Originally appeared in Tucson Weekly

By JARRET KEENE

For many baby boomers, the pairing of Led Zep screecher Robert Plant and trad-country singer/fiddler Alison Krauss is unlikely and strangely invigorating. For cynical Gen X-ers (of which 36-year-old Krauss is more or less a part), the duo seems perfectly marketed to the Starbucks-swilling NPR crowd. Regardless of how natural or forced it all is, Plant and Krauss seem to genuinely play off one another’s strengths and push each other into creating a unique and bluesy minimalist “world country” sound.

Plant and Krauss have always been superior interpreters, and, unsurprisingly, Raising Sand is a covers album. (The exception is “Please Read the Letter,” a Jimmy Page/Plant collaboration from the Zep boys’ 1997 Walking Into Clarksdale collaboration.) Producer T-Bone Burnett selects and plays guitar on some beautiful curveballs here–particularly the lovely, harmony-rich “Killing the Blues,” written by Chris Isaak’s bass player, Rowland Salley, and a heartrending and desolate take on Gene Clark’s “Polly Come Home,” which borders on the “slow-core” rock style pioneered by bands like Mazzy Star.

Cracks only show in a radical approach to Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’,” when the grinding guitars grow irritating, and odd song choices like, for instance, Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose.” Even these missteps are forgivable, though, since Raising Sand is a genre-blending effort that’s difficult to categorize and easy to listen to over and again. Most refreshingly, Plant, Krauss and Burnett stay removed from rock/pop arrangements without sounding square or bland.

Originally appeared in Houston Press

By William Michael Smith

On the surface, the imagination boggles when confronted with a musical collaboration between two such seemingly polar opposite talents as Americana/bluegrass goddess Alison Krauss and shouting, yowling Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant. But under producer/bassist T-Bone Burnett’s direction, there’s no superstardom at play here, just a cadre of singularly talented people painting something novel, interesting and completely alien to the normal calculated commercial processes. Plant sings with an unsuspected subtlety and mesmerizing prettiness, while Burnett’s eclectic selection of material allows Krauss to step completely out of character and let her voice soar from Edith Piaf to the Everly Brothers. Her amazing vocal on “Trampled Rose” is at once beautiful and hauntingly dramatic, and Plant’s greatness rings through in a brilliant remake of the Brit-rock classic “Fortune Teller.” On rockabilly burners like the Everlys’ “Gone, Gone, Gone” or beautifully crafted folk obscurities like “Killing the Blues,” Krauss and Plant virtually redefine duet, or at least render a definitive modern example. Laid over Burnett’s drum-centric arrangements and adventurous rhythms, their hypnotic harmonies reverberate long after this brilliant record is over.

originally appeared on timesonline.co.uk

Mark Edwards

I’d prefer it if Led Zeppelin’s upcoming gig didn’t evolve into a full-scale reunion. My worry is that a return to rock’n’roll superstardom would do irreparable damage to Robert Plant’s solo career, which is turning into the most interesting home stretch since Johnny Cash’s remarkable resurgence. How many former rock gods would countenance an album of duets with a bluegrass artist? Not many. But here’s Plant, blending perfectly with Alison Krauss, willingly taming his wilder side in the service of a restrained but resonant sound, produced by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? helmsman, T Bone Burnett. The results are simply stunning. Songs include Tom Waits’s Trampled Rose, Gene Clark’s Polly Come Home and the Everly Brothers’ Gone Gone Gone, but best of all is a transcendent new version of the Page/Plant track Please Read the Letter. Plant has sung a lot louder, but he has never sung better.

rating: 5 stars

originally appeared in Paste magazine

by Andy Whitman

With an admiration for folk music, Led Zeppelin’s former frontman Robert Plant works alongside folk/bluegrass queen Alison Krauss.

After the initial double take, it starts to make sense. Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant showed an affinity for traditional American folksongs as far back as 1970, when he delivered an idiosyncratic, incendiary version of “Gallows Pole.” The next year he recruited über-folkie Sandy Denny to sing on “The Battle of Evermore,” known ever since as the song right before “Stairway to Heaven.” And folk/bluegrass queen Alison Krauss has long expressed her admiration for ’70s rock bands like Foreigner and Bad Company.

With the maverick T Bone Burnett producing, Raising Sand sounds little like anything Plant or Krauss have recorded in the past. Burnett aims for atmospheric Daniel Lanois territory, with Marc Ribot’s heavily reverbed guitars and Jay Bellerose’s drums pushed way to the front of the mix. Plant is relatively subdued throughout most of these songs, although the old, familiar banshee wail peeks through at the end of The Everly Brothers’ rockabilly classic “Gone, Gone, Gone.” There are several lovely country duets here—”Killin’ the Blues,” Gene Clark’s eerie “Through The Morning, Through The Night” and Doc Watson’s elegiac “Your Long Journey”—where Robert plays Gram to Alison’s Emmylou. But that’s as close as they come to the expected. More revelatory are Krauss’ splendid R&B turn on Little Milton’s “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” and Plant’s Dr. John impersonation on Allen Toussaint’s “Fortune Teller”—just two of the many eye-openers on this surprising, and surprisingly effective, collaboration.

Grade: 4 Stars

originally appeared on popmatters.com

by Steve Horowitz

Ex-Led Zep lead singer Robert Plant has moaned about looking for a good Kentucky woman ever since the ‘60s. Country belle Alison Krauss may not originally come from the Bluegrass state, but she has made that music her own ever since she was 12 years old and won her first fiddle playing championship. While the hard rocking British daddy and innocent sounding waif from the Land of Lincoln may seem an unlikely pair, their two high-pitched, emotive voices fit together well to create a distinctively satisfying album of rootsy American music. ||Continue reading||

Originally appeared on toledoblade.com

by RICHARD PATON

It might sound like an unlikely pairing - the legendary voice of Led Zeppelin and the reigning queen of bluegrass and country/folk - but it works, and works magnificently.

On songs by the Everly Brothers, Gene Clark, Mel Tillis, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s “Please Read The Letter,” and Tom Waits, and guided by T Bone Burnett, this is roots music with panache and soul.

The countrified aspect to “Killing The Blues,” the second song on the disc, gives an early indication of the pleasures to come as the pair’s voices perfectly intertwine, with Plant hardly sounding like the rocker we knew as he embraces this musical style.

Elsewhere, the pace ranges from barely moving (”Polly Came Home”), to the rockabilly of “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” rocking “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson,” and a richly arranged and mournful reading of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’.”

A touch of countrified gospel, “Your Long Journey,” ends the disc, the duo’s voices once again perfectly paired, the harmonies so right, and the acoustic country-style arrangement cementing the deal.

Plant may be back with his mates for the Zep reunion show, but here it sounds as though he has found an entirely fresh musical path.

Originally appeared in The Ithican (Ithica College)

By Patrick Doyle

Since 2002’s “Dreamland,” Robert Plant has explored genres less emphasized in Led Zeppelin’s heyday, including laid-back folk, country and bluegrass. “Raising Sand,” produced by T. Bone Burnett, finds Plant collaborating with bluegrass songstress Alison Krauss with stunning results.

The album has a slow-moving atmosphere with many instrumental breaks. An early highlight is the Rowland Salley–penned “Killing the Blues,” which has Plant and Krauss sharing vocals backed by pedal steel.

Most of the songs are slow, but the Everly Brothers’ cover “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Me Wrong)” is a quasi-rocker, with Plant proving he still possesses the high-pitched wail heard on “Led Zeppelin II.” Other moments are more subtle, like a cover of the Gene Clark country ballad “Through the Morning, Through the Night.” “The disc is one of the best albums of the year, even if completely overshadowed by next month’s highly anticipated Zeppelin reunion gig.

“Raising Sand” received 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Originally appeared in the Knoxville Metro Pulse

by Mike Gibson

An odd pairing at first blush, the Plant/Krauss team soon seems as natural and inevitable as rays of sunlight glistening on the misty remnants of a warm spring rain. Unlike so many histrionic rock vocalists whose pipes have deteriorated beyond hope of redemption after years of falsetto abuse, Plant’s own instrument has withered into a thing of rare and fragile beauty, an alternately warm and weird tenor/alto hybrid that serves as the perfect foil to Krauss’ honey-sweet Appalachian soprano croon. The duo work seamlessly and seemingly without ego through a set that encompasses nouveau bluegrass, folk, mid-tempo rockabilly, and the gentler side of classic rock.

The choice of songs, heavily influenced by ace producer T-Bone Burnett, is full of lesser-known tracks and outright obscurities—all of them good ones, from the Everleys’ “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)” to “Please Read the Letter,” a gem from the under-appreciated Walking Into Clarksdale album that Plant and former Led Zep-mate Jimmy Page recorded in 1998. Kudos to Burnett, likewise, for assembling this eclectic group of supporting musicians, including guitar experimentalist Marc Ribot, virtuoso traditionalist Norman Blake, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger. Their supple and inventive backing is nearly as integral to the beauty of Raising Sand as the presence of its two marquee vocalists.

originally appeared on kcra.com

by David Hyland

When Robert Plant confidently struts across the stage of a London stadium in a few short weeks with the reformed Led Zeppelin, it won’t just be 30 years of rock ‘n’ roll legends and a near-perfect discography that he’ll be potentially trampling underfoot. The stakes are a bit higher than that.
Rather, Plant could undermine his long-sought artistic freedom from Zeppelin just at the instant when he had a collection of songs compelling enough to temporarily eclipse the all-consuming Zeppelin legacy. With assistance of bluegrass starlet Alison Krauss, Plant has just released his best post-Zep record. It’s a disc so richly steeped in American roots music that it could free him of the indignity of being known as the “former singer for Led Zeppelin” for the near term. Or, at least, it could spare him from having to sing “Whole Lotta Love” during his next tour. ||Continue reading||

Originally appeared in Epoch Times

By Stacy Towar-Fogarty

On the cover of the much anticipated collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand, there’s something missing. There’s a great black and white photograph of the two standing on a desolate beach, looking at a distant point, smiling in anticipation—as if waiting for the results of this unlikely pairing of one of rock’s most notorious front men (Led Zeppelin) and America’s bluegrass darling. What’s missing is some hint of producer, guitar player, and shaper of this disc—T Bone Burnett.

In listening to the sonically seamless disc, the Burnett influence is apparent. From song choice to the understated guitar playing, this release has been touched not just by the hand of Burnett but by the legendary music of Leadbelly, the catalyst for this unusual pairing. Plant and Krauss first worked together for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s tribute to Leadbelly. They were both influenced by his spry and soulful style seeded with tragedy and loss. This theme seems to be the underlying current for Raising Sand. ||Continue reading||