SAN DIEGO — It may be a bit too early to be thinking about holiday presents, but here’s one dream gift idea for music fans here in search of a special aural treat: Can Robert Plant and his band, Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian, make their San Diego-area performances an annual affair? And can they please bring San Diego Music Hall of Famer Rosie Flores back with them?

On Monday night at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, the former Led Zeppelin singer and his one-woman, four-man group delivered their second show in the region in the past 10 months. Like their concert last November at Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Valley Center, their often-exquisite Humphreys performance offered a bounty of musical delights, including another memorable opening set by rockabilly queen Flores and her rollicking two-man band.

Monday’s concert also reaffirmed that — unlike too many other graying Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees — Plant, 78, has no desire to rest on his formidable laurels. He has even less desire to wallow in nostalgia by doing rote, note-for-note renditions of songs that have been synonymous with his name for more than 50 years, no matter how lucrative it might be to do so.

Accordingly, the 15-song concert included only three Led Zeppelin numbers — “Ramble On,” “Friends” and “The Rain Song” — and each was given a completely fresh arrangement that made them sound almost brand new. Ditto the ingeniously retooled version of “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” the blues-drenched Anne Bredon-penned lament that was popularized in the early 1960s by Joan Baez and was featured in revved-up form on Led Zeppelin’s self-titled 1969 debut album.

Where Zeppelin’s version of “Babe” was filled with big flourishes, repeated vocal wails and multiple sonic climaxes, Plant and Saving Grace imbued the song with a wealth of nuances and a much lighter touch. As a result, even when the song rose up to a crescendo — as it did several times — the focus was on intimacy and nimble understatement.

Those qualities were hallmarks throughout the 96-minute concert, which followed Flores and her band’s wonderfully spirited opening set. Each song she performed earned more cheers than the one that preceded it, and her set-closing version of Wanda Jackson’s “Let’s Have a Party” was an invitation she delivered on with especially impressive results.

Plant opened with the gently surging “Down to the Sea” from his 1993 solo album, “Fate of Nations,” and concluded with a finely wrought version of “Everybody’s Song,” a 2005 gem by the Minnesota slowcore band Low.

In each instance, he sang with warmth, taste and deep commitment. Whether performing his own songs, Zeppelin favorites or a lovingly rendered version of Neil Young’s “For the Turnstiles” — on which Plant happily sang harmony vocals while the luminous Dian took the lead — he sounded like he had something to prove.

Drawing from folk, blues, country, gospel, Celtic, flamenco, Indian and an array of West African music traditions, Plant and Saving Grace performed with impressive finesse and expertly calibrated precision throughout. They also rocked authoritatively on the boogie-fueled “Let the Four Winds Blow,” brought suitable degree of spiritual vigor to the biblically inspired Martha Scanlan song, “Higher Rock,” and suggested a Welsh hoedown during “The Cuckoo.”

At the conclusion of “The Cuckoo,” Plant quipped: “That’s a very old song, pre-Yardbirds!” It was a sly reference to guitarist Jimmy Page’s pre-Led Zeppelin band. Plant also joked that another song predated “the '70s.” After pausing for a perfectly timed beat, he added: “The 1770s.”

In Dian, who doubled on accordion and electric bass, Plant has a vocal foil every bit as talented as Alison Krauss, the Illinois-born bluegrass queen with whom he has made two Grammy Award-winning albums. When Dian and Plant’s voices intertwined in blissful harmony — which was often — they sounded like a brother and sister who have been singing together all their lives. In fact, Plant only teamed up with Dian and Saving Grace in 2019 and did not release a joint album until late last year.

Saving Grace is nimbly anchored by Dian’s husband, drummer Oli Jefferson. Its other members — cellist Barney Morse-Brown, guitarist Tony Kelsey and guitarist, banjo, cuatro player and periodic singer Matt Worley — are all strong players who value sensitivity and restraint. But they aren’t afraid to make strong statements at exactly the right moment. The push-and-pull quality they brought to the music gave it a richly honed dynamic range that would elude lesser musicians.

Plant happily took a back seat to Dian when she delivered a wonderfully moving version of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings’ “Orphan Girl.” And he beamed as Worley and Kelsey added deft instrumental filigrees to songs that sounded simultaneously weathered and brand new.

The scarcity of Led Zeppelin songs did not sit well with some attendees, especially those who did not appreciate the daring and unexpected new twists Plant and company gave to those few songs.

Or as a concertgoer seated directly behind me loudly complained several times: “I still want to hear a melody, man.”

There were melodies aplenty to savor Monday night. But the song — make that, songs, man — did not remain the same. And that is precisely why Robert Plant is still able to thrive anew as his music career approaches its 60th year.

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