When Kevin first heard that
Robert Plant and
Alison Krauss were recording an album together, he was afraid to tell me because he thought my "head would explode." I admit to being prone to bouts of extreme excitement, so his theory was not completely unfounded. But if he had known that producer
T Bone Burnett (of
Oh Brother Where Art Thou fame to name just
one of his fine projects) was involved, he would have *really* been concerned.
So last night after dinner, I put an apple pie in the oven, sat down with my headphones and did something I haven't done in years...listened to an entire album, start to finish, without doing *anything* else. I didn't even play my Scrabble game on the computer or clean up around the house. I just sat still and listened.
Raising Sand is beautiful. I could hardly expect less from two of my favorite living singers on the planet (ok, ok, I'll try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum, but it's going to be hard). Here are some highlights. The links will lead you to Amazon's new download system that is thankfully and
finally DRM free...meaning that unlike, oh say, iTunes, you can listen to the song on any device, program, application, burn CDs, or do whatever you want with it because you bought it and it's
yours. Thank you, Amazon. (I'm now stepping down from my DRM soapbox.)
One more note: T Bone Burnett chose most of the songs for this album, and they are interesting choices. I've noted the songwriters in parentheses here:
Killing the Blues (
John Prine Rolly Salley): Achingly beautiful. The kind of song that I want to put on repeat and just let it wash over me. Maybe my favorite song on the album...though, really, it's too soon to tell. :)
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us (Sam Phillips): When I heard this one, I couldn't get over how much the melody sounded like a
Sam Phillips melody. And then I found out, happily, that it *is* a Sam Phillips melody (since Sam & T Bone are married, that's no big surprise). Alison Krauss's voice is strangely well suited to this quirky style, and using Robert Plant's voice as a texture in the background was a brilliant move. Highly recommended.
Gone Gone Gone (Everly Brothers): This one's upbeat in a very cool Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry kind of way. This is the first time that Robert Plant really lets loose a little, and even still, he's pretty restrained. This is the one that will probably get the most play at our house.
Stick With Me Baby (Mel Tillis): A simple, solid, sweet pop tune.
Nothin' (Townes Van Zandt): At this point in the album, I was really longing for some noise, some edge, some Robert Plant flair. And "Nothin'" delivers with some nice electric guitar noise & Robert Plant on vocals. I love the way Alison Krauss's violin floats through the distortion in this song.
In the end, the only song I wasn't crazy about was
Trampled Rose, and I'm willing to give that one some time.
Also, just to be picky, I found myself wishing there were a couple more Robert Plant moments. We get a taste at the end of
Gone Gone Gone, and at the end of Plant's own song
Please Read the Letter, but I could have done with a little bit more. But then, I can *always* do with a little more Robert Plant.
Raising Sand is such a delicate, well-crafted album and I can imagine that they didn't want to overwhelm it with too much "signature" style.
Here's an interesting article from the
New York Daily News about the project.
If you have a
Rhapsody subscription (the best thing since
Netflix), you can listen to the whole album for free (well, as part of the subscription anyway).
And there is an
official website that is supposed to be going up this week. You can bet that I'll be checking it twice daily to see if it's ready.
How about you? Have you heard it? Did you like it? I'm dying to know what other people think about it.
The new Sam Phillips album is out! Normally, I would listen to the album straight through from start to finish, but this time I had to go straight to Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant covered the song on Raising Sand, and if you remember, I was pretty wild about it. So I was dying to hear the Sam Phillips rendition.
