Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising The Roof

I loved 2007’s Raising Sand. It was a genius move to pair Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant with bluegrass/country royal Alison Krauss. Producer T Bone Burnett (one of my favorites – his production credit almost guarantees an album I am going to love) crafted a perfect recipe from two amazing ingredients. The combo of Burnett, Plant and Krauss are back for a successful sequel.

When Led Zeppelin tragically ended with the death of drummer John Bonham in the fall of 1980, I assumed that Jimmy Page would have been the guy with amazing post Zeppelin career. But it is Robert Plant that has had the more interesting post Zep career. He has created a wonderful stew of the blues, rock and roll, folk, world music and electronica. Raising Sand leveraged all of that with Krauss’ angelic voice creating an album of classic Americana. It was so successful (platinum selling and winning Album of the Year at the 2008 Americana Music Honors & Awards and at the 2009 Grammy Awards) that I assumed we would never see a sequel – Plant hates to repeat himself.

Raising The Roof is more of the same and that is OK with me, more of the same means:

• Perfect song choices
• Brilliant arrangements
• Magic harmonies
• And musical joy

We needed Plant and Krauss to “raise” some more and they have delivered another masterpiece. The first album was a bit more of Krauss’ country and the new one more of Plant’s late career hybrid rock. It is the perfect sequel.

Some great background on the album is in this podcast. Includes an interview with Plant and Krauss and examples of source material for the songs.