Originally appeared on theage.com.au (Australia)

by Michael Dwyer

SELF-ASSURANCE has never been Robert Plant’s short suit. When the golden god of Led Zeppelin requests an earnest opinion on his new endeavour with bluegrass golden girl Alison Krauss, it takes a moment to clock his meaning.

“How do you think we’d get on at Byron Bay Blues Festival?” he inquires conspiratorially. ||Continue reading||

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 on Countryhound.com

Stephen L. Betts

Raising Sand, the critically-lauded album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, has been certified gold by the RIAA, denoting sales of more than 500,000 copies. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 just four weeks ago.
Produced by T Bone Burnett, Raising Sand is the highest-charting and fastest-selling album in the history of Rounder Records.

A music video for the first single “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On),” will world-premiere on CMT tomorrow (11/29), and is also confirmed for a premiere on VH1 on Dec. 3. Shot in Nashville, the video adds a raucous element to the Everly Brothers song, with scenes bouncing between shimmering mylar glitz and a performance stage reminiscent of a vintage Technicolor movie. The video will enter regular rotation on both networks.

Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, and T Bone Burnett, along with the musicians featured on Raising Sand, will tour extensively throughout the US and Europe beginning in April.

Originally appeared in The Globe and Mail (Canada)

by Simon Houpt

Robert Plant looks as if he might start whirring around like a Tasmanian Devil. True, with his cascading ringlets of golden hair and his pop-eyed mien, and the hard rock reputation that precedes him, he often seems on the edge of the deep end. But he’s just picked up a life-size cardboard poster of the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and his body language suggests he’s gearing up to take her for a spin around this boardroom on the 19th floor of Universal Music Group’s headquarters. ||Continue reading||

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 in the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Raising Sand. Krauss and Plant’s new album is selling like hotcakes, but it’s not because the novelty of the angel-voiced bluegrass girl-meets-rock god combo. Fans of each artist would have recognized from afar what more mainstream iTunes downloaders realize now: It’s a match made in music heaven. The album is subtle, and infinitely listenable — that’s not to say “easy listening” which, while not a bad thing all the time, is not applicable here. Raising Sand offers haunting, smart lyrics and a smooth modern blues sound that marry perfectly on every single track. Krauss could probably sing with the Devil and make him sound all right; Plant, as an iconic, standout singer, needs no such assistance and very gently elevates the pair into a deserved fresh spot in music history.

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||

Originally appeared in the Springfield News-Sun (Ohio)

By Ron Rollins

Even given the wide range of odd pairings and assorted mashups in popular music, I confess my first reaction to word of a new album teaming Robert Plant and Alison Krauss was one of baffled disbelief: Had to be somebody’s idea of a joke, right?

Not at all. If you can’t imagine the raging British lion who once steered Led Zeppelin sharing studio space with mountain music’s brightest, prettiest songbird, nobody’d blame you. But once you plug this disc in, you won’t believe how well it all works.

“Raising Sand” is a smashing example of the great, unlikely chemistry and surpassing quality that two big, if dissimilar, talents can draw from each other and themselves. Plant and Krauss sound so good together, so naturally in sync, that they sound surprised themselves —Â a sense that lends a blissful freshness on every tune.

Plant said in interviews that he fancied the chance to learn white rural songcraft from Krauss; a category of American music he’d bypassed while pillaging the R&B strut of black bluesmen that lent itself so well to his band’s heavy-thump metal.

Krauss, who’s spent years leading a band of supremely talented bluegrass players, gets to wrap her crystal-clear voice around a stylist every bit her equal and then some, and to learn an old hand’s approach to appealing new material.

The mixture of traditionals, oldies and newer songs they sing here tend toward Krauss’ usual love-sick, lonely sadness; she provides the hopeful, spiritual lilt, while Plant grounds the emotions in the earthy practicality of disappointment. Every cut has a shambling, easy familiarity that seems both at odds with and yet perfectly entwined with the soaring harmonies they provide.

The third musical legend in the mix is the producer T-Bone Burnett, without whom the project may well have fallen flat despite what Krauss and Plant brought to the table. His aim is steady and straight, and his natural feel for the rough edges and dusty, cobwebbed corners of rural American music is uncanny.

Put them together, and you almost can’t stop listening.

Grade: A

iPod picks: “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On); “Trampled Rose.”

Originally appeared in the Liverpool Echo (UK)

by Jade Wright

THE sheer quality of his musicianship puts the mighty Robert Plant (pictured below) head and shoulders above his competitors. And time has not diminished the fire that shines in him. It has given even greater depth and majesty to his distinctive voice.

This creative combination is really quite enchanting. Each song is a joy to behold, particularly Polly Come Home, Your Long Journey and Please Read The Letter.

Fans of Led Zep will know that there was always more to Robert Plant than belting out heavy rock classics: he was always interested in other musical genres. In this album, his exploration of them with Alison Krauss has produced something special.