Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand

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

― J0hn D., Monday, March 31, 2008 6:47 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My sentiments exactly.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, March 31, 2008 6:49 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man. memories of "at last! REAL music!" people championing this years ago have kept me away, but this is fantastic.

thank you 80s debut singles thread and spotify for leading me here.

the wrecking ball production comparison is otm, but that is a positive for me

The thing that's bugged me about Plant's solo singing, this pitchy strain like he can't quite accept he's lost his '70s pipes, is completely gone on this record. I like this relaxed, Roy Orbison voice much better.

Yeah, he sounds like *Robert Plant* on 'Gone Gone Gone' only.

I eventually overcame my production misgivings about this. It really is a great record. The best thing anyone involved has done this century.

I don't think many here are into him, but something about this album reminds me of David Garza's This Euphoria

this album is so good and memorable

the even numbered tracks (sad songs) are much better than the odd ones (happy songs)

I heard this in the doctor's office today and had to google it, I had no idea about this! I wonder if it led to the eventual collaboration?

Viktor Krauss - "Big Log" cover (feat. his sister Alison on vox) from 2004:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFg1vS7OXdU

Great find - absolutely exquisite. Thanks for posting.

That's really quite nice.

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.