Mostly positive. There are Plant fans wanting this to be Zeppelin, and Krause fans wanting this to be Bluegrass. It's neither. The closest Zeppelin songs to the type of thing this has would be That's the way, Tangerine, and maybe the Honeydrippers stuff. It's like that. I listen to it, as it is, forgetting of each artist's pasts. For me, it play's very well.
True artists take chances and step out of the "what is expected." Bob and Alison are artists.....and this record proves it.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
I picked up this album at the store the other day, but put it back down. I bet it is all what has been said about it, but I don't just don't think I'm willing to buy a country album at this point (unless its rascal flatts). May be I'll be more in the mood for it later on.
I was surprised by how little the album resembles roots music in the way I think about it. And it's most certainly not a country/bluegrass album to my ears. I'd describe the sound as haunting and sparse, though I realize that isn't much of an objective explanation. Simply beautiful, however you want to say it.:)
I'll join the bandwagon of people impressed with this album... My first listen was just as sorta background music while I was working, and I thought it was "ok". But since then, I have actually sat down and listened to this album several times, and was amazed.... it gets better each time. A great collaboration by two amazing and talented musicians.
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
how are people finding this album/ I haven't got it yet mainly for cash reasons but am interested in your opinions....
It's phenomenal. One of the very best albums this year. By anyone...
Mojo
"A consistently good band works all the different elements well. A song has to appeal sentimentally, intellectually, physically, viscerally, and dig deep down into your soul and suck you into it. And after that, of course, it'd be a matter of taste." ~ Kim Thayil from Soundgarden
how are people finding this album/ I haven't got it yet mainly for cash reasons but am interested in your opinions....
Creeps into your head and won't let go......subtle.....catch something new with each listen.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
I'm not much of a Zeppelin fan and I've never even heard of Alison Krauss. But after reading a 5 star review in The Times, I bought it and I'm glad I did. This is an amazing album. Laid back and beautiful.
Robert Plant/Alison Krause will be released on Oct 23. What an unlikely pairing. I've heard it and holy crap, they pull it off. If you're looking for Physical Grafitti, Part II, don't look in this direction.
I don't think Alison Krause has anyone even vaguely thinking of Physical Graffiti....but the album sounds cool
Amazon.com now as of 11/10/07 at 12:30 pm, has about 115 reviews. Mostly positive, 5star. Some Zeppelin fans can't accept him doing this, and some Krauss fans the same. Then of course, hijackers just saying stupid negative stuff that isn't even substantive. Sort of like the Nirvana fans who automatically say negative things when Pearl Jam releases an album. You'll always see this sort of thing. For the most part, where people are really commenting on the substance of the album, they are giving it positive reviews. The press, far beyond the 19 reviews in the above link, have given it very high ratings. The media is gushing. RollingStone gave 3.5, and one in Utah gave it a very low rating. Other than those, it is highly esteemed. It debuted #2 with 112,000 sold, and is now #6 with 88,000 in the 2nd week. That is a pretty steady stream given the 1st week included a month of preorders lumped into that one week.
I like it a lot. I always thought Plant could do anything. Looking at it, ignoring both artists pasts, to me is a great, albeit mellow album. The more listens, the more subtleties come out. Like if you listen with headphones, the last chorus on Polly Come Home, how Krauss' backing vocals just swirl around. Chills my spine even thinking about it.
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
Saw an EPK where Plant was saying they both came out of their comfort zones to make this record....and it was really strange for him to be sitting in a room with another singer working out harmonies acoustically, without a mic and headphones.
Sunday Calendar; Calendar Desk
O Brother, who would have guessed this pairing?
Richard Cromelin
Times Staff Writer
11 November 2007
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
F-1
NEW YORK
Alison KRAUSS must feel as if she's dreaming. Across the crowded green room at the NBC-TV studios early on a recent morning, a walking hot dog and a 6-foot-tall ketchup bottle are talking to Popeye and Olive Oyl. Then Hugh Hefner and a Playboy bunny come through a door.
Blinking, Krauss heads to the coffee urn. She's been up since 3:30 a.m., she says, to make sure there's plenty of time to do hair and makeup for her appearance on the "Today" show with her celebrated singing partner of the moment, Robert Plant.
"If they can't do her in three hours, they might as well give up," she says, putting herself in the third person and laughing at her joke.
Ungodly hours, by musicians' standards anyway, are part of the bargain for the folk-country star and the British rocker as they do their bit to promote their collaboration, "Raising Sand," which to their surprise is turning out to be one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
After doing interviews and taping a performance for the CMT cable channel's "Crossroads" show in Krauss' hometown of Nashville, they arrived here and went straight to a reception in their honor at an elegant tavern at Grand Central Terminal, then spent the next day visiting radio stations.
From New York they're off to England for another round, and after Plant's old band Led Zeppelin does its reunion show in December, the duo will start making plans for a U.S. concert tour.
Not many people were expecting this kind of attention for a project that began as an experiment with no clear aims -- least of all Massachusetts-based Rounder Records, the venerable roots-folk label that's fostered Krauss' career and now finds itself with a rock icon on its hands, and all that goes with it.
"It's the most expensive record we've ever put out," says Rounder President John Virant, standing at the bar during the reception, which figures to add a bit to the tab. "A lot of it was the travel for all the musicians -- Robert came over from England a couple of times. I remember getting an AmEx statement with $45,000 for airfare. . . . But when you're working with people like this, you can't run around crying that you're a poor little indie."
Virant is smiling as he says this. He figures it's money well spent, and sure enough, when the numbers come in a week later, "Raising Sand" has entered the national sales chart at No. 2, selling 112,000 copies during its first week -- the highest in Rounder's history. With the singers' combined pedigrees and the critical acclaim it's gathered and the spring tour to keep it fresh, the album could enjoy a long shelf life and be a factor in the 2009 Grammys.
T Bone Burnett, who produced the album, knows all about that. He assembled the soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," the surprise album-of-the-year winner in 2002, which is when he first worked with Krauss.
"She is a profound artist and it's sort of easy to overlook that somehow, because she's so good at what she does," Burnett says. "But the reality is she has very deep notions about music and art. She doesn't wear them on her sleeve, but she may be the most uncompromising person I've ever met in my life.
"And Robert. . . . In a way Robert's sort of the fulfillment of this threat that Elvis Presley made."
Bluegrass meets rock
The hot dog, the ketchup bottle and company have finished their "Today" segment (it's about Halloween costumes), and now Krauss and Plant are in a corner of the small studio in Rockefeller Center singing "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)," a bouncy, driving Everly Brothers song from "Raising Sand."
The 36-year-old bluegrass princess and the erstwhile rock god, 59, blend their contrasting voices with the assurance and rapport they've developed over the course of their collaboration. That began when Plant invited Krauss to sing with him at a tribute to folk/blues giant Leadbelly at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and flowered in the "Raising Sand" sessions last year in Nashville and Los Angeles.
After the final chorus and a "Well well!" yelp from Plant, the singers stand back and watch as their band builds the intensity. Jay Bellerose's drums dance lightly around the contours, while Burnett, Buddy Miller and Mark Ribot -- a summit meeting of premier roots-conscious, cutting-edge guitarists -- put on a show of their own.
Plant, who heard his share of guitar virtuosity in 1960s England and with Led Zeppelin, is still marveling at the display a few minutes later.
"When you see that there, Buddy Miller and Marc Ribot and T Bone playing," he says, shaking his head. "It's such a minimalistic piece of music, and yet with all that prowess and skill and musicality it becomes even more minimal.
"And then of course Ribot plays a solo that we haven't heard before and didn't know was going to happen, which makes it really good."
A natural chemistry
He and Krauss laugh, something they do often as they sit in a dressing room after the show. Weathered in visage but still robust in manner, Plant is gracious and self-effacing, a sort of wry, experienced Michael Caine figure to the younger Krauss.
Krauss got her doses of Led Zeppelin from her older brother, but her interest in Plant traces more to his first solo hit, 1983's moody, Spanish-inflected "Big Log."
"I appreciate him as an ever-changing artist, where he's going and what he's done through his career," she says. "Just how things kept evolving into something that you have no idea where it's going to be in five years. I love that about a person."
Not that she is some awe-struck protege. Krauss, who has won 20 Grammys and sold 8.6 million albums on her own and with her band Union Station, was the one who insisted on their album's dark mood, and she pretty much owns the world of folk/country/Americana that Plant was stepping into, with some apprehension.
"Well, Alison's very patient, but because she's born to it and I wasn't, we didn't really know," says Plant. "I know that there was a bit of consternation. I could feel the Americans twitching."
Not at all, says Burnett, who not only assembled the musicians, shaped the sound and directed the sessions, but also selected the songs that formed the album's backbone.
"People talk about what a strange pairing it is, but from the moment I heard it I thought, 'Oh, that's exactly right.' " says the Los Angeles-based Burnett, sitting in his suite at a Central Park South hotel the day before the "Today" performance. "They both have that same otherworldliness that I strive for, in my life and in the world of sound that I surround myself with."
Burnett started gathering material and got help from his friend Elvis Costello, who suggested Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's "Trampled Rose," which is on the album, and PJ Harvey's "Pocket Knife," which was recorded but was left off because Krauss wasn't satisfied with her performance.
Burnett also furnished two songs by the late Gene Clark (of the Byrds), including the majestically intimate dirge "Polly Come Home," and Plant brought in five songs, including "Gone Gone Gone" and another one cut by the Everlys, Mel Tillis' "Stick With Me Baby," as well as the British beat-era staple "Fortune Teller" and the playful "Rich Woman," originally recorded by New Orleans R&B singer Lil' Millet.
They finally had their set, a diverse collection of blues, folk-rock, cabaret, country, rockabilly, Appalachian and R&B, unified by a haunting sound quality and a thread of sorrow in the words. Even the upbeat Everlys tune carries a lyric about desertion and betrayal
Their singing assignments range from solo showcases -- Krauss' eerie take on "Trampled Rose" and Plant's absorbing encounter with West Texas existentialism in Townes Van Zandt's "Nothing" -- to twined harmonies, such as the Carter Family-style finale "Your Long Journey," written by Don Watson and his wife, Rosa Lee.
"That's the beautiful thing," Burnett says, "when you just lose track of who's singing where."
Burnett framed those vocals in a sound that honors tradition but refracts it through his own restless vision, which currently owes a lot to contemporary classical composer John Adams.
"He'll take two tones and collide them, and then more tones and more tones, so these overtone rhythms get set up," Burnett explains. "You're never dealing with a point.
"What I was striving to do was not having it on a grid, not having a specific beat that happened on a pixel. A beat isn't something that happens like that" -- he claps his hands sharply. "A beat is something that unfolds as long as you can make it. And then you put another beat behind that and all of those tones start colliding and it turns into a whole different way of hearing."
Burnett mentions the work of John Sharpley, a Singapore-based American who sometimes performs his piano pieces in natural caverns. .
"You're overwhelmed by the amount of information. There's no possible way to receive it consciously, it just has to enter you. So that's the sound."
Smokin' and smolderin'
"He's a swashbuckling guy. I knew that he was a renegade," Plant says of Burnett. "But also I found out that he's just got a spectacularly successful way of keeping it interesting and constantly illuminating more within a particular song.
"We'd finish a song in a particular fashion one night and then come back the next morning and he'd put on some tremolo guitar . . . and it had become so smoky. And that immediately made me feel, 'Wow, this is what I want. This is Lil' Millet, this is New Orleans 1956.' And that was Alison's decree. We got to make it smolder and make it some shady-sounding collection of songs."
"It needed to be dark, lyrically heavy," Krauss explains. "There's so much life and experience that his voice brings out, there's a lot of mystery to it, and with mine together, that creates some kind of story, and I don't think it creates an 'up' story. I think it creates a lot of wonder and it creates sadness.
"That's the emotion I feel when I hear us sing together," she says. "It's something that has a past, and it won't be as effective with a different kind of environment. . . . A smoky, heavier environment tells a much deeper story. Not only because of the lyrics, but the sound of our voices will tell a very different story."
Krauss and Plant have to go pose for photos now, and they have a few more promotional duties in New York before they fly to England to spread the word in Plant's homeland, where at least one fan is looking forward to their arrival.
"My sister, who normally thinks that my music -- well, she thinks that I should be sectioned, taken off somewhere and strapped down -- she's texting me, 'It's so beautiful, I can't wait to meet Alison, she's made you sing properly.'
"It's true, that's what a lot of people say," Plant says. "The women at the kitchen sink in England have been waiting for me to do something since 'Big Log.' "
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
bought this yesterday -- really is beautiful. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us is haunting. Gone Gone Gone, which has been given a lot of airplay, is a fun lil song. Highly recommended.
2003 Mansfield III 2004 Boston I 2006 Boston I 2008 Bonnaroo, Hartford, Mansfield I 2010 Hartford 2013 Worcester I, Worcester II, Hartford 2016 Bonnaroo, Fenway I, Fenway II 2018 Fenway I, Fenway II 2021 Sea.Hear.Now 2022 Camden 2024 MSG I, Fenway I, Fenway II
2003 Mansfield III 2004 Boston I 2006 Boston I 2008 Bonnaroo, Hartford, Mansfield I 2010 Hartford 2013 Worcester I, Worcester II, Hartford 2016 Bonnaroo, Fenway I, Fenway II 2018 Fenway I, Fenway II 2021 Sea.Hear.Now 2022 Camden 2024 MSG I, Fenway I, Fenway II
Is that the girl who used to post her music on here many years ago? I wanna say her username was midnite siren? Don't ask me why I remember that...Never listened to her stuff before. If it is the same girl, wow, congrats to her.
Is that the girl who used to post her music on here many years ago? I wanna say her username was midnite siren? Don't ask me why I remember that...Never listened to her stuff before. If it is the same girl, wow, congrats to her.
She's a Bluegrass artist with 20 Grammys on her resume'.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
I like it. Sometimes I feel that it's a little too mellow but it's still very very good. I think Plant did something that is out of his normal routine and I think it works well. I love Alison's voice, it's really beautiful.
Been listening to Raising Sand for a few days now and Im mesmerised. Hadn't heard of Alison Krauss before but enjoy her voice, the variation in the songs is just right for me, without question one of my favourite albums in a while.
Are there any other albums with this women singing that are.......well classy, but not overtly countrified.
Been listening to Raising Sand for a few days now and Im mesmerised. Hadn't heard of Alison Krauss before but enjoy her voice, the variation in the songs is just right for me, without question one of my favourite albums in a while.
Are there any other albums with this women singing that are.......well classy, but not overtly countrified.
She has two solo albums out, but country tunes on both....she does cover some Todd Rundgren and Bad Company on them.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
Did anyone else find it odd that she sang one or two songs in which they forgot to change the pronouns to make it from a female perspective? It seemed like a strange omission given the care of the rest of the cd.
Did anyone else find it odd that she sang one or two songs in which they forgot to change the pronouns to make it from a female perspective? It seemed like a strange omission given the care of the rest of the cd.
I don't think it's uncommon in more traditional types of music - I think her bluegrass roots explain it. I'm no expert, but I'm thinking of Gillian Welch as an example. If I'm not mistaken she's written more than one song from the male perspective, then gone on to sing it herself. We're just not used to it in modern rock music.
And to anyone interested in Alison but afraid of country music - just give in to it. Country music isn't intrinsically bad. It's the modern pop country performers who give the genre a bad name.
Not to mention that Alison is a bluegrass musician, which is a bit different anyway.
Did anyone else find it odd that she sang one or two songs in which they forgot to change the pronouns to make it from a female perspective? It seemed like a strange omission given the care of the rest of the cd.
That was the Producer's idea or something that Alison and Robert wanted to do going into the project...I remember it beginning discussed in some articles about the project.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
And to anyone interested in Alison but afraid of country music - just give in to it. Country music isn't intrinsically bad. It's the modern pop country performers who give the genre a bad name.
Not to mention that Alison is a bluegrass musician, which is a bit different anyway.
No shit, this ain't fucking Toby Keith we're talking about here. Some of you people need to quit being blatantly ignorant and just check out her stuff for yourself. At worst you won't like it and will never listen to it again. But at least you can say you gave it a shot instead of dismissing it based on the ridiculously narrow and preconceived notions you have of what is actually a very broad genre of music.
I got my tickets to see them in Cardiff this week. Row 7.
Sweet!!!! She sounds just as good live as she does recorded. Have a great time.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
Comments
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
It's phenomenal. One of the very best albums this year. By anyone...
Mojo
I don't think Alison Krause has anyone even vaguely thinking of Physical Graffiti....but the album sounds cool
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
Here is a combo of media reviews and listener reviews.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/plantrobertandalisonkrauss/raisingsand
Amazon.com now as of 11/10/07 at 12:30 pm, has about 115 reviews. Mostly positive, 5star. Some Zeppelin fans can't accept him doing this, and some Krauss fans the same. Then of course, hijackers just saying stupid negative stuff that isn't even substantive. Sort of like the Nirvana fans who automatically say negative things when Pearl Jam releases an album. You'll always see this sort of thing. For the most part, where people are really commenting on the substance of the album, they are giving it positive reviews. The press, far beyond the 19 reviews in the above link, have given it very high ratings. The media is gushing. RollingStone gave 3.5, and one in Utah gave it a very low rating. Other than those, it is highly esteemed. It debuted #2 with 112,000 sold, and is now #6 with 88,000 in the 2nd week. That is a pretty steady stream given the 1st week included a month of preorders lumped into that one week.
I like it a lot. I always thought Plant could do anything. Looking at it, ignoring both artists pasts, to me is a great, albeit mellow album. The more listens, the more subtleties come out. Like if you listen with headphones, the last chorus on Polly Come Home, how Krauss' backing vocals just swirl around. Chills my spine even thinking about it.
It looks really interesting.
www.chriscornell.org.uk
O Brother, who would have guessed this pairing?
Richard Cromelin
Times Staff Writer
11 November 2007
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
F-1
NEW YORK
Alison KRAUSS must feel as if she's dreaming. Across the crowded green room at the NBC-TV studios early on a recent morning, a walking hot dog and a 6-foot-tall ketchup bottle are talking to Popeye and Olive Oyl. Then Hugh Hefner and a Playboy bunny come through a door.
Blinking, Krauss heads to the coffee urn. She's been up since 3:30 a.m., she says, to make sure there's plenty of time to do hair and makeup for her appearance on the "Today" show with her celebrated singing partner of the moment, Robert Plant.
"If they can't do her in three hours, they might as well give up," she says, putting herself in the third person and laughing at her joke.
Ungodly hours, by musicians' standards anyway, are part of the bargain for the folk-country star and the British rocker as they do their bit to promote their collaboration, "Raising Sand," which to their surprise is turning out to be one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
After doing interviews and taping a performance for the CMT cable channel's "Crossroads" show in Krauss' hometown of Nashville, they arrived here and went straight to a reception in their honor at an elegant tavern at Grand Central Terminal, then spent the next day visiting radio stations.
From New York they're off to England for another round, and after Plant's old band Led Zeppelin does its reunion show in December, the duo will start making plans for a U.S. concert tour.
Not many people were expecting this kind of attention for a project that began as an experiment with no clear aims -- least of all Massachusetts-based Rounder Records, the venerable roots-folk label that's fostered Krauss' career and now finds itself with a rock icon on its hands, and all that goes with it.
"It's the most expensive record we've ever put out," says Rounder President John Virant, standing at the bar during the reception, which figures to add a bit to the tab. "A lot of it was the travel for all the musicians -- Robert came over from England a couple of times. I remember getting an AmEx statement with $45,000 for airfare. . . . But when you're working with people like this, you can't run around crying that you're a poor little indie."
Virant is smiling as he says this. He figures it's money well spent, and sure enough, when the numbers come in a week later, "Raising Sand" has entered the national sales chart at No. 2, selling 112,000 copies during its first week -- the highest in Rounder's history. With the singers' combined pedigrees and the critical acclaim it's gathered and the spring tour to keep it fresh, the album could enjoy a long shelf life and be a factor in the 2009 Grammys.
T Bone Burnett, who produced the album, knows all about that. He assembled the soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," the surprise album-of-the-year winner in 2002, which is when he first worked with Krauss.
"She is a profound artist and it's sort of easy to overlook that somehow, because she's so good at what she does," Burnett says. "But the reality is she has very deep notions about music and art. She doesn't wear them on her sleeve, but she may be the most uncompromising person I've ever met in my life.
"And Robert. . . . In a way Robert's sort of the fulfillment of this threat that Elvis Presley made."
Bluegrass meets rock
The hot dog, the ketchup bottle and company have finished their "Today" segment (it's about Halloween costumes), and now Krauss and Plant are in a corner of the small studio in Rockefeller Center singing "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)," a bouncy, driving Everly Brothers song from "Raising Sand."
The 36-year-old bluegrass princess and the erstwhile rock god, 59, blend their contrasting voices with the assurance and rapport they've developed over the course of their collaboration. That began when Plant invited Krauss to sing with him at a tribute to folk/blues giant Leadbelly at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and flowered in the "Raising Sand" sessions last year in Nashville and Los Angeles.
After the final chorus and a "Well well!" yelp from Plant, the singers stand back and watch as their band builds the intensity. Jay Bellerose's drums dance lightly around the contours, while Burnett, Buddy Miller and Mark Ribot -- a summit meeting of premier roots-conscious, cutting-edge guitarists -- put on a show of their own.
Plant, who heard his share of guitar virtuosity in 1960s England and with Led Zeppelin, is still marveling at the display a few minutes later.
"When you see that there, Buddy Miller and Marc Ribot and T Bone playing," he says, shaking his head. "It's such a minimalistic piece of music, and yet with all that prowess and skill and musicality it becomes even more minimal.
"And then of course Ribot plays a solo that we haven't heard before and didn't know was going to happen, which makes it really good."
A natural chemistry
He and Krauss laugh, something they do often as they sit in a dressing room after the show. Weathered in visage but still robust in manner, Plant is gracious and self-effacing, a sort of wry, experienced Michael Caine figure to the younger Krauss.
Krauss got her doses of Led Zeppelin from her older brother, but her interest in Plant traces more to his first solo hit, 1983's moody, Spanish-inflected "Big Log."
"I appreciate him as an ever-changing artist, where he's going and what he's done through his career," she says. "Just how things kept evolving into something that you have no idea where it's going to be in five years. I love that about a person."
Not that she is some awe-struck protege. Krauss, who has won 20 Grammys and sold 8.6 million albums on her own and with her band Union Station, was the one who insisted on their album's dark mood, and she pretty much owns the world of folk/country/Americana that Plant was stepping into, with some apprehension.
"Well, Alison's very patient, but because she's born to it and I wasn't, we didn't really know," says Plant. "I know that there was a bit of consternation. I could feel the Americans twitching."
Not at all, says Burnett, who not only assembled the musicians, shaped the sound and directed the sessions, but also selected the songs that formed the album's backbone.
"People talk about what a strange pairing it is, but from the moment I heard it I thought, 'Oh, that's exactly right.' " says the Los Angeles-based Burnett, sitting in his suite at a Central Park South hotel the day before the "Today" performance. "They both have that same otherworldliness that I strive for, in my life and in the world of sound that I surround myself with."
Burnett started gathering material and got help from his friend Elvis Costello, who suggested Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's "Trampled Rose," which is on the album, and PJ Harvey's "Pocket Knife," which was recorded but was left off because Krauss wasn't satisfied with her performance.
Burnett also furnished two songs by the late Gene Clark (of the Byrds), including the majestically intimate dirge "Polly Come Home," and Plant brought in five songs, including "Gone Gone Gone" and another one cut by the Everlys, Mel Tillis' "Stick With Me Baby," as well as the British beat-era staple "Fortune Teller" and the playful "Rich Woman," originally recorded by New Orleans R&B singer Lil' Millet.
They finally had their set, a diverse collection of blues, folk-rock, cabaret, country, rockabilly, Appalachian and R&B, unified by a haunting sound quality and a thread of sorrow in the words. Even the upbeat Everlys tune carries a lyric about desertion and betrayal
Their singing assignments range from solo showcases -- Krauss' eerie take on "Trampled Rose" and Plant's absorbing encounter with West Texas existentialism in Townes Van Zandt's "Nothing" -- to twined harmonies, such as the Carter Family-style finale "Your Long Journey," written by Don Watson and his wife, Rosa Lee.
"That's the beautiful thing," Burnett says, "when you just lose track of who's singing where."
Burnett framed those vocals in a sound that honors tradition but refracts it through his own restless vision, which currently owes a lot to contemporary classical composer John Adams.
"He'll take two tones and collide them, and then more tones and more tones, so these overtone rhythms get set up," Burnett explains. "You're never dealing with a point.
"What I was striving to do was not having it on a grid, not having a specific beat that happened on a pixel. A beat isn't something that happens like that" -- he claps his hands sharply. "A beat is something that unfolds as long as you can make it. And then you put another beat behind that and all of those tones start colliding and it turns into a whole different way of hearing."
Burnett mentions the work of John Sharpley, a Singapore-based American who sometimes performs his piano pieces in natural caverns. .
"You're overwhelmed by the amount of information. There's no possible way to receive it consciously, it just has to enter you. So that's the sound."
Smokin' and smolderin'
"He's a swashbuckling guy. I knew that he was a renegade," Plant says of Burnett. "But also I found out that he's just got a spectacularly successful way of keeping it interesting and constantly illuminating more within a particular song.
"We'd finish a song in a particular fashion one night and then come back the next morning and he'd put on some tremolo guitar . . . and it had become so smoky. And that immediately made me feel, 'Wow, this is what I want. This is Lil' Millet, this is New Orleans 1956.' And that was Alison's decree. We got to make it smolder and make it some shady-sounding collection of songs."
"It needed to be dark, lyrically heavy," Krauss explains. "There's so much life and experience that his voice brings out, there's a lot of mystery to it, and with mine together, that creates some kind of story, and I don't think it creates an 'up' story. I think it creates a lot of wonder and it creates sadness.
"That's the emotion I feel when I hear us sing together," she says. "It's something that has a past, and it won't be as effective with a different kind of environment. . . . A smoky, heavier environment tells a much deeper story. Not only because of the lyrics, but the sound of our voices will tell a very different story."
Krauss and Plant have to go pose for photos now, and they have a few more promotional duties in New York before they fly to England to spread the word in Plant's homeland, where at least one fan is looking forward to their arrival.
"My sister, who normally thinks that my music -- well, she thinks that I should be sectioned, taken off somewhere and strapped down -- she's texting me, 'It's so beautiful, I can't wait to meet Alison, she's made you sing properly.'
"It's true, that's what a lot of people say," Plant says. "The women at the kitchen sink in England have been waiting for me to do something since 'Big Log.' "
2004 Boston I
2006 Boston I
2008 Bonnaroo, Hartford, Mansfield I
2010 Hartford
2013 Worcester I, Worcester II, Hartford
2016 Bonnaroo, Fenway I, Fenway II
2018 Fenway I, Fenway II
2021 Sea.Hear.Now
2022 Camden
2024 MSG I, Fenway I, Fenway II
2004 Boston I
2006 Boston I
2008 Bonnaroo, Hartford, Mansfield I
2010 Hartford
2013 Worcester I, Worcester II, Hartford
2016 Bonnaroo, Fenway I, Fenway II
2018 Fenway I, Fenway II
2021 Sea.Hear.Now
2022 Camden
2024 MSG I, Fenway I, Fenway II
lol, yea, I remembered the other girls last name is Crowe. Whoops, wishful thinking for a fellow Jammer I guess.
Are there any other albums with this women singing that are.......well classy, but not overtly countrified.
I don't think it's uncommon in more traditional types of music - I think her bluegrass roots explain it. I'm no expert, but I'm thinking of Gillian Welch as an example. If I'm not mistaken she's written more than one song from the male perspective, then gone on to sing it herself. We're just not used to it in modern rock music.
And to anyone interested in Alison but afraid of country music - just give in to it. Country music isn't intrinsically bad. It's the modern pop country performers who give the genre a bad name.
Not to mention that Alison is a bluegrass musician, which is a bit different anyway.
No shit, this ain't fucking Toby Keith we're talking about here. Some of you people need to quit being blatantly ignorant and just check out her stuff for yourself. At worst you won't like it and will never listen to it again. But at least you can say you gave it a shot instead of dismissing it based on the ridiculously narrow and preconceived notions you have of what is actually a very broad genre of music.