Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (2007)
ideated from: leading up to my birthday, I’m serving up some comfort food. All stuff that lives rent-controlled in my head.
She hasn’t shown up yet on the blog, but if you made me choose the purest and most beautiful human voice I know of, it would be Alison Krauss. She and her band have been making high-level Americana and modern bluegrass for decades, yet she still sounds as fresh as she did ages ago.
Plant, on the other hand… well, his voice is also great, but he’s shown up here over and over and over (and over). I’m not going to apologize. While he’s often identified with 70s British rock, even then he had a keen ear for a good blues or folk tune. Living in Nashville and being part of the local music scene for most of this century has certainly contributed to that.
T-Bone Burnett (o_O) produces and leads the band. His sonic brand is layered and well-designed modern music that manages to sound like had been sitting in a dusty dimestore record bin and had just been uncovered.
The three principals have hand-curated a set of songs that demonstrates the broad variety of American musical traditions. They treat it all with love, without being historians. Please Read The Letter is a Plant collab from his brief 90s reunion with Jimmy Page, but that’s the only songwriting credit you’ll find from the group. It’s a wonderful set. There’s a sequel album from 2021 that I haven’t given as much time to, but maybe in the future.
Tracks I Liked
Rich Woman - a Plant-heavy, low-key blues stomp
Killing The Blues - A Dylan-esque pedal steel ballad
Gone Gone Gone - if you feel the rest doesn’t rock enough, skip straight to this one
Please Read The Letter That I Wrote - my favorite on here. A devestating lyric, a vocal harmony tour de force, and a small reminder that Krauss is a world-class fiddler as well as a singer.
Fortune Teller - Probably the most fun track. great energy
Nothin’ - a tip of the hat to Zep’s When The Levee Breaks, with Krause and guitarist Marc Ribot letting it rip
