Raising Sand
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.79 You Save: $10.19 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.66 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Raising Sand
Free Music Review: something to remember
Hit: 5 Stars
Raising Sand highlights the talents of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant--not to mention T Bone Burnett and the other musicians on this album. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant would at first seem to be a somewhat unlikely duo; but they deliver some very beautiful, moving and memorable tunes on this CD. The quality of the sound is excellent and that artwork is very well done. The CD comes with a booklet that gives us the lyrics for each song as well as the song credits. Great!
"Rich Woman" starts the CD off with a very powerful ballad. The lyrics tell of a man who has a great woman in his life; and they all perform this to perfection. Although some may say that the music is somewhat inappropriate for such a happy song; I think it all works rather well. It rocks very well in its own way; and that guitar work is outstanding. "Killing The Blues" has a stunning guitar arrangement; and together Alison Krauss and Robert Plant do this one up right! "Killing The Blues" is indeed a rather bluesy tune; and it sounds irresistibly beautiful when these champs sing it without a superfluous note. "Killing The Blues" is a deep, meaningful ballad and it's easily a major highlight of this CD.
"Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" features Alison Krauss both singing and playing the fiddle; her voice is remarkably clear and sweet. This number explores the fact that not all love affairs go on forever; and Alison sings this passionately. She certainly wears her heart on her sleeve! In addition, "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" starts off right away with quite a strong drum and guitar arrangement; together Alison Krauss and Robert Plant sing this with lots of energy. "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" has some "light rock" mixed in with the music for a good effect and it's another highlight of this album.
"Please Read the Letter" puts Robert and Alison squarely front and center for this song about a break-up. "Please Read the Letter" also has great drum work and Alison again plays fiddle on this track. "Trampled Rose" has a fantastic sound to it; it's a very creative number. There's also "Fortune Teller;" "Fortune Teller" opens with Robert singing his very best and this tune tells quite a story!
"Nothin'" starts with some heavy electric guitar work; and when Robert Plant comes in this number really begins to stand out from some of the others. This bluesy tune has quite a somber, dark musical arrangement that fits perfectly with Robert's vocals. "Nothin'" is a terrific rock ballad. "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" has a catchy melody that belies the seriousness of the lyrics; I really like "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" and this is also another huge number on this CD. The album then ends strong with "Your Long Journey." The guitars, autoharp and banjo kick in pretty quickly; and this duet between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss shines brightly even though it's not the happiest of songs.
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant outdo themselves on this outstanding CD. I highly recommend it for their fans; and people who enjoy blues and folk mixed occasionally with just a touch of "light rock" will enjoy this album very much.
Free Music Review: Easy to love, worthy of study, oddly original: CD of the year?
Hit: 5 Stars
Summer. Dusk. An ancient Cadillac convertible, top down, cruises on Long Island back roads.
On the radio, the Rolling Stones.
"The world's greatest rock band?" I ask.
The music mogul at the wheel doesn't have to ponder.
"Led Zep," he says.
And so it may be. Which would put Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin's singer, a cut above Mick Jagger. And would make it even more unlikely that he would ever collaborate with a bluegrass singer and violinist from Nashville on anything --- especially something as crazy as a collection of cover songs from the moldy basement of country and rock.
But here is "Raising Sand", the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss CD, and you have only to hear it once to know that you will listen to it often. And, again, I have to invoke the most unlikely of reasons --- it confounds your every expectation.
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? Bluegrass is rigid, unforgiving music; it is, say I, more about expertise than imagination. 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, Plant whispers and Krauss shrieks. Drums pound, but vocals are muted. The past is honored --- it turns out that Plant and Krauss share a love of bluegrass and `50s country-rock --- 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 Burnette, who, on the strength of this CD alone, ought to abandon all dreams of performance and surrender to his genius as a producer. With his input, Plant and Krauss realized they didn't have to record a dozen duets. And so "Raising Sand" is a collaborative "project" --- some of him, some of her, and a generous helping of them.
What's true of every song: originality. We're used to fervent being fervent; here the power of love or heartbreak or whatever is in the restraint. It's more than Plant, Krauss and Burnette throwing one head fake after another your way. It's about digging in and exploring, caring more about sound than about commerce. Only unknowns and megastars get the chance to make this kind of CD --- and these days most megastars prefer the safety of a victory lap.
At the corner of quality and daring, we find a welcome novelty. Cover songs as cutting edge music? A rocker who looks 200 embracing the kind of tenderness he used to sneer at? A bluegrass sweetheart who seemed to want to grow up to be Emmylou Harris discovering a wild side? All of the above.
Miracles occur. Magic is afoot. And "Raising Sand" is the CD of the year.
Free Music Review: The Primary Contendor for Album Of The Year 2007
Hit: 5 Stars
So far this year, I had hailed three albums as making the Top of my List for the Best Albums of the year. The list contained Rufus Wainwrights' "Release the Stars", Paige Aufhammer's debut CD, and "Yes, I'm a Witch" by Yoko Ono. However, two listens of this, and it has zoomed directly to the top of that heap. This may well be the album of 2007, and watch it sweep the Grammys in 2008.
The reason this is good is multiple. First, the unusua pairing of Plant and Krauss - yes this is different, but it could also have flopped miserably. But what really elevates this project is that the musicians had the good sense to experiment with different genres all on the same CD - and the result is that no two songs sound alike, and there is something here for everyone (literally).
The primary genre of this album would be acoustic folk-rock, but that would be under-selling it. I am going to list some of the genres on this CD, and compare it to an album, so that you know exactly what to expect when you buy this and pop it into your player:
1. Bluegrass : A very rural, rustic feel permeates this entire recording. Very similar to "The Grass is Blue" by Dolly Parton (in fact, I feel this album is close to that Parton record in so many ways, especially the lyrics).
2. Avant-Garde Jazz : Strange but true. How these two musicians did it is beyond me, but the atmospheric jazz ambience here is very reminiscent of a David Lynch movie. Example CD : "Mulholland Drive : The Soundtrack". That album and this share so many traits.
3. Acoustic Rock : An obvious genre, but this album has a lot in common with the new Annie Lennox CD "Songs of Mass Destruction" (including some song structure and opening riffs).
4. Twee Chamber Pop : An odd genre to be sure, but its there. Alison's vocals sometimes are so dreamlike and breathy that they evoke Belle and Sebastian. In that aspect, this album is very close to "Amorino", the 2003 album by Isobel Campbell.
5. Experiment Pop-Opera : The closest collaboration album I can think of to compare this to is "Ballad of the Broken Seas" by Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell from 2006. Listen and find out.
6. World Music : Yes, the influences are there on this CD. I found strains of the Beatles here as well, in the string sections. If you like Afro Celt Sound System and their album "Release", you will love this, as some of the instrumentation really evokes the mood of that CD.
As you can see, this is not a straight-forward, simple album to review or listen to. Also, despite the calm and peaceful album cover, this is not one of those adult contemporary recordings that you can play in the background. It needs some investing in, but it will pay you back richly.
It hard to come across a CD that blends so many genres seamlessly, and for that reason, this scores a full five stars. I highly recommend this to you, if you want one solid CD to pop in and listen to on repeat for a while. This one stands the test of time. Get it now!
Five Stars.
Free Music Review: Did Tom Waits and The Bodeans have a lovechild?
Hit: 5 Stars
This cd is an elusive, hauntingly beautiful neo-country creation from an unlikely pairing. If I were backed into a corner and forced to describe it in 50 words or less, I'd say it was a mash-up of Tom Waits Island years and The Bodeans. But the reality is that this piece is much too well-informed to be categorized in such simple terms...
The Tom Waits comparison comes from the dry vocal treatment (minimum reverb) which, at times, creates an intimate atmosphere that makes the listener almost feel as though Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are in their living room. And, the "Thud", "Hiss" and "Clank" of the percussion throughout is a clear reference to Waits.
My initial reaction to hearing Plant & Krauss sing together was that their voices were too similar. A typical duet features contrast, such as the Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris effort "All the Roadrunning", or Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang, etc. Here you have two voices that are different, but at times they seem to overlap, creating a haunting, ethereal quality-not unlike Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore" from their 4th album. Then I realized that there was a kind of Everly Brothers quality to the pairing. I actually thought I heard elements of "Wake Up Little Suzie" in the harmonies. Of course, shortly after this realization I noticed an Everly Brother's song amongst the offerings...
This album is destined to strike a chord with Gen-Xer's, in particular, because of its eclecticism. Marketing types have often referred to Generation X as the "generation without anchors". In the absence of any unifying event in the collective lives of this group of people (other than 9/11, which happened when most of them were already grown), diversity is the tie that binds. This is the reason genre-defying artists like Sting, Dave Matthews and others that experiment with world music have captured the imagination of this group.
At any rate, Generation X continues to hunt for leftovers in the Baby-Boomer icebox, often times coming up with new combinations and flavors not previously considered. Robert Plant is particularly attuned to this, and has not yet failed to surprise, delight and occasionally offend his audience-in equal measures and to great effect. This album takes the experimental qualities of Plant's earlier effort "Dreamland" to the next level by incorporating the gifts of an A-list country artist named Alison Krauss who has a superb voice-and she plays a mean fiddle to boot!
"Dreamland" was a bold, stark, experimental re-working of a number of fairly obscure folk songs. "Raising Sand" manages to be just as bold, but with much greater warmth, affection and intimacy. It is a true artistic triumph which should provide an opportunity for both artists to grow their fan base considerably.
Everyone is sure to have their favorite track, but for me, the aching country lilt of "Through the Morning, Through the Night" is worth the price of admission. Pour yourself a glass of wine and listen to this. Life is good.
Free Music Review: What talented vocalists. What a gem of a collaboration.
Hit: 5 Stars
Not every album I grow to love is a "love at first hearing" affair. I had heard great raves about this cd for several weeks and jumped on buying it when I saw it for the first time. That said, I was disappointed some upon first hearing the cd. Looking back on my first hearing it several weeks ago, I really think I was a little disappointed in it because--hell, your guess is as good as mine.
The cd is a multi-layered undertaking. Consequently, one doesn't hear the nuances immediately. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed hearing this cd more with each listening. When that happens, somebody is doing something right.
I've long loved to hear Allison Krauss. If there's an angel in heaven who sings better than her, then God better give me better heavenly ears because these will burst with joy. However, Robert Plant is the one who has pleasantly surprised me to more. As someone who does a little singing myself I can tell you at least two relevant things regarding this cd: 1) The best singers can harmonize well. Harmony most times is a lot harder to sing well than melody. Here we have two singers who are used to singing the melody. They blend together exquisitely, nevertheless: one singing harmony, the next time perhaps the melody. These two individuals can "sang" people. I was pleasantly surprised by the nuances in Plant's voice in particular.
2) The best singers can sing more than one genre masterfully. Robert Plant, he of "Black Dog", "Whole Lotta Love", and "Lighten Up" fame can sing country with the best of them. Indeed, by and large, I'm really not impressed with most country singers. If every one was like Plant though, I'd buy every thing coming out of Nashville. Country can be an awesome genre: Plant reminds you of that on this cd. In my opinioin, well-sung bluegrass and country is the hardest genre to sing well (with the possible exception of classical/opera.) The fact that Plant excels at it tells me of how extraordinary a singer he is.
You know, I'm going to add a third thing: 3) The best singers can sing in an understated manner (ever notice how the worst singers seem to do it "over the top" more often than not?) Plant in particular knocked the understated thing out of the ballpark. It takes some doing to compete with Allison Krauss on a country/bluegrass song. Plant does more than hold his own. He excels at it. So impressed with his singing that I often find myself attempting (emphasis on "attempting") to sing along with him rather than listen to Krauss' angelic voice.
Allison Krauss is her usual brilliant self. If you haven't learned to appreciate her yet you're either deaf or have been living in a hole somewhere the past five years.
I could say more but it's dinnertime. A great cd I look forward to listening to for years. Oh, one last thing: the last song is one of the most beautiful songs ever sung by human beings. Buy it and find out what I'm talking about.