Product Description

American bluegrass star Alison Krauss and Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant team up for one of contemporary music's most unlikely partnerships, and in doing so create a memorableand diverse collection of lovingly crafted songs. Recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville and produced by T-Bone Burnett (Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello), the album features a stellar supporting cast of musicians and includes interpretations ofclassics as well as lesser known gems by songwriters such as Gene Clark and Tom Waits.

Track Listing

1. Rich Woman
2. Killing The Blues
3. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
4. Polly Come Home
5. Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)
6. Through The Morning, Through The Night
7. Please Read The Letter
8. Trampled Rose
9. Fortune Teller
10. Stick With Me Baby
11. Nothin'
12. Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
13. Your Long Journey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 57 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass crooner Alison Krauss may not be the likeliest of musical combinations. But on this welcome collaboration album, they work beautifully together, wringing a kind of magic from other people's songs. The key to the album is its versatility. Between them, Krauss and Plant can handle a vast repertoire on their own, and here they take on the lot, from folk laments and country soul to searing blues and upbeat rock & roll. Overseen by Elvis Costello producer T Bone Burnett and backed by high caliber musicians like guitarist Marc Ribot and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger, Raising Sand sees the duo create stellar covers of songs by Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Mel Tillis and The Everly Brothers, among others. Highlights include a killer version of Roly Salley's "Killing the Blues", and a cover of the Plant-Page collaboration "Please Read the Letter," though in truth, it's difficult to find a weak spot on the whole album. --Danny McKenna

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
As a long time fan of both Alison Krauss and Led Zeppelin, I was delighted to receive this album as a present. However, despite the obvious musicianship of both singers and their fine accompanists, Robert and Alison sound like two soloists rather than a duet to me, turning what might have been quite interesting material into something rather boring.

Voices
Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss is a special recording. Here is a collection of a baker's dozen haunting and atmospheric slices of Americana, enhanced by sparse production and exquisitely understated musicianship. The Plant fellow is on restrained form and the numbers benefit from his tender and thoughtful interpretations. Krauss possesses a beautiful voice, its clarity reminding me a little of - don't mock - sixties song thrush Mary Hopkin. Both voices complement each other splendidly and some of the harmonies are ethereal, subtle and rather magical. Not one note is wasted; every second is exceptional. A pleasure.

Rich dark vibe
Duets are hard to pull off. Even Marvin could not always get it right. Recent pairings that might be compared to the odd couple that is Krauss and Plant - Ryan Adams with Norah Jones, Mr and Mrs Steve Earle - have been disastrous. So it's a great relief to report that right from the first you know it's going to be all right - rock's oddest couple sound great together, harmonising over the sinuous groove of 'Rich Woman'.

There's an unhealthy obsession with relationships stretched to breaking point: broken by foolishness or pride, by unfaithfulness and ulitmately by death. 'Please Read The Letter' is a dark tale of an unravelling relationship that sticks in the mind, and has you humming it to yourself like a good old pop song. 'Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson' has Krauss singing 'Once I Had Myself A Good Woman' over another great 50s riff. This is an album with a definite vibe: it's as though music had jumped from the fifties straight to the noughties, missing out the four decades in between. From 'Rich Woman' with its big swampy guitar and drums, to the chooglin' r'n'r guitar riff of 'Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)' and the hillbilly gospel of closer 'Your Long Journey'.

Although billed as Plant and Krauss, the influence of producer T Bone Burnett is surely sufficient to warrant joint billing, getting great performances from his two leads, contributing guitar to most tracks, and creating that vibe.