Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand

OK listening again "uneven" now means "only a couple songs I don't love a little."

sweetness. bought the double vinyl today. sounds great. haven't listened to the whole thing yet though. polly come home is genius. nice to see norman blake on there! been listening to him a lot lately. never had much use for t-bone outside of those alpha band albums, but he's an okay dude.

Wow, this is a surprisingly low-key album--perfect autumnal music for this rather dismal time*. And, yes, Plant sounds absolutely fantastic--better than he has in ages! Every song sounds like a winner, too, and the harmonies are indeed wonderful.

*On a sad note: I'm going to have to get a copy of this for my cousin whose mom is in the hospital dying of cancer. She's a huge Zep/Plant fan, so I think she'll appreciate it quite a bit.

Plant and Krauss appear on the Culture Show on BBC2 tomorrow night (Nov 3), interviewed by Mark Kermode and Andrew Graham-Dixon.

(I was in the audience for the recording of the show, so look out for me as well!)

The tempo and dynamics are not going to disturb anybody's neighbors, but this was pure sweet balm to my nerves last night. Interesting song choices, great less-is-more arrangements, impeccable playing, and beautiful singing, simultaneously wistful and playful. I was surprised how confident and powerful Plant sounds in this low-key mode.

Echoing Sundar above, any recommendations about other Krauss material?

I'm not sure if it's because of Ribot's involvement or not, but some of this is quite reminiscent of mid '80s Tom Waits to me. Likewise, the overall mood of the album puts me in a Time Out Of Mind mood (so yeah, roots-rock fans rejoice). But maybe that's just due to the sparse mostly mid-to-slow tempo T-Bone Burnett arrangements. Still, as others have already noted, it’s the singing--particularly the duet vocals--that really puts the music across. Lovely.

is it possible Alison Krauss doesn't have her own thread yet? (c/d, s/d, etc.)

Ugh, why does BBcode never want to work?

Alison Krauss thread

i like this album -- they sound really good together -- but i'm kinda over this whole echoey droney americana t-bone/lanois-type production. there's a certain amount of deliberate joylessness to it that was sort of interesting 20 years ago but now seems a bit shticky. and it has this makes this troubling association of rootsy realness with gothy grimness, which is a betrayal historically and spiritually of actual american folk music. (and as far as that kind of production goes, i think dylan's "man in the long black coat" and emmylou's wrecking ball album are more compelling examples.)

still, the harmonies are pretty killer here and the songs are good too, so it's not like the production ruins it.

oh, all caveats about the production style are present and accounted for, trust. (though "Man in the Long Black Coat" and Wrecking Ball are precisely the records that make me dislike the approach, not the other way around.)

Funny -- I never once thought Lanois, and I HATE his stuff from the last 10 years. The guitars and voices are too earthy, almost loamy. Also, for me at least, hearing Plant pitch his vocals so quietly creates real tension; I keep expecting him to belt the chorus of "Trampled Underfoot" or something.

(though "Man in the Long Black Coat" and Wrecking Ball are precisely the records that make me dislike the approach, not the other way around.)

i can understand hating the style in toto. i think it works sometimes, those being two of the times.

this doesn't sound entirely lanois-y, but it's related. t-bone did the same thing with the o brother stuff, a sort of sonic stoicism.

i like how it sounds. if it were one of those rick rubin nightmares, i would have thrown it out the window. there is a song on the first side that reminds me a little too much of tom waits though. the arrangement or the vibe of it. can't remember title. it's my least favorite track. er, side one of the vinyl version.

"Trampled Rose" is a Tom Waits song, but wouldn't be on side one. Hmm.

it's the sister rosetta song. i mean, i don't hate it or anything. it's just the banjo and strings and the rhythm of it...i dunno, it's fine. it just doesn't move me like the rest of the songs on that side. and it sticks out in a way that the others don't. the waits/weill thing is something i don't need much of in my life at this late date. i did when i was younger. and maybe i will when i'm older. but not now.

so ... yeah, this is kind of great? At least on the first two listens, I'm really liking it. Second song is a killer.

"Please Read the Letter" is very lovely. It sounds like some lost 60s folk rock single.

Second song is a killer.

it is, but the more i listen the more i think that song sets up a promise the album doesn't really deliver. (smart move putting it second. if it was the first track it would be too obvious. as second track it seems like 'hey wait this is great.' but then it's never quite that good again.)

I think "Through the Morning, Through the Night" and "Your Long Journey" are both as good or better than "Killing the Blues"

Odd, those two and "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" are my least favorites thus far. Of course, I keep finding new things to enjoy the more I play the thing, so who knows if that will continue to be the case.

How come she sings lead on two songs with male POV, but he does not reciprocate?

Some nice quiet moments on this. Real music in a sea of shit.

Also, Plant singing Townes on 'Nothin'' is nice.

Real music in a sea of shit.

when people say things like this, it makes other people think "oh, it's music for self-important blowhards"

not without reason

when a record's as good as this one though it's an extra shame that the "at last! REAL music!" people gotta jump onboard

My sentiments exactly.

Some nice quiet moments on this. Real music in a sea of shit

And this is your attempt to stay afloat?

This didn't do a lot for me. Maybe it was the "raised" expectations. Maybe I should give it more of a chance.

Your ears got shit-clogged.

I bought the CD on the strength of this thread, as it happens. And I wasn't disappointed.

who i didn't expect to like this album even a smidgen as much as I do; it's fucking great. i'm not really a zeppelin fan (I do like some solo robert plant albums though) or an allison krause fan. this, though, sounds like the best album chris isaak never made.

"Please Read the Letter" is very lovely. It sounds like some lost 60s folk rock single.

I had this on last night at one of the unholy hours I tend to frequent, and I don't think it was just being deliriously sleepy that made me think, "I feel like I've known this record for years." Not to sound maudlin at all. Doesn't it just feel that way? Warm and familiar and altogether nice.

Spot on.

Can I add that my mum loves this. It's one of those records that people who 'don't know anything about music' really like = best recommendation of all....

um.

Would I like this? Reading comments here I feel like I would, but the whole "arran sweaters on the beach in monochrome", real-music for real-pensioners advertising schtick severely blew me in another direction.

Yeah, you need to get past that. It pays off.

xpost "Please Read The Letter" struck me the same way. Amazing how it nestles in among all those chestnuts. If I'm not mistaken that's the only non-cover (Page/Plant)?

Things That Are Good Despite Their Fans: OPO

Warm and familiar and altogether nice.

Yes. I played this for a friend of mine who is a professional musician, and he just said it sounded "expensive."

nick you should get it, it's very good; it is a case of super bad mastering, though. levels are way too high, way way way too much bass on this thing. it's still good though

this album!!!!!!!!

Re: "please Read The Letter" -- it was also on that (rather half-arsed) Walking Into Clarksdale CD of Page & Plant's, wasnnit?

RE: "Nothin'" - I hadn't heard Van Zandt's 'riginal version before, so when I finally did, well ...Plant's & Krauss's take on it is really great.

Yeah both my mum and Mrs Trifle (neither big music fans) like this and that kind of put me off ('cos I'm a contrary bastid) but it's excellent. Plant sounds great. And that Letter track is beautiful. But really the whole album is fine. Best thing Plant has done since Zep? Maybe.

way way way too much bass on this thing.

wtf

it is uncanny to hear plant's voice doing something other than "immigrant song" or whatever. but i haven't paid attention to any of his solo stuff so maybe it's my problem.

can't get past the first song because it is good.

Great show at MSG a week or so back. He is in surprisingly incredible voice. Nicely paced w/ a bunch of Zeppelin tunes (incl. a goosebump-inducing "Battle of Evermore") and "In The Mood." I gather there will be another record and more touring.

i find this works better as a whole album (a mood piece) than as individual tracks -- there's a lot i've been skipping through on ipod random play. "trampled rose" i listen to every time. :-)

i was trying to figure out what the flaw in "gone gone gone" was that kept me from loving it, and i think it's that you can barely hear the rhythm section; it's mixed down so low compared to the upfront, radio-ready vocals. not that it needs to be super-loud, it just feels a little robbed of its important place in the song.

I saw them do "The Letter" on ACL or Soundstage or whatever, holy Christ was it good

"Stick With Me Baby" is the one that sticks with me.

can't get past the first song because it is good.

You need to, because Track No. 7, Please Read The Letter, is the best song on this (outstanding) disc.

"polly come home" is so lovely

"fortune teller" was one of my favorite songs anyway; that plant & krauss do such a fun cover is total WIN for me

Been hearing this all morning. Production is excellent and everyone performs perfect. A pt. 2 should be in the works.

I could have sworn they said there were enough tracks left over for a part 2, more or less, but conflicting schedules have made it impossible to finish.

I seem to recall they started a second album, but the sessions didn't gel correctly or something; Krauss exited, Patty Griffin came in, and that album became Band of Joy.

Would buy a deluxe box thingie of this album

My gosh, "Killing the Blues" is lovely

Steve Rarle said he wrote this for Plant-Krauss follow-up, so when that didn't happen and he needed a track for cobbled album, recorded it w then-wife A.Moorer---pretty good, considering he's Earle, not Plant---wisely sings a little behind her, like Parsons tended to do w Emmylou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwbkisIQQU4

Think, esp. on headphones, you can easily imagine how it might have sounded if P-Ked.

My brother gifted me a pair of KEF LSX today and I have to say my mind is blown on how good this album sounds. I already knew by listening to it on decent headphones but still. WOW.

New song with T Bone producing once again. Sounds great. Hate the album cover though.

A Lucinda Williams cover , Can’t Let Go

Which was itself a cover. Randy Weeks.

Pareles write up has me excited for this

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/arts/music/robert-plant-alison-krauss-raise-the-roof.html

“Raise the Roof” almost magically reclaims the spectral tone of “Raising Sand,” then finds ways to expand on it, delving further into both quiet subtleties and wailing intensity. “It’s a little bit more smoky, a little bit more lustrous than the first record,” Plant, 73, said by phone from his home in western England.

“It’s definitely different, even though it might be coming out of the same sort of crevasse, the same fork in the landscape of our musical lives. It has a mood to it, which is laced with time and with the actual age and maturity of the songs themselves.”

Cool, good article. Looking forward to it. This stopped me for a second — "Krauss, 50, grew up harmonizing in bluegrass groups ..." — because I still think of Krauss as kind of a kid, which she was when I first started listening to her. But then I remember that was like than 27 years ago ...

So this album's real nice. More of a lesser companion to the first one than any advance on it, but it's a mostly good selection of songs, and it does totally recapture the vibe of the first one.

Agreed. The word that stuck with me from that Pareles piece was "smoky." It's got more of a nighttime vibe than Raising Sand. I like the "Can't Let Go" cover!

I thought I'd posted on this thread in November!

Anyway, this one's superior to its nice, stolid predecessor. The Ribot-Hidalgo-Burnett guitars are sharper, the songs with some edges, and, wow, Plant and Krauss' harmonies don't let go of each other.

I enjoyed listening to them discuss the process of learning to sing together on SongExploder.

just cancelled their headlining show at Belgium's Cactus festival, 20 minutes before showtime (!). Alison has the flu.