Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – an odd pairing at first glance, but say it over and over again out loud and the collaboration becomes incredibly enticing. Though Plant has evolved from the voice of Led Zeppelin into something of an elder statesmen for American roots music, there are very few masterminds who would think to bring the legend together with Krauss, the sensational bluegrass fiddler. Then again, the music industry boasts very few producers who can match the musical vision of T Bone Burnett.
Three years after sharing a duet during a Leadbelly tribute, Plant and Krauss come together under Burnett’s direction for 13 ghoulish covers from the great American songbook, ranging from Sam Phillips to Tom Waits.
Raising Sand trembles under Burnett’s reverb-drenched noir, sending a chill down the spine and a simultaneous warm shot to the heart. As the man behind Sand and the externally-invisible third artist, Burnett supplies the song choices, creaking production as well as some guitar. Working in the murky palette of his previous album, The True False Identity, Burnett pushes both singers outside their comfort zones into two flawless performances.
Skeptics rest assured – with Burnett at the helm, Raising Sand easily rises above any run-of-the-mill, novelty covers record. Plant hit a recent creative stride on his last album, Mighty Rearranger, while Alison Krauss & Union Station is still going strong at the forefront of bluegrass. Though Plant’s shirtless days wailing through the opening lines of “Black Dog” and climbing palm trees on acid are long gone, both singers are still very much in their prime.
Same goes for the producer. After perfecting Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon’s takes on Johnny Cash and June Carter in Walk The Line, Burnett has tackled a new great duo in the making, lending his craft to one of the most interesting projects to emerge this fall.
Immediately, the collaborative harmonies on Sand ring true, a tightly-knit balance between Plant’s aging croon and Krauss’s soothing, Nashville-honed vocals. Rowland Salley’s “Killing the Blues” has received many notable treatments and the Plant/Krauss version easily ranks with the best. The singers really nail the “sadder than blues” angle of the song, aided by some aching pedal steel courtesy of Burnett’s assembled studio players.
On the Krauss-fronted “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” the band transforms a Sam Phillips tune into something a tad more Eastern European. In addition to singing songs she would never normally approach, Krauss adapts her fiddle-playing as well to fit Burnett’s whims. Sure, covering Gene Clark (“Through the Morning, Through the Night” and a death-march rendering of “Polly Come Home”) might not be such a stretch for a Grand Ole Opry-vet, but Krauss goes out on her fair share of musical limbs.
The psychedelic Delta blues of the opening track “Rich Woman” tailors more to Plant’s mold, yet Krauss delivers a thin, soft layer to the shuffling Burnett mix. For someone who is not accustomed to sharing vocals, Plant sure makes it all seem awfully natural. Sand could just as easily be Plant and Krauss’s fifth album together rather than their first.
From start to finish, they own the material. A haunting resonance creeps throughout Sand, setting the album in a weirder (and consequently more memorable) stratum than even the best of the Starbucks-stocked collections of standards. Plant and Krauss are brilliantly cast as the unlikely leads in Burnett’s house of mirrors approach to Americana.
Honestly, who would have ever imagined Plant singing an Everly Brothers song? Even on paper, the odds and ends do not completely check out, but then again albums come alive in the studio, not on paper. Plant completely sells a spacey, ramble tamble take of “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” with Krauss and company keeping everything in step from the backseat.
Krauss gets her own Burnett-fueled rockabilly song to take the reins on, Milt Campbell’s “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson.” As one of the few upbeat tracks, the song breaks up the largely somber mood on Sand without straying from Burnett’s signposts.
Given a little pause, there is not a whole lot to be surprised about on Plant and Kraus’s first go-round (both artists have alluded to a possible summer tour and future collaborations). No one knows music quite like Burnett – just look at his diverse soundtrack work for the Coen Brothers, including the Grammy-winning music from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which Krauss appeared on.
The genius paints in wide, dreamy strokes and on Sand, Burnett takes a chance dipping his brush into two colors that could have easily clashed or seemed crowded. Got to hand it to the guy, he knows what sounds right – Plant and Krauss turn out to be a match made in heaven.
zherrm@umd.edu
