Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: 'Raising Sand'

All too often the country and blues explorations of aging singers and musicians sound like sterile exercises in style, and have none of the heart those genres rely so heavily on for their effectiveness. This, however, is not the case here. 'Raising Sand' is a country album informed as much by modern alternative developments as by archaic traditions, and one blessed with great song writing and beautiful voices (Plant’s Zeppelin era screech is all but gone, replaced by a haunting whisper that fills more aural space than it reasonably should). Consistently the tracks are still and weighty, exploiting and showcasing the technical skill of accomplished musicians without expecting these alone to make a good record.

Alison Krauss’ voice, crystal clear and ridden with emotion, leads the way on 'Through The Morning, Through The Night' and 'Trampled Rose', and she duets wonderfully with Plant on 'Stick With Me Baby'. The complimentary relationship they have is quite unexpected and entirely compelling, the near deadpan restraint achieving a meditative quality like Low’s Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk.

A series of country’s musical motifs are explored and developed. The Mandolin on 'Trampled Rose' and 'Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us', the latter of which is a 19th century rumble with more than a hint of the uncanny and plenty of characteristic misery and mystery (‘secrets are written in the sky’). 'Through The Morning, Through The Night' utilises the pedal slide guitar to create the sound of ghostly landscapes. On 'Nothin’', a folk violin player is accompanied by crashing drums and crunching guitar, modernity meets the pastoral in a devastating synthesis worthy of the Dirty 3.

Elsewhere it is traditions of form that come up for inspection. 'Gone Gone Gone' is a muted take on the road song and works as a peculiar blues update, 'Fortune Teller' also has hints of being a ‘standard’ but played by the shimmering guitars that appeared on Page and Plant’s 1998 album 'Walking Into Clarksdale'. Also from that album is the song 'Please Read The Letter', which is massively improved by its reworking here as a desperately melancholy plea.

All thirteen tracks here are bursting with quality and lovingly crafted. Cynicism always surrounds such ventures, but this is a true labour of love, and of talent.

Released 22nd October 2007 by Decca.

Written by Huw Green.