Robert Plant and Alison Krauss ready album

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, two of the most distinctive vocalists in modern music, recently put the finishing touches to 'Raising Sand' - their astonishing new collaborative album. Released October 29th on Rounder/Decca Records, it was produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with a stellar cast of supporting musicians, including guitarists Marc Ribot and Norman Blake, multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger, drummer Jay Bellerose, and bassist Dennis Crouch.

Plant is quick to define 'Raising Sand' as more a band record than a duet record, as it puts the two great singers in a variety of vocal and instrumental combinations - from songs featuring two-part brother-style harmony throughout to solo features for each. Though they come from entirely different traditions, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant create an amazing, unexpected, and entirely new sound when they sing together.

The material, ingeniously chosen by Burnett with input from Plant and Krauss, is the crucial thread that guides 'Raising Sand' and showcases their impressive abilities.

The songs range from modern to classic, consisting mostly of lesser-known material from a wide spectrum of great blues, R&B, country, and folk songwriters - Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Little Milton Campbell, Mel Tillis, Townes Van Zandt, Doc Watson, Phil and Don Everly. They also recorded the Robert Plant/Jimmy Page song 'Please Read the Letter', from the 1998 album 'Walking Into Clarksdale'. "You've got two singers that can handle a wide range of material - storytellers," explains Burnett. "So you look for the stories...."

The 'Raising Sand' tracklisting is:

Rich Woman (Dorothy LaBostrie-McKinley Millet)
Killing the Blues (Rowland Salley)
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us (Sam Phillips)
Polly Come Home (Gene Clark)
Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On) (Phil and Don Everly)
Through the Morning, Through the Night (Gene Clark)
Please Read The Letter (Robert Plant-Michael Lee-Jimmy Page-Charlie Jones)
Trampled Rose (Tom Waits-Kathleen Brennan)
Fortune Teller (Naomi Neville)
Stick With Me Baby (Mel Tillis)
Nothin' (Townes Van Zandt)
Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson (Milt Campbell)
Your Long Journey (A.D. Watson and Rosa Lee Watson)document.write(unescape("