For some reason, this post from March 27 disappeared from the blog’s queue. As it’s part of a planned sequence of at least three posts, I’m rerunning it for April 3.
In the broad swath of the musical genre Americana, one can find marvelous things. Two of those things are the albums released in the past sixteen years by one of the more unlikely musical pairings I could have imagined: one-time bluegrass prodigy turned superstar Alison Krauss and former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant.
Their two albums – 2007’s Raising Sand and 2021’s Raise the Roof –- offer roots music laced with mystery, sorrow, resignation, elation and more, sometimes muted, sometimes boldly proclaimed and often haunted. The song’s sources are wide-ranging, a fact that’s less surprising when one learns that both albums were produced by T Bone Burnett, who produces in many genres but seems to be most at home in Americana.
I’ve been listening to Raising Sand since it came out, and Raise the Roof has been on my playlist for about a year, and the two albums scratch an itch I didn’t know I had. I’ve been hearing Kraus’ music on and off for the last twenty or so years, since the Texas Gal introduced me to the cover of the Beatles’ “I Will” that Kraus recorded with string instrument whiz Tony Furtado . And Plant, well, I’ve been hearing his voice since Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love” came thudding out of my bedroom radio in late 1969.
But the two voices together? Astounding.
And the track I’ve been listening to more than any other in recent weeks? It’s “Last Kind Words Blues,” a tune that’s been around since the 1930s. We’ll be talking more about the song sometime in the next few weeks – I’m waiting for some interlibrary loans to come in – but for now, here’s Kraus and Plant:
– whiteray
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