Album of the Week: Raising Sand

As a general rule, I look upon cross-genre duet albums with a critical eye. One might say I'm automatically cynical even. So when I hear that Robert Plant, legendary rock god frontman of Led Zeppelin, is doing a cross-genre duet album, I am immediately cynical. And on a more personal level, somewhat internally wounded. For those of you familiar with the epic mastery of Led Zeppelin (and you better damn well be), the thought of Robert Plant doing some sort of nancy-pancy made to order bullshit is a thought almost too unbearable to comprehend.

When I looked and saw the second name on said cross-genre duet album, I must admit my hopes were raised a bit. I dried my tears and decided to give this a shot. I'm not typically one for making grandiose, broad, over-arching pronouncements on any particular topic. I think that is presumptuous and typically only gives one part of a story. But I feel comfortable in broadly stating that Alison Krauss has one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, voices I've ever heard. I have an album of her and Union Station, and it is fantastic. And damn can she fiddle.

It's hard to juxtapose in the mind or ear, Robert Plant's primal wails of Led Zeppelin yore with Alison Krauss' ethereal melodies. Thankfully, Plant turns off his rock and roll button, and puts on his folksy-country hat. And man, the result recorded on this album is something else.

As I indicated previously, I could happily sit and listen to Krauss sing out of a legal dictionary for days on end, and this album showcases her absolutely stunning voice. She could sing a phone book, or a dental manual, or explain your tax evasion in song form, and it would still be gorgeous. To hear her singing with Plant is initially kind of like getting punched in the ears, you have no idea that what you're hearing is real. Their two voices surprisingly blend with uncanny ease, but there's a haunting undertone to nearly all of it. It's like you can feel the tension between their styles, and both artist is consciously having to suppress themselves. Every once in a while though, you can hear some of that individuality come out in the open, bubbling up from the unconscious. I can't remember what track, but there's this one part where Plant sings a stanza, and he just kind of forgets where he is at the end, and he comes off sounding like he's ready to melt some faces with Jimmy, John, and John Paul. I heard one reviewer comment that this album has the feel of a courtship dance between the two performers. I overwhelmingly agree.

When you think about it, this record actually has a logical basis. American blues, which formed the basis of the Led Zeppelin sound and was instrumental in the development of bluegrass, is the common language of both Plant and Krauss. And Zepp always had a very strong interest in acoustic folk music. You listen at nearly all of Led Zeppelin III, or songs like "Battle of Evermore," and you'll hear that folksy sound. Similarly, you listen to Alison Krauss and Union Station, and you hear a very progressive strand of bluegrass. So I suppose, it's kind of like they're meeting in the middle.

My favourite track thus far is "Please Read the Letter." Interestingly enough, it was co-written by Plant and Jimmy Page (lead guitar for Led Zeppelin) for one of Plant's prior solo albums. I think it would have been really sweet if they could have brought Jimmy in to play some acoustic or mandolin on this piece, see how he would interpret it.

All in all, this is a pretty quiet album. Pretty standard bluegrassy instrumentation, being guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, drums. Not all of the instruments are on every track though, so it remains a quiet album. That's one of the very odd things, hearing Plant sing so softly. You realize that he actually has a very pleasant voice. A great track to showcase that is "Polly Come Home," which is just mesmerizing. It's got this extremely somber guitar-drum background, which contrasts with these very emotional vocals. Another great faster piece is "Gone, Gone, Gone," which has some grant Plant-Krauss action. Here it sounds like Krauss is a little outside of her comfort zone, trying to keep up with Plant's more natural rock instincts.

Anyways, I'm not going through every track on the album, but they're all great. So in summary, if you're looking for a bizarre way to spend an hour or so, check out this album. But also, if you are looking for an hour of simply fantastic, interesting music, I would check this out. Highly recommended.