Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Jesse Kornbluth wrote in the Huffington Post: "[Y]ou have only to hear it once to know that you will listen to it often. … You expected Plant's want-you, need-you, got-to-have-you cry that starts somewhere in the mid-range and moves fast into the crack-glass zone? You'll find his signature scream here, but you'll have to listen closely. And Ms. Krauss? … Over the years, she's bent the bluegrass envelope, but she's never shredded it. You'll find her purity on display here; again, you'll have to listen closely. In these songs, everything's off-kilter. Plant whispers and Krauss shrieks. Drums pound, but vocals are muted. The past is honored … but it's filtered through processors that transform no-frills country into sophisticated urban ghost music. Raising Sand is, in short, the kind of music that sounds great in the car or when you're puttering, but sounds even greater when you sit down, plug in the headphones, and go to school on it. The key player here is T-Bone Burnett, who, on the strength of this CD alone, ought to abandon all dreams of performance and surrender to his genius as a producer" (10/24/07).