Raising Sand
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Brand: PLANT,ROBERTPerformer: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Performer: Robert Plant
Performer: Alison Krauss
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Music Label: Rounder
Product features:
- Condition: Used - Very Good
- Rich Woman
- Killing the Blues
- Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
- Polly Come Home
- Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)
- Through the Morning, Through the Night
- Please Read the Letter
- Trampled Rose
- Fortune Teller
- Stick with Me Baby
- Nothin'
- Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
- Your Long Journey
Music reviews of Raising Sand
Music Review: Worlds Colliding
Rating: 5 Stars
Even putting your mind straight to the task, it would be difficult to come up with a more bizarre musical pairing than this one. I would never have dreamt this up...and I am one who is absolutely thrilled when musicians get out of their comfort zones and experiment. It either makes the most compelling music imaginable or it fails spectacularly. When it succeeds, you have music you will listen to for a lifetime. Raising Sand (a very odd, pedestrian, name for the collection, must be a story behind that) will be in my player for as long as I listen to music.
I am familiar with the music of both artists here, but more so with the music of Robert Plant -- being brought up musically more on British rock than American roots music. So, of course, at first I thought the stretch more on Plant's part. A long and boring dissertation could be written about that but let it suffice to say I couldn't have been more wrong about that supposition. "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" is perhaps exhibit one in the stretching accomplished by Ms. Krauss. Who stretched the furthest here isn't really the point though, is it?
Let's get to some of the real points:
Beyond the change in direction, Plant's voice, at age 59, appears ageless. Yes, it generally runs just a tad lower than in the 70's, and of course in this genre he doesn't wail or scream. But his presentation, his accuracy and precision are magnificent. He sounds remarkable. Age becomes him.
Allison Krauss could sing the phone book and sound like an angel. When I die, I want to hear the sound of her voice. But she doesn't have to struggle with phone book material here: the haunting "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" and the equally ethereal "Trampled Rose" are magnificent songs rendered timeless by her performance.
While every presentation here achieves top grade, the signature duet really has to be "Killing the Blues". As fetching a song and wonderful a presentation as anything you will find in either artist's repertoire. Wonderfully positive, unerringly fun, it sets the tone for the rest of the album. Ok, if I could sing like these two and was having the time of my life like they seem to be doing this, I'd be "swinging the world by the tail" too! An instant classic.
"Please Read the Letter" shows Ms. Krauss stretching way, way...way out of her comfort zone. She had to love every minute of it. This is a song co-written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (along with Charlie Jones and Michael Lee) after all! It's a great change-of-pace tune for this offering -- a song that immediately conjures up thoughts of Led Zeppelin. This sounds like a Page/Plant song and a good one at that. Plant was in his environment here...and Krauss stretched out to meet him to fabulous effect, providing a signature fiddle to go with the duet.
Plant's greatest stretch here is probably Gene Clark's "Polly Come Home". Slow, to the tempo of a dirge, Plant delivers here beyond anything you'd expect from his previous work. Krauss' harmony helps a great deal, but really, this is Robert Plant showing just what a great musician he truly is. Gene Clark authored two songs that made the grade here: with "Through the Morning, Through the Night" notable for another fabulous lead by Krauss.
But even that performance is as nothing compared to Plant's magnificent effort on what I think may be the most moving piece of the entire set: "Nothin'". Krauss' contribution here is that unmatchable fiddle which provides the stark reminder of "Cold Turkey" and elicits the pain of temptation that must not be given-into. A magnificent song, nevertheless the song is nothing without this lead performance by Plant. Look, I could wax on about this thing but let me just say this: If Robert Plant put out a "best of" CD with, say, his top ten vocal performances of all time on it, this song would be on that album. And it wouldn't even be a close call. It's that great a performance...with depth and soul that you would never have gotten from him in the 70's.
For some I've read who complain about this not being a rock n' roll album like the million they've got in their collection already -- get a life.
For those who rank this as one of the best album's of the year, I say -- one of?
And finally, kudos to T-Bone Burnett. He steered both an old dog and a young angel to new tricks.
Description of Raising Sand
The musical collaboration of the decade, Raising Sand is the sound of two iconic figures stepping out of their respective comfort zones and letting their instincts lead them across a brave new sonic landscape. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant share a maverick spirit and willingness to extend the boundaries of their respective genres. This spirit, expertly honed by producer T Bone Burnett, has resulted in an album pitched three steps beyond some cosmic collision of early urban blues, spacious West Texas country, and the untapped potential of the folk-rock revolution.Supported by the unparalleled musicianship of Marc Ribot, Dennis Crouch, Mike Seeger, Jay Bellerose, Norman Blake, Greg Leisz, Patrick Warren, and Riley Baugus, Plant and Krauss -- as both solo and harmony vocalists -- tackle an intriguing selection of songs from such tunesmiths as Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Sam Phillips, Townes Van Zandt, The Everly Broth! ers, and Mel Tillis. Raising Sand finds Robert Plant and Alison Krauss exploring popular music's elemental roots while still sounding effortlessly, breath-takingly contemporary.
The song "Killing the Blues" is featured in the new JC Penney American Living Campaign.
Perhaps only the fantasy duo of King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet on Raising Sand, their haunting and brilliant collaboration, the Led Zeppelin screamer and Nashville's most hypnotic song whisperer seem made for each other. This, however, is not the howling Plant of "Whole Lotta Love," but a far more precise and softer singer than even the one who emerged with Dreamland (2002). No matter that Plant seems so subdued as to be on downers, for that's one of the keys to this most improbable meeting of musical galaxies--almost all of it seems slowed down, out of time, otherworldly, and at times downright David Lynch-ian, the product of an altered consciousness. Yet probably the main reason it all works so well is the choice of producer T Bone Burnette, the third star of the album, who culled mostly lesser-known material from some of the great writers of blues, country, folk, gospel, and R&B, including Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Milt Campbell, the Everly Brothers, Sam Phillips, and A.D. and Rosa Lee Watson. At times, Burnette's spare and deliberate soundscape--incisively crafted by guitarists Marc Ribot and Norman Blake, bassist Dennis Crouch, drummer Jay Bellerose, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger, among others--is nearly as dreamy and subterranean as Daniel Lanois's work with Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball). Occasionally, Burnette opts for a fairly straightforward production while still reworking the original song (Plant's own "Please Read the Letter," Mel Tillis's "Stick with Me, Baby"). But much of the new flesh on these old bones is oddly unsettling, if not nightmarish. On the opening track of "Rich Woman," the soft-as-clouds vocals strike an optimistic mood, while the instrumental backing--loose snare, ominous bass line, and insinuating electric guitar lines--create a spooky, sinister undertow. Plant and Krauss trade out the solo and harmony vocals, and while they both venture into new waters here (Krauss as a mainstream blues mama, Plant as a gospel singer and honkytonker), she steals the show in Sam Phillips' new "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," where a dramatic violin and tremulous banjo strike a foreboding gypsy tone. When Krauss begins this strange, seductive song in a voice so ethereal that angels will take note, you may stop breathing. That, among other reasons, makes Raising Sand an album to die for. --Alanna Nash
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