CD Review: ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS - Raising Sand

Produced by T-Bone Burnett

First of all let me preface this by saying that I think T-Bone Burnett is one of the great unsung artists of the past 30 years. Since I first saw his weird stork-like countenance loping around in Bob Dylan's peripheral vision in RENALDO & CLARA. the insanely self-indulgent, wondrously oblique and grandly ambitious film which surreally documented Dylan's ROLLING THUNDER REVUE, I was taken by his sheer musicality and sense of purpose. Whether producing songwriter Peter Case's brilliant self-titled solo debut from, classic records by Elvis Costello (my fave EC record “King of America “ being one), Los Lobos, Roy Orbison, Leo Kottke, The Wallflowers, Counting Crows, or pulling together the surprise hit soundtrack album of 2001, Down From The Mountain: O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU, T-Bone has laid a swatch across the past generation's musicians and fans that has been subtle and surreal in its subversive influence while embracing all that is real, rootsy and left-of-center tasteful.

Wow, I just recalled sitting next to him at lunch before a meet and greet at a record store in Ardmore, PA back in the 1988. I’d been invited by the regional promotions rep for Columbia Records to attend and T-Bone was out promoting his latest record, “Talking Animals.” A fabulous record by the way if you can find a copy. At any rate, all I truly remember is that the dud is incredibly tall and that he and I got into a wonderful conversation about the horrid state of American political leadership (a favorite topic of both of ours) and the importance of a guy like Johnny Cash in bridging the gap between the old world (pre-Dylan) America and the new post-Vietnam era.

OK we won't talk about his incredible but under appreciated solo work. It is often downright impenetrable in it's quirkiness, in nothing but the best sense, mind you. Taking his cues from the most obtuse Dylan moments of dense and just plain odd character studies, tossing edgy political metaphor laced with a very persistent sonic and textural daring, his solo music is an acquired taste. Unfortunately not many record buyers actually acquired them. My favorite is the mostly acoustic self-titled CD from ‘86 and “Proof Through he Night” (1983) is also a keeper.

Which brings us to this new CD by rock icon Robert Plant and new acoustic figurehead Alison Krauss. "What?" was my first reaction. Sounded like a match made in a smoky room at a struggling AAA station trying to find something new to play that didn't alienate either of their audiences of aging boomers or ‘90s fans of female singer-songwriters. Good on paper but I was having a hard time envisioning where these worlds collide.

I recalled Plant and Led Zeppelin III, the album of mostly acoustic, very British folky ditties but it was much rougher hewn than the pristine filigree of Krauss's modernized yet ancient country sensibilities. OK, maybe there were possibilities here. But try as I might hearing a cross between the wailing "Immigrant Song" and the calico earthiness of "Too Late To Cry Now" was still a stretch.

Then I heard T-Bone was in the control room overseeing things and I was sold. Perfect. This MUST be great or at least right up my alley. And I hadn't heard a note when I opened the CD and saw among the players downtown iconoclastic jazz/avant guitarist Marc Ribot aboard (he shares Costello pedigree with T-Bone) as well as folk acoustic legendary string master Norman Blake. I was very intrigued.

Well, if you are looking for Plant’s innovative, improvisatory, verging-on-the-edge-of-disintegrating old-school vocal histrionics that spawned legions of crappy pseudo imitators from under their copy-cat Goldilocks fright wigs, go buy a Zep boxed set. It ain’t here. There are a couple of glimmers of Frodo-meets-Dragonslayer vocal wail but very gracefully appointed.

This is a Plant all about harmony and gentle grace and coming not only directly from the folk music of the British Isles where he got his early lessons but more directly filtered through Krauss’s roots in the American antecedents of those same ballads and reels—the music of Appalachia and Kentucky and West Virginia—the Southern, American roots of what would later leave the farm and head to Nashville and become country music. We also find here the splinters and fingers and streams of the other roots music of the American South—the blues, but not a direct, 12 bar version that inspired Led Zeppelin’s plundering and elongation of the form but the variations that permeated the music of New Orleans and Memphis and Tupelo and Austin. Music that became early R&B and rockabilly and rock and roll. Nothing on the CD really rocks but just seems absolutely well-worn and comfortable.

Krauss, began her recording career as a 14-year old fiddle phenom and who has become in the last ten years one of country music’s most popular purveyors of eclectic stylistic exploration and roots-centric classicism.

All of these links are present here in music that never sounds dusty, antiquated or nostalgic--never anything but fresh and vibrant. This is one gorgeous album of great songs and superlative taste.

Song by song glimpse:

"Rich Woman" opens the album with what may be the bluesiest structure on the disc but more delicate in presentation with Krauss harmonizing to Plant’s soft-pedaled and introspective vocals sung in a smoother, more slippery smoothness than even the crooniest of Plant vehicles we’re used to.

"Killing The Blues" - self-explanatory.

"Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" - written by T-Bone’s wife and wonderful singer-songwriter Sam Phillips.

“Polly Come Home” - one of two songs here by the great and under appreciated Gene Clark of the Byrds. This is a haunting folk ballad.

“Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) - T-Bone has long been a huge fan of The Everly Brothers (consider he and Costello’s Cowardly Bros EP from ????). This Phil & Don song is very different from the original with Plant vamping the blues a bit in the spaces between verse and the guitars a bit more distorted than anything thus far.

"Through the Morning, Through The Night" - Gene Clark again. Also from the Dillard & Clark album of the same title, is a forlorn country ballad.

"Please Read The Letter" - oddly enough one of only three or four tunes with Krauss's fiddle, this also features some classic Plant moans and an aching and slow Krauss harmony vocal. What a trademark sound that is. No one can sound like that. The tune is also the only tune on the CD that features a Plant writing credit (along with Jimmy Page and several other folks).

"Trampled Rose" - ah, this hauntingly beautiful Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan song features an ethereal Krauss vocal and some delicate Waits-ian coloration (though without the ever-present trash can symphony sonic color of Waits’ own work) which makes it sound oddly like a hi-fidelity version of a Zep outtake from III. Some hand drum stuff and National Steel guitar work with some ether haze floating through the mix. Don't hear Plant on this but the swooping vocal swells by Krauss could very well be Plant inspired.

"Fortune Teller" -- the classic early rock of New Orleans (the Stones also covered this early on) written by one "Naomi Neville" which was a pseudonym for either Art Neville or Allen Toussaint depending on who you believe. This is a rockin’ little ditty with Plant in quiet rocker mode.

“Stick With Me baby” -- by 60s Nashville star Mel Tillis finds the production etching more of a 50s street R&B vibe. Music for the front stoop, albeit dusky and shadowy where the melody’s softness pierces through the smoky haze.

“Nothin’” -- A dirge-like, grungy take on a Townes Van Zandt tune full of big guitar layered with subtle and scratchy fiddle riffs. Like a murky tale told under a dirty blanket. The sound of this track is wonderfully crafted mixing banjo, tambourine, Krauss’s wonderfully filthy fiddle and the other-side-of dawn Van Zandt ethos into a non-rocking rocker. Loud and ominously spooky.

“Let Your Loss be Your Lesson” - written by Mike Campbell, I presume the same guy as in Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. Starts with a 60s Stax/Motown-esque riff and then sliding into a bouncing, rockabilly shuffle this features a tasty Krauss vocal that at times feels a bit little like she’s channeling Dolly Parton with that great little warble in her voice. The nice little edge on the guitar in the refrain is very Buffalo Springfield 60s and the solo kicks the tune out. One of the CD highlights with a compelling Krauss vocal. Not a country girl on this one.

“Your Long Journey” - begins with an autoharp figure from the folk pedigree of Mike Seeger and is the purest old-time song on the album with banjo, light drums, acoustic bass and Blake’s tasteful acoustic guitar. Sweet gospel tying Krauss’s roots to the album full tilt. Dig Plant’s dipping vocal. A man who long ago did his homework on this music. If you heard this on the radio you’d NEVER guess it was Robert Plant. Not in a million years.

Here’s a CD I will listen to for years. Can’t say that very often any more. Funny, while listening early on I felt it was a heavily Kraussian record, later I felt the Plant presence more. In retrospect, it hangs together perfectly. Burnett has been criticized for getting complacent with his productions in the last few years. His early work with his wife Sam Phillips was jarringly original as were his own albums. His work with Los Lobos sounding nothing like the BoDeans records he worked on. I don’t feel that critique has any validity here. This is a wonderfully solid and inspired collaboration between producer, artists and band that is one of the most listenable records to my ears in a long time.

So again, here’s another CD by a 60s iconic musical fave of mine and I will say wholeheartedly that unless you HATE country roots music of any kind (and this is by no means a country CD but her voice and one or two of the songs distinctly sit on that porch) I can recommend this record to everyone. Even my Dad would like this record and to get him to listen to any Led Zeppelin would be harder than me mastering Chinese algebra (is there such a thing?).

STEVIE WONDER at the WACHOVIA CENTER, PHILA. PA 11/8/07

I had never seen a full on Stevie Wonder show. I’ve seen him do a couple numbers at a benefit show at some point over the years I believe but never a full-on Stevie set. And having gone to over 2000 shows over the years, he is one of the only artists I have not seen do their thing. So when I heard, after the fact, that Stevie tix had gone on sale I got online and bought just one ticket as I did with the Police show that I’d see the following week. What with the price of tickets these days (an avg concert ticket is $75-300 for a floor seat to almost anyone of note at an Arena or stadium these days. I figured, I’d pay the $95 and not sweat it. But having eaten enough high-end tickets (yes, the older your friends get, the less spontaneous they are, the less willing to go out at night and see shows, the more bills and responsibilities they have) in the last couple of years buying, thinking I’d have no problem getting someone to go with me, that I just solo’d it. Got great seats that way too. For this show I sat in the first row section 101 at the Wachovia Center with is one row above the floor in the first level looking straight down the third row, stage left. Couldn’t beat it. And room to dance surrounded by 6-7 women out to have a ball. I was in heaven and danced till I could dance no more.



Stevie comes out on the arm of his gorgeous daughter, Aisha Morris. Stevie talks about the recent death of his mother and how his initial way of dealing with it was to not tour. He recently decided instead, in memory of his mother to tour again. He asked his manager to put a tour together and his mgr said, no problem, we’ll tour all next year. And Stevie said, “No I want to go out in 2 months.” And he made it happen.

Aisha and Stevie sit at the piano and sing LOVE’S IN NEED OF LOVE TODAY to just knock the possibilities of this show out of the water. The band joins after the first verse and I’m stunned by how amazing the sound is. Even though I am virtually less than 20 feet from the stage and directly under the front left mains, the sound is crystal clear and not at all too loud the entire show. Possibly the best arena sound I have ever heard.

He follows with another classic TOO HIGH from probably his greatest album in a career of great albums. We get to hear his incredible signature harmonica sound for the first time this evening too. Just way too fucking funky. I was up and dancing my but off. Kept thinking my friend Lisa would’ve loved this we would’ve cut it up all night long.

VISIONS was spacey and haunting as always with a “nylon” sting guitar solo by Morris O’Connor. “I can’t believe that here we are in the year 2007 in the city of brotherly love…” and he preaches about the hate and violence of today’s world, a litany of the wrongs of and hatred in the name of religion and more…”that war is not the answer that peace is the only answer…we can do something about it as individuals…put our voices together and say ‘STOP IT’” and he points out that we are all to complacent with getting what we need…”

LIVING FOR THE CITY. Self-explanatory. For a man with this breadth of talent, with 42 years of tremendous talent to have a signature song is in itself quite a tribute to the song. Dylan has “Like A Rolling Stone”; Stevie has “Living For the City”. Hard to beat.

MASTER BLASTER (from 1980’s Hotter Than July) starts the vamp and has the crowd call and response with him…”hey, hey…God is good.” into another rollicking up tempo dance-and-sing along which is tough considering I have never had any idea what he is singing about. So what he says is this on the choruses: “Didn't know you / Would be jammin' until the break of dawn / I bet nobody ever told you that you / would be jammin' until the break of dawn / You would be jammin' and jammin' and jammin', jam on..” Learn something new every day.

Next he is giving a squawk box where he speaks variations on “I love you so much, Philadelphia” and introduces the next tune as a tune he sang when he was a kid playing in Philly…I think…hard to understand a lot of it…until he sings, “LA LA LA LA LA la la…I love you” which was from his 3rd Motown album The 12 Year Old Genius (1963) which was Motown’s 1st chart-topping album. So he does a verse and a chorus from it before going into a verse of McFadden & Whitehead’s hit AIN’T NO STOPPING US NOW and then a verse of the Sister Sledge hit WE ARE FAMILY which had actually been on in the house p.a. before the show right before Stevie came out. The groove he was playing segued into the intro of HIGHER GROUND. This was the 4th tune in the 1st 45 minutes of the show from Innervisions, arguably Stevie’s landmark album. Only a couple of minutes long, I could’ve grooved to this for a lot longer, super hot. It ended with a call and response with Aisha, “Higher (higher) higher (higher)” reminiscent of Sly Stone.

Another Innervisions classic was next GOLDEN LADY is just as solid as a groove gets and an amazing sing-along. I noticed for the first time that the conga-rich rhythm for this is the same as Marvin Gaye’s “WHAT’S GOIN’ ON. Great stinging guitar solo in this as the song modulates. Such incredibly simple and richly musical arranging as the band solos through the sections. This is a nice, long, seven-minute version that just keeps unfolding, using repetition and groove to hypnotize the soul.

RIBBON IN THE SKY was just beautiful and a Stevie essential but was the one point of the show where I was a bit done in by the show biz devise of getting the crowd interaction going. First off the crowd just wailed all of the lyrics with him and jumped right in on the long swirling glissando phrases from the record. Then after a couple of wonderful minutes Stevie did some vocal calisthenics (all of that stuff that people these days try to add to every line of their songs to prove they can “sing” but can’t touch Stevie). Then he got a bit latin-y and syncopated with the riff and the band followed course. Next, he got the crowd, first the ladies then the men to sing two funky, interconnecting parts. Fun and cool but it went on a bit too long. I actually left half way through the exercise, walked all the way up to the bathroom, did my business, bought a drink and came back down and the song was still going on. All told a 15-minute version of this one tune…the original was on Stevie Wonder’s Musiquarium (1982).

Then abruptly, he launched into OVERJOYED from 1985’s In Square Circle CD. A beautiful song from what many consider Stevie’s less lauded 80s/mid-90s output. Most songwriters would give their eyeteeth for one song this accomplished.

The next mid-section of the show was full of ballads and gave most of the band a rest for three tunes.

Next was just Stevie singing to only Victoria Theodore’s harp-like keyboard accompaniment on the moving IF IT’S MAGIC (from Songs In The Key of Life). The over-enthused crow in this big place was a bit obtrusive on this delicate tune but SO into it.

YOU AND I (from ‘72’s Talking Book) finds Stevie getting broken up. Missing some lines being overcome with emotion two or three times in the song and at the end pulling up his glasses to wipe his eyes. You had to wonder if this was reminding him of his mom or was a favorite song of his or if Stevie was thinking of Syreeta Wright who was his wife and songwriting partner during this period and who died of cancer in 2004.

YOU AND I
Here we are on earth together, / It's you and I, / God has made us fall in love, it's true, / I've really found someone like you // Will it say the love you feel for me, will it say, / That you will be by my side / To see me through, / Until my life is through // Well, in my mind, we can conquer the world, / In love you and I, you and I, you and I // I am glad at least in my life I found someone / That may not be here forever to see me through, / But I found so much strength in you, / I only pray that I have shown you a brighter day, / Because that's all that I am living for, you see, / Don't worry what happens to me // Cause' in my mind, you will stay here always, / In love, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I / In my mind we can conquer the world / In love, you and I, you and I, you and I.

Very moving and the crowd gives him the greatest ovation of the night. Right there with him, giving him all that love back. Quite an intense moment.

HOW WILL I KNOW from 2005’s A Time For Love is a beautiful duet with daughter Aisha who was having some trouble keeping it together after watching her father’s emotional struggle on the previous number, wiping tears from her eyes and waving a bit vocally while sitting at the piano next to him. On this tune, sans band.

He brings the band back out for another early hit, IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME (from 1971’s Where I’m Coming From) which included a bit of shtick due to the only real technical glitch of the night…long held notes and getting the girls to call his name after the line, “you call my name…” because duet vocalist Kimberly Brewer was having trouble hearing anything through her in ear monitors and tried 3-4 mics, walked back to her place in the bv singers line then back next to Stevie…of course Stevie couldn’t see what was going on so he vamped with the crowd…once she got back out they did a call and response thing and then the crowd did the same…making this more a fun exercise than a song.

Abruptly, Stevie gave up and went into SUPERWOMAN (the standout tune from 72’s Music of My Mind) surprising the band who scrambled to switch guitars and basses.

Another song from Hotter than July, ALL I DO starts with Stevie on the Rhodes and the crowd is with him from the opening notes.

Stevie gives up some space to the percussion section led by Muyungo Jackson who I worked with by proxy on live dates/CDs by two clients Bennie Maupin and Teri Lyne Carrington. This killin’ perc rave up leads into the final Innervisions tune of the evening DON’T YOU WORRY ‘BOUT A THING

Then she goes right into a smokin’ version of SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED. Afterwards, he tells the audience that “We can make this song, a whole other thing…take the Stevie Wonder all the way out of it…and sing this song ‘country’…” crowd gets a bit doubtful and boo-y…”…don’t act like you don’t know…” and they do a sort of two-step version that actually isn’t particularly country at all. Not well executed actually. Nice idea but more shtick for the crowd to interact on. Mostly consisted of Stevie making a bad twangy country vocal on top. A waste of a couple of minutes as far as I was concerned. The only part of the show that wasn’t viable for me. Didn’t seem like something the Philly crowd really embraced. Maybe in Texas or Nashville.

So he switches gears right away and about going to Chicago to play the Regal Theater at 16 years old and being introduced to a young girl backstage by her mother who is hit on by Stevie’s manager Clarence Paul, who keeps insisting that Stevie get to bed by 11. So Stevie woos her down to the piano the next night and tells her he’s written a song for her…which he plays the intro to and the crowd sings not only the “La la” part but the entire first verse in strong voice…MY CHERIE AMOUR. Stevie joins in on the second verse. A classic. Everyone needed a French type tune in the 60s. This one was a Top Ten hit in 1969.

Next up is one of the most infectious of ALL Motown hits and there were tons of them. Just the harmonica solo itself is a classic in the annals of recorded riffs. If you can resist singing, shaking or tapping your toes to this tune, then you be dead muthafucker. It is of course, FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE. I found myself driven to call my gal in California and hold the phone up so she could hear the apros pos lines, a practice I resist doing often since whenever I get a well-meaning call from a friend sharing a moment like this with me from miles away, all I generally hear is noise. But the live sound was so amazing here I hoped she’d get the gist of things and she did. Thanks Stevie. He truncates the ending here unfortunately to start another great late 60s hit, I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER. A very spirited version and he again abruptly ends and starts into another late 60s hit UPTIGHT (EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT).

I kept thinking he’d pull out an obscurity that would pale next to everything else but literally, “the hits just kept on coming.” He stopped again, and said, “There were a couple of tunes real popular in Philly that I did…’ and he plays a stripped down version of WITH A CHILD’S HEART and you can see the old school Philly fans swaying and singing alone…but he stops ¾ of the way through to do another Philly fave, HEY LOVE (from 1966’s Down To Earth) a song I barely recognize. He again stops we sail into the big push towards the end of the show. Stevie goofs around, chastising bassist Nathan Watts for not playing it “In B, baby…what do I have to do come back there and play it for you…” DO I DO (from …Musiquarium) which slips right into SIR DUKE which unfortunately they only do one verse and one chorus before segueing into I WISH the back to back hits from Songs In The Key of Life. Again only the first two verses and chorus.

YOU ARE THE SUNSHINE OF MY LIFE (from Talking Book) features backing vocalists Keith John and Kimberly Brewer splitting the first verse before Stevie takes over, again a shortened version I believe.

The of course, they couldn’t not do SUPERSTITION (also Talking Book). Just plain classic rock staple. I’d love to do this song but without the horns or Jeff beck…fugettaboutit. Over the bass line of the tune Stevie intros the band and then stops to ask Keith John to sing a bit of the hit song by his dad, Little Willie John and with Stevie accompanying him with one hand on the piano he sings the first verse of FEVER the back to the groove until he launches into a splendid, heartfelt and beautiful version of one of his greatest, simplest and most resonant songs, AS. In the middle of the tune he preaches on the power of heart and love and brotherhood and togetherness in pure Stevie Wonder fashion. The genius of these stars who play medleys and partial versions of their songs to get as many tunes into a show as possible is that if the song is classic enough people will THINK they heard the whole song. They’ll go away with the memories of their favorite tunes being played. I could’ve sworn I heard this whole tune with it’s litany of “always” references at the end…well they did them after the first verse before his speech section and that’s all we got.

I danced my butt off, smiled, cried, sang, cheered and was blown away. Not every day that happens to a jaded old concertgoer like me. Now, I just want to run home and listen to ALL of these great albums and dance around my living room like a fool. Spread the love Stevie.


One of my next blogs will be a personal look back at Stevie's career...