Artist:     James Lee Stanley & Dan Navarro

Album:     All Wood and Led

Label:     Beechwood Recordings

Release Date:     5.1.21

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James Lee Stanley has found another rock group to re-invent, and a new partner, Dan Navarro, to help. Stanley certainly has chops in many Americana areas, but one that he—and I as a listener—keep coming back to, is the reconstruction of definitive electric rock into memorable acoustic music. The Doors, the Stones and now Led Zeppelin, have all benefitted from his serious re-thinking.

It’s not like this hasn’t been done before: MTV’s Unplugged series has run for 32 years and counting, and Jose Feliciano had a mega-hit with the Doors’ “Light My Fire,” to name just two obvious examples. Here, Stanley and Navarro have delved deep into a deep catalogue and essentially changed the genre of one of rock’s biggest and more successful groups.

The duo made bold choices, including the oft-reviled “D’jer Mak’er” and the already-acoustic “The Battle of Evermore,” but rest assured the hits are there, too, including “Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Ramble On.” Neither Stanley nor Navarro has Robert Plant’s ethereal voice, but they make an effective tradeoff with earworm harmonies.

Fifteen years ago, Elmore Managing Editor Ali Green told me, “There are two kind of covers: ones that make a song new, and ones that make you wish you were hearing the original.” Dead on, Ali. Here’s an entire album of the best kind of covers.

—Suzanne Cadgène