SAN DIEGO — Robert Plant and his latest band, Saving Grace, were right on the money Sunday night at Harrah’s Resort Southern California Events Center, where their U.S. tour-concluding concert delivered a jackpot of musical riches.

The former Led Zeppelin singer and veteran solo artist sounded vital and thoroughly engaged throughout his superb performance, which took place adjacent to the extensive gaming area at the Harrah’s resort and casino. At 77, Plant is reaching new artistic heights with a one-woman, four-man band that repeatedly elevated the English singer-songwriter’s genre-blurring music with sensitivity, adventurous spirit and a pinpoint command of instrumental and vocal dynamics.

Their 12-song, two-encore concert was simultaneously earthy and exotic, foreign and familiar, as they deftly drew from — and ingeniously reconfigured — an array of Celtic, rock, blues, gospel, country and Northern African music traditions. The focus was on songs from the group’s debut release, “Robert Plant Saving Grace, with Suzi Dian,” a strong contender for album of the year consideration.

Plant recently described his new band’s music as “not Americana, but Briticana.” It’s an apt description for the borders-leaping elan he and his band members — who all hail from the U.K. — imbue in every note they play and sing.

Five of the selections Sunday are from the Saving Grace album and each was a treat, from the spiritual-inspired reveries of “Higher Rock” and “Soul of a Man” to the exquisitely nuanced, whisper-soft rendition of the 1968 Moby Grape gem, “It’s a Beautiful Day Today” (which was written by Grape co-founder and San Diego native Bob Mosley).

Introducing “Today,” Plant told the near-capacity audience of 2,000: “When I was 15, I was transformed by (American) West Coast music and alternative culture… I was taken by (the music of) the Airplane, the Dead ….”

Where Moby Grape’s original version of “It’s a Beautiful Day Today” was pleasant and pretty, Plant’s slowed-down version was absolutely gorgeous and his near-a cappella vocal harmonies with Dian inspired goose bumps. So did their radiant version of Neil Young’s “For the Turnstiles” and their gently psychedelic version of the band Low’s winsome “Everybody’s Song.”

It is no accident Plant’s new album and Sunday’s concert featured lesser-known works by other artists, most of whom never achieved mainstream success. Doing so allowed him to shine a light on songs he loves, while giving him more latitude to reshape them at will.

Like the seasoned pro he is, Plant knows that performing unfamiliar music to concert audiences can be a tricky proposition. This holds especially true when most attendees have come to celebrate his legendary past with Led Zeppelin, which disbanded after the 1980 death of its mighty drummer, John Bonham.

Accordingly, he was savvy enough to mix in several Zeppelin favorites, including “Ramble On,” “Four Sticks” and “Friends.” Their concert-concluding version of that storied band’s epic reinvention of the 1939 Leadbelly classic “Gallows Pole,” also included a zesty chunk of Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”

Each was performed with wonderfully imaginative new arrangements by Plant and his predominantly acoustic band. By deftly sequencing the revamped Zeppelin numbers as bookends to the lesser-known songs from the Saving Grace album, Plant commanded the audience’s rapt attention from start to finish.

Or, as one departing concertgoer remarked to her friend after the encores had finished: “He played a lot of songs we didn’t know, but they were all really good.”

Indeed, they were.

In contrast with guitarist and Zeppelin co-founder Jimmy Page — who has not released a new solo album since 1988 or toured since 2000 — Plant has remained consistently active pursuing new creative avenues.

He has released eight albums since 2002 and led multiple bands, including Priory of Brion, Strange Sensation, Band of Joy, Sensational Space Shifters and Saving Grace. Plant also made two Grammy-winning albums and did several tours with bluegrass-queen Alison Krauss that featured ex-San Diego instrumental wiz Stuart Duncan.

With Saving Grace, he has raised the bar yet again.

In Dian, who sometimes doubled on accordion, Plant has a wonderful foil and hearing their voices weave in and out was a delight. Guitarist Tony Kelsey, cellist Barney Morse-Brown, drummer Oli Jefferson (who is Dian’s husband) and guitarist, banjo, cuatro player and singer Matt Worley are equally skilled and their finely calibrated ensemble work was simply — and sometimes complexly — stunning.

Plant was serious about his music, but playful in some of his stage patter.

“Normally, after all these years of being on the road, I’d say: ‘It’s great to be back here!’ ” he told the cheering crowd. “But I don’t think we’ve ever been here.”

Playing at Harrah’s was also new for Sunday’s opening act, Texas-based rockabilly queen Rosie Flores, who grew up here and is a 2025 San Diego Music Hall of Fame inductee Although her voice was a bit frayed after the coast-to-coast tour with Plant, she delivered an engaging eight song-set that included her first single, 1987’s “Crying Over You,” and a spirited take on Johnny Kidd & the Pirates’ 1960s rave-up, “Shakin’ All Over.”

©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.