in 1718 as a French colony, the city’s rich cultural roots contributed to the birth fo blues, jazz, R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, and funk.

1950s New Orleans artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard were also a formative influence of several British rock acts which dominated the popular culture of the ’60s and 1970s.

Not least amongst them was Led Zeppelin.

At the height of their fame, Zeppelin would first visit the city several times.

Often with debaucherous results.

Retiring to the Royal Orleans Hotel with a local transvestite after the band’s first performance in the city 1973, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones inadvertently set his hotel room on fire – an event Robert Plant would later chronicle in 1976 song ‘Royal Orleans‘.

Regularly returning to New Orleans post-Zeppelin, Plant still holds a great affection with the city.

In an interview with Classic Rock in January this year, Plant shared that he had recorded an album of unreleased material with renowned New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint which had yet to receive a formal release.

Up from the Streets: New Orleans – The City of Music will also feature interviews with Rolling Stone Keith Richards, Sting, and Bonnie Raitt. 

Part of the proceeds of the film’s virtual ticket sales will be donated to The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s ‘Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund’, an initiative launched to help local musicians in need of assistance during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tickets to the virtual premier here.

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