Robert Plant and Allison Krauss: Raising Sand (2007)-Adam Fisch
Robert Plant & Allison Krauss- Raising Sand (2007)
By Adam Fisch
There’s a certain difficulty in being a living legend. The twilight of Robert Plant’s musical life has been shrouded in lukewarm reaction to solo records and swarms of never ending rumors and hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion (which did indeed go down). The burden of choosing the next musical direction in the face of such scrutiny must be a heavy one to bear.
In yet another career turnaround, Plant has decided to leave the rock behind for a little while and record a haunting album of old folk standards. In a way he could not have chosen more perfect companions for an experimental, out of step journey like this one. Allison Krauss, the charismatic leader of Union Station and mainstay in everything bluegrass, won her first Grammy at just 22 years old. T-Bone Burnett, the album’s producer credited with much of the song selection, saw an unexpected explosion in popularity following his production of the soundtrack to the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou. These three all have experience with trying to meet lofty expectations, and they all must have considered the possible career ramifications of a disastrous reaction to a folk record recorded by the lead singer of the greatest hard rock band of all time.
Fortunately, none have seen any reason to worry. The record listens sweetly, and reactions have been almost universally positive and entirely deserved. There is something strangely familiar about this collection, though many of the songs had, until now, been largely forgotten over time. While anyone familiar with Krauss’ catalogue is used to hearing her distinct sound on songs like these, Plant sounds so comfortable in this style it becomes hard to imagine that “Rock & Roll” and “Immigration Song” were the products of the same talent. Only “Fortunate Teller”, on the latter half of the record, sounds like anything that could have fit into the Zeppelin ouvre.
While “Gone, Gone, Gone” won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration, it’s tracks like “Through the Morning, Through the Night” and “Stick With Me Baby” that take full advantage of the strange, beautiful dynamic of Krauss and Plant’s vocals. Plant’s voice meanders along, crawling in and out of Krauss’ slow, steady delivery in a dance that has the spirit of an old lovers’ conversation, a strong-minded woman and an arrogant man, that executes into memorable harmony. The tracks move effortlessly, and have an energy and spontaneity that sound like they could have been recorded in an afternoon and released the next day. Raising Sand is a perfect reminder that talent still wins out over expectation. Let them make believers of you.
Copyright C. 2008 Adam Fisch