Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
Rounder 475 938-2
Produced by T Bone Burnett
Released: 22nd October 2007
This is not just a disc for Plant or Krauss fans – it’s one of those rare trips down an imaginary Memory Lane, which crop up from time to time. Basically, the duo explores their roots through the media of their own styles and in doing so produce a beautiful pastiche of All Our Yesterdays. I can’t believe that any true music fan will be able to hear this record without a tinge of nostalgia and a hint of regret for times past – that half forgotten youth, that lost love or that missed opportunity. Long lazy summer days and snow at Christmas. It’s pure Schmaltz but all done in the nicest possible vein.
Robert and Alison, sometimes taking individual vocal turns, sometimes in tandem, with self-penned and borrowed tunes, to give us false, but convincing reminiscences of The Everley Brothers at their peak and the gentle non-existent world of Mary Hopkin. We get haunting Zeppelinesque fugues; we revisit The Sweetheart of the Rodeo; and we go dredging in the primeval slime of blues, folk, country and early Beat Music. And, as those TV ads are so fond of saying, much, much more.
All very melancholic, but beautifully so. At least that’s how it seems to me. No doubt your take will be slightly [even, hugely!] different, but if you’ve got any sort of Soul then you’ll not be disappointed by this wonderful record. I’m not sure what the title ‘Raising Sand’ is supposed to mean but it certainly blows away some cobwebs and wipes the dust off some fine old vintage music. It could be the album of the year. See what you think.
Nice review! Really dig the Memory Lane allusions.
Posted by: Steve Sauer | October 15, 2007 at 08:48 PM