Robert Plant 10: Raising Sand

To the astonishment of everyone, Robert Plant managed his biggest critical success in years—if not ever—for his collaboration with Alison Krauss on Raising Sand. Much of the success can be attributed to hip roots music producer T Bone Burnett, who’d already sold millions and got a Grammy for his work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The sound sits somewhere between that, a Daniel Lanois production and a Tom Waits album, and not just from using some of the same musicians.

Alison Krauss has one of the sweetest, clearest voices in music, not to mention that she’s a cute as a box full of buttons. She’s also a great fiddle player, which takes a back seat to the songs. The selections run the gamut from bluegrass standards to newer folk nuggets. One exception, amazingly, is “Please Read The Letter”, a song first heard on the Page/Plant album and here taken at a much more contemplative pace. “Trampled Rose” is a more recent Waits tune, and “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” sounds like one, but it was written by Sam Phillips, the former Mrs. Burnett. (Alison nails both.) Her gender-bent take on “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” shows a hot R&B streak.

Two Gene Clark songs come from the second Dillard & Clark album, and they’re exceptional, though we can do without yet another version of “Fortune Teller”. The track that got the most exposure was the chugging “Gone Gone Gone (Done Me Wrong)”, which sounded the most like something like Robert might have sung earlier in his solo career. Most of the songs are duets, starting with “Rich Woman”, and they blend nicely. “Stick With Me Baby” is another tender one.

What’s especially impressive is the development of Robert’s voice as he’s aged. For a tangential comparison, consider the recent sounds of Bob Dylan, who finally stopped yelling like he did through most of the ‘80s and got more comfortable in the lower register. That kept his voice from getting worse until just recently. Robert’s done that too; he doesn’t go for the high notes at all, and instead has made the most of the notes he can reach. His near-whispered take on Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’”, for instance, is well matched to the stark horror of the arrangement.

Raising Sand is the culmination of his work since the turn of the century, immersing himself in older folk and country songs and reinterpreting them in fresh ways. Not only did it win five Grammys, but it kept him interested in doing absolutely anything besides heeding the inevitable calls for a Zeppelin reunion. It’s a special album; not about to replace the band that spawned him, and far from embarrassment.

Robert Plant | Alison Krauss Raising Sand (2007)—4