Robert Plant’s recent immersion in stately American roots music may seem, on the surface, an odd fit for the wailing, prancing former Led Zeppelin frontman.

But that ignores the fact that before he became the Dionysus of 1970s hard rock, Plant fronted a little band in the North of England called Band of Joy, that, in addition to featuring John Bonham on drums, traded in a kind of rocked-up folk music similar to what psychedelic American bands were doing in San Francisco during the mid-1960s.

“We probably spent about a year starving and thinking that we were part, I suppose, Jefferson Airplane, and part Howlin’ Wolf, if you like,” the 61-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer recently told the AVClub. “We were a kind of British second cousin to what was going on the Bay Area, I suppose. I think had we been another 5,000 miles west of where we were trying it out, we would’ve had a lot more of a rapport with a lot more people.”

Add to that pedigree the fact that Led Zeppelin boldly (shamelessly?) appropriated (stole?) entire songs from the American Delta blues canon for some of its best-known material, and Plant is no stranger to certain chapters in the Great American Songbook.

Now, after winning fire Grammy Awards for “Raising Sand,” his 2007 collaboration with Alison Krauss, Plant is back with a revamped version of Band of Joy, featuring Nashville guitar hero Buddy Miller and singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, among other Music City stalwarts, including multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott.

Plant brings the band to Hill Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 21 in support of its self-titled debut record, on which it covers tunes by artists as diverse as Billy and Bobby Bobineaux and Dillard Crume.

Who? Exactly. That’s one of the things that makes “Band of Joy” such a, well, joy: Plant and company have dug deep into the roots of (mostly) American music and come up with some real gems.

“There’s an infinite number of fantastic songs that have great integrity which are not really following a blues base or a rock ’n’ roll chordal progression or anything like that,” he said in the AVClub interview, which is posted on Plant's website. “It’s fantastic to sing songs that have a less obvious course, structurally.”

Of course all the songs on “Band of Joy” aren’t so obscure. The record also tips its hat to, among others, Low, Los Lobos and the Carter Family, via a smoldering, “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down.” (Yes, it’s pretty delicious to think of a former member of Led Zeppelin — as steeped in witchcraft and faux Satan worship as it was — singing an Appalachian gospel tune.)

Of course no amount of time in Nashville is going to erase the fact that Plant is a Brit. He’s fine with that and said it isn’t difficult for him to work within the constraints that his citizenship imposes.

Consequently, “Band of Joy,” though it can be taken as part of the same career arc as “Raising Sand,” is definitely more of a rock album than a country or folk project. There are plenty of electric guitars, drums and — as it Plant’s wont — atmospheric effects.

“It’s no good, me trying to sing Dust Bowl ballads, because I’m a Brit,” he told AVClub. “I can translate songs or write songs, but I was raised in the atmosphere of rock and roll.”

For the most part, longtime Zeppelin fans have not only been supportive of Plant’s recent musical choices — they’ve embraced them,” said Paul Herbert of Ann Arbor, whose allegiance to Led Zeppelin goes back more than 30 years to middle school.

“I think people are happy to see him doing things that make him happy,” Herbert said. “You can’t be a young rock star forever.”