The following report is courtesy of Daniel Gewertz from Bostonherald.com:

What do UNCLE EARL, an all-female Appalachian string band, and LED ZEPPELIN have in common?

Zilch.

Except for one thing - or, more accurately, one man: John Paul Jones, Led Zep’s bassist, who produced Uncle Earl’s new CD, Waterloo, Tennessee.

In addition to producing it, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jones, 61, also played on it. He dabbles with bass, piano, papoose guitar and an odd percussion device called a wobble board. And he screams in Chinese on “Streak O’ Lean, Streak O’ Fat.”He’ll also perform with Uncle Earl next week in New York, but not, unfortunately, at its local gigs at the Newburyport Firehouse tomorrow and Club Passim on Monday.

How did this odd partnership come about?

“Two summers ago, John began studying mandolin with Chris Thile of Nickel Creek,” said Kristin Andreassen, Uncle Earl’s guitarist-singer and the one band member to live in the Northeast, in Watertown, Mass.

“After he met us at a festival, there was one crazy night at a bar gig of ours when we were trying to fill six hours of music, and we were without our banjo player! So John and Chris jumped onstage with their mandolins and played. The audience didn’t even know who they were seeing. John’s very unassuming.”

Rural American music has, in fact, been part of Jones’ background even before the birth of Led Zeppelin. Starting at 18 in 1964, he arranged for and played with folk-country-tinged pop stars including Donovan, Peter & Gordon, the Rolling Stones and the Everly Brothers.

What did Jones bring to Uncle Earl’s CD? Not even a sonic glimmer of his Led Zep backgound is evident.

“He helped us simplify,” Andreassen said. “He’s in the business long enough to know more is not more.

“It’s mostly played live. John’s style is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable. That’s why we play with more edge and confidence.”

On the Uncle Earl Web site, Jones says that the sense of comfort began with a week of rehearsal: “It gives us a good chance to get to know each other and to find out what we all want from the record. We spent about a week staying at (banjo virtuoso) Bela Fleck’s house. (Then afterward) we just live and breathe the record.”

Uncle Earl and Jones spent three weeks together near Nashville. One night, they all went honky-tonking.

“On another night, we visited (banjo legend) Earl Scruggs at his house,” Andreassen said.

The album is a delightful, inventive spree: lyrically modern yet intensely rooted in old-time string-band tradition. Though the band members live in Colorado, Massachusetts and North Carolina, the wild Appalachian Mountains are chiseled into their sound. Mountain music is obviously in their blood, if not their bloodlines.

Read more here.