Rounder press release

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have been confirmed as performers at the 51st Annual GRAMMY® Awards ceremony and telecast in Los Angeles on February 8th, 2009, with a band including acclaimed performer and Raising Sand producer T Bone Burnett, and a stellar cast of musicians from the Raising Sand album and tour.

The event will mark both the first trip to the awards and first performance for Robert Plant, who says: “I’m looking forward to being in Los Angeles, but musically — and spiritually — I expect we’ll be somewhere halfway between the Mississippi Delta and the Clinch Mountains.”

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have been honored with nominations in five categories for Raising Sand (Rounder Records). In addition to ‘Album Of the Year’ and ‘Record Of the Year’ (for “Please Read The Letter”), Raising Sand garnered nominations for Best Contemporary Americana/Folk Album, Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals (for “Rich Woman”), and Best Country Collaboration With Vocals (for “Killing The Blues”). The nominations add to last year’s win for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Gone Gone Gone.”

Debuting at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 chart upon release in October 2007, Raising Sand has been certified platinum by the RIAA, and internationally the album has garnered multi-platinum awards, as well as the prestigious British Mercury Prize. Raising Sand has received a chorus of praise from outlets across the board including Time, Rolling Stone, USA Today, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times, Mojo and Uncut. The artists completed a extensive and successful worldwide tour this summer and have made appearances on CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show and the Charlie Rose Show.

originally appeared in The Tennessean

By PETER COOPER

Put this one in the “Yeah, we figured that” category: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at the Feb. 8 Grammy Awards. Makes sense, as the duo is up for five nominations, including album of the year, record of the year, contemporary folk/Americana album of the year, pop vocal collaboration and country vocal collaboration.

Plant and Krauss will be up on the big stage with a band that features Nashville-based musicians Buddy Miller, Stuart Duncan and Dennis Crouch. No word yet on whether Crouch will be able to catch an early enough flight on Feb. 9 to be back in town to play bass for The Time Jumpers on Feb. 9. Perhaps a Grammy appearance counts as an excused absence.
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Also announced as Grammy performers: Sometimes-Nashvillian Kid Rock, Barbadian hit-maker Rihanna and a little Irish band cleverly named U2.

Originally appeared on CMT.com (blog.cmt.com)

by Alison Bonaguro

People tend to talk in pretty broad strokes about the lines blurring. How country is crossing over to rock. And how newer music takes its cues from the old. But until you’ve seen what I saw Monday night (Jan. 26) in Nashville, it always just seems like a nice idea but nothing really real. But I just watched Robert Plant, the tall drink of water that he is, having what looked like a honest-to-goodness heart-to-heart talk with the tiny country-pop legend Brenda Lee. It was at a party for all the Nashville-based Grammy nominees. Lee is receiving a Grammy for lifetime achievement, and Plant is, well, Robert Plant. He himself is a blur of American/English/rock/country/metal. And then there’s his own Grammy nominations this time around for the all kinds of things in all kinds of categories for the musical brilliance he’s created with Alison Krauss. So seeing Plant and Lee together made me think that friendships can come in so many forms, especially when music is the common bond.

orignally appeared on Sinecta.com

by Randy Lewis & Todd Martens

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss didn’t just make extraordinary music when they teamed for their “Raising Sand” album. They also gave Grammy voters everything they could hope for in the way of nomination fodder.

In Plant, they’ve a legend overlooked during his heyday as lead singer of Led Zeppelin, which never won a Grammy, although the academy doled out lifetime achievement recognition three years ago.

The British rocker has collected just two Grammys, one of which arrived last year in the pop vocal collaboration category for “Gone Gone Gone,” the first single from “Raising Sand.” The other was a hard rock performance win in 1998 for his re-teaming with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

Grammy voters love to heap belated praise on veteran musicians, and this would allow them to idealow major awards — including record and/or album of the year — on one of rock’s genuine deities.

His pairing with Grammy-darling Krauss is the clincher. With 21 statues in her awards chest, Krauss is the most honored female musician in Grammy history. Voters will jump at this chance to add a few more to her pile.

To top it off, the songs on “Raising Sand” touched a nerve with critics, many of whom included the album on their Top 10 lists for 2007. But it’s also soothing enough not to alienate Grammy conservatives, the way Radiohead’s more exotic rock or Lil Wayne’s racy rap might.

They’ll face strong competition Feb. 8 from Coldplay, another Grammy favorite, in the record and album categories. But it’s a lock that come “music’s massivegest night,” this unlikely pair should brace for a whole lotta love.

Originally appeared in Rocky Mountain News (Denver)

By Mark Brown

Back in 2002, Robert Plant released his Dreamland album and was giving approval to the footage that ended up being Led Zeppelin’s DVD release. He spoke for a few minutes (fewer than planned, as you’ll see).

Q: Where are you?
A: I’m on the Welsh border. I’m looking west. Sun is just arcing in the sky toward Snowden and the big hills. It’s a great day. There’s been a lawnmower whirring way off. It sounds like the beginning of a Kurt Vonnegut book. ||Continue reading||

Originally appeared on LikeADesertProphet.com

Let me preface this post by saying that I generally don’t care for bluegrass/country. In fact, I don’t much care for most genres, as I find them… well, whatever the reasons, the result is the same: I don’t like things. And yet, I like this — I like this very much. I would use phrases like “haunting” or “deep like the ocean” had they not been said so oft before. Raising Sand is not bluegrass; Bluegrass is Raising Sand. Upon any listen, it seems to me that this came first and all other records which I despise are subsequent, non-essential, and slanders to the original. Every song is a welding of hooks, and it never tires nor does it wander from its singular devotion: The immeasurable pain of music felt so correctly and the melancholic knowledge that it will end in two and a half minutes.

originally appeared on CJDCcountry.com

By: Margy Holland

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant have reunited to begin working on their second album together. A source tells us that the two started the recording process in a Nashville studio yesterday (Monday, January 12th), where they are expected to remain for the next few weeks.

Their first album, Raising Sand, was released in late 2007 and is nominated in five categories at the upcoming Grammy Awards on February 8th.

originally appeared on www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk

A FELLOW musician who lectures at Kidderminster College has described rock star Robert Plant’s CBE in the New Year’s Honours List as ‘very deserved.’

Kevyn Gammond, who played in Mr Plant’s band Priory of Brion and is a project manager of MAS Records and a music lecturer at the college, was full of praise for his friend.

He said: “I think it is great news. He has done a great deal for many charities and organisations. It is very deserved.” ||Continue reading||

Originally appeared on gactv.com

As his collaboration with Alison Krauss gives Robert Plant country credentials that could never have been imagined at the outset of his career, the former Led Zeppelin front man is also receiving an honor from the Queen which was probably also out of the question when “Whole Lotta Love” sent the group to superstardom in 1970.

Robert was featured on Queen Elizabeth II’s annual New Year’s Eve list of U.K. citizens being honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, according to Reuters. The recognition comes at a time when the singer is nominated for five Grammy Awards with Alison for their work on the album Raising Sand. Among the nominations are Album of the Year; Record of the Year, for “Please Read The Letter”; and Best Country Collaboration, for “Killing The Blues.”

In addition, Robert and Alison will be featured on the compilation CD Grammy Nominees 2009, according to USA Today. Set for release Jan. 27, the album will also feature Lady Antebellum and the Eagles among its 20 tracks, along with pop singer Sarah Bareilles, teen group the Jonas Brothers, rock band Coldplay and rapper Lil’ Wayne.

Robert and Alison have hinted that they might record a follow-up to Raising Sand with producer T Bone Burnett, though no definitive announcement has been made.