CD Review: "Raising Sand" - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

What? Robert Plant and Alison Krauss doing an album together? Could there be a more disparate pair of people to put together on an album? Well, T-Bone Burnett (O Brother, Counting Crows, Spinal Tap, Bruce Cockburn, etc) has done it again. Plant's vocals have never been better. He provides his characteristic vocal stylings on some of the songs (Gone, Gone, Gone), but on others (Through the Morning, Through the Night) he provides a gentle harmony with the angelic voice of Krauss. I never thought I'd hear Plant singing with pedal steel guitar accompaniment, but somehow it works. All of the songs are covers, and I can't find a bad one on the disc. T-Bone himself plays guitar on ten of the thirteen tracks. It's a surprisingly good combination of an unmistakable 1970's classic rock voice with the silky smooth vocal stylings and fiddle virtuosity of a bonafide bluegrass superstar. Only T-Bone Burnett could manage to pull this off. If you buy this one, you won't be disappointed.

Note: I can't manage to type T-Bone without thinking of the Seinfeld episode where George tries to give himself the nickname "T-Bone."