Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (2007)

Someone bought this for me, knowing that I enjoy an occasional Led Zeppelin album, and had enjoyed a gift of a Plant and Page album. In all honesty, a collaboration with Alison Krauss didn't fill my heart with anticipation and glee, and I'm not sure I've listened to it until now.

Plant has one of the great English rock/blues voices, while for me, Krauss seems to have the generic country and western sound, making her singing indistinguishable from lots of other very competent C&W singers.

Still, everyone loves a bit of country and western, don't they? No, I don't. I enjoy the very best of C&W, but the run of the mill C&W leaves me utterly cold, and I'm afraid that's what I feel about most of the songs where Krauss takes the lead. Neither does the choice of song, from the vast array available, inspire and I'm finding most are dull.

There are a few that interest, all with Plant leading. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us is a slow mournful tune, and Fortune Teller is a warming, listenable song. Probably the highlight is Please Read The Letter, the song Plant penned with Jimmy Page (and Charlie Jones and Michael Lee) for their Walking Into Clarksdale album. But I'd take the Page/Plant version over this one.

With other luminaries of the genre, T-Bone Burnett and Marc Ribot assisting, if your musical loves are 1960s Americana, country & western and similar, this album is for you. I can see why it was lauded at the time, as well as nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. It's a well constructed album, with some fine performances, for an audience I'm not part of.

Link to album tracks

2* - a classic example of 'not my thing at all', very well done