Alison Krauss Plants Her Feet In Roots Rock.
News that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were collaborating wasan eyebrow-raiser. It certainly didn’t sit too comfortably withdie-hard bluegrass fans who had had to tolerate the bluegrassdiva recording duets with such rock icons as John Waite, not tomention interpreting non-bluegrass material from the likes of theBeatles, Bad Company and the Foundations Outside of bluegrasscircles there was a wellspring of questions about where the rockicon and modern bluegrass luminary would find common ground.Well, you can forget all those misconceptions about male-femaleduets. RAISING SAND cannot in any way be confused with thosemiddle-of-the-road duet warblings that have blighted music foryears and years. The pairing is unlikely, but rather then meetinghalfway, they set out to explore pastures anew on an album ofcarefully crafted enticements. It sounds daring in theory but isin fact a remarkably natural collection of songs that haunt andlinger.Plant and Krauss initially sang together at a Leadbelly tributeat the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. At the time Alisonsaid: “What a nice guy! What a music lover! We talked aboutbluegrass and Ralph Stanley and driving through the mountains andtaking pictures.” She gave Plant a bluegrass listening list thatincluded albums by Stanley, J.D. Crowe and the New South, theOsborne Brothers and Mac Wiseman. Nashville began buzzing withrumours of a full-scale collaboration shortly after. So what tookso long? “We were doing other things which were working,” Plantsays. In December, he reunited for one night in London with hisLed Zeppelin bandmates.Meanwhile Krauss had a country hit earlier last year, reworking’Missing You’ with John Waite. When the two finally got aroundto make the album together, they weren’t sure what it might soundlike…To read the full story as printed in the February issue ofMaverick Magazine, purchase your copy online today…