“I was wrestling with whether I was going to keep doing music… and then I got the call from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss”: JD McPherson nearly abandoned his surf noir opus. But playing Zeppelin with Plant and Marc Ribot gave him a shot in the arm

JD McPherson plays a Gretsch Billy Bo Thunderbird live onstage.

Four albums into a music career built on reviving the trappings of traditional, old-time rave-up rock ’n’ roll, JD McPherson gave himself one directive for the songs that ended up on his latest album, Nite Owls.

“I love guitar music, and I love busy guitar players, but my favorite players have either a thing that they’ve invented or keep it pretty sparse, like Bo Diddley, Daniel Ash [of Love and Rockets and Bauhaus] and Ricky Wilson from the B-52s,” he says. “I love when the guitar is distilled down and focuses on a sound.”