Track 60: "Killing the Blues" by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

And then you ask me... just to leave you/to set out on my own and get what I needed/You want me to find what I've already had.

Initially I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard that Robert Plant and Allison Krauss were releasing an album together. Led Zeppelin is easily my favorite band ever and it just seemed odd, but really intriguing, that Zeppelin's golden god and the bluegrass beauty would ever be in the same room much less create music together.

As much as Led Zeppelin was a dark, mysterious, and badass rock and roll band, the group had plenty of acoustic songs and a pretty broad sound. And of course my ever-growing interest in bluegrass music (and the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack) eventually led me to Alison Krauss. Krauss is uber-accomplished as a solo artist, and her band Union Station is full of phenomenal talent, and she easily has one of the most gorgeous voices ever (not to mention being a gifted fiddle player).

So it's obvious that Plant and Krauss make an odd pair, but the album "Raising Sand" is pretty incredible. Produced by T-Bone Burnett (the same guy behind the "Oh Brother" soundtrack and the music from the recent film "Crazy Heart"), the record sort of finds the middle ground between Krauss and Plant's musical worlds without sounding like it came from either. It's a pretty laid back album overall, but utterly gorgeous--sort of dark, sparse, oddly psychedelic at times and the two vastly different voices sound strangely perfect together.

"Killing the Blues" was actually written by John Prine and it's not the first time I've ever fallen in love with someone else singing one his songs (check out Susan Tedeschi doing "Angel from Montgomery" sometime and you'll see what I mean). So now I wonder why I don't have any John Prine in my collection?

This one of those tunes I don't listen to very often, but every time I hear it it blows me away.



--Music is good