Raising Sand

I receive alot of things in my e-mail, most of which goes directly to delete. Today I opened my e-mail to a pleasant surprise from Daily Om. It was a review of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand". Now I own this and have shared it with friends who either love it or hate it. I depends upon the person I guess. The review reflects my own personal thoughts on the CD, so I've included a portion here.

"Former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant teams here with Alison Krauss, a creative dynamo in the bluegrass and alt-country scenes with crystal-clear vocals and dynamite violin-playing to her credit. Produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett, Raising Sand is a slickness-free trip off the stadium stage, across town, and around to the other side of the tracks, with mandolins and pedal steel guitars providing folksy good times and retrospection. Neither of these icons needs to prove themselves—to you or each other; they just want to do what they love. The result recalls a back porch on a lazy Saturday down South, with Burnett selecting a set list of half-remembered dusty, old jukebox-ready covers by the likes of the Everly Brothers, Gene Clark, and Tom Waits.

"Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" gets you from the start. Krauss and Plant sing in a perfect harmony so sweet and gentle that at first listen it's barely noticeable as two distinct voices: "I am guilty of something / I hope you never do / Because there is nothing sadder than losing yourself in love." A laid-back slide-guitar twang and a loping beat drive the heartache home. There's some rootsy shuffle-boogie to be heard in "Through the Morning, Through the Night" while "Please Read the Letter" (a song originally recorded by Plant and Jimmy Page for their Walking to Clarksdale album) becomes a slow-burn rocker, with Krauss adding flawless whispery harmonizing to Plant's rock history-sanctioned cries for love. Hearing this is to wonder whether Led Zeppelin might not have benefited from a violin player and female harmonies."

Click here for a sampling of the CD, courtesy of Daily OM,

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