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| Raising Sand | 
 enlarge | Creators: Robert Plant And Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss
Label: Rounder
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $7.98
You Save: $11.00 (58%)
New (53) Used (21) Collectible (3) from $7.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  489 reviews
Sales Rank: 49
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.8 x 0.4
MPN: 619075
UPC: 028947801993
EAN: 0028947801993
ASIN: B000UMQDHC
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lackluster and aimless, poor sound engineering November 5, 2007
33 out of 58 found this review helpful
I love them both. But this collaboration is an example of why 10 brilliantly talented musicians in a room, without a coherent vision for the album, doth not a good album make.
The band is basically a jug band. They play with a loose "boys from the hills" flavor." They play great, but the songs simply don't go together. You've got hints of bluegrass, hints of Led Zeppelin, hints of Tommy James and The Shondells, Buddy Holly, ... in fact, there are hints of a lot of influences in there.
But this makes the collection come off sounding too much like a random bunch of nothing.
The recording quality is the pits. The bass and the kick drum are way too heavy in the mix, to the point that they cloud up everything. Krauss (on all the other albums I have of hers) is usually close-miked with a beautiful Neumann capsule unit that gives her the beautiful sound of expensive crystal and fresh air. Here, she is simply reduced to midrange mud.
Robert Plant sounds like his heart really isn't in ANY of these songs. He sounds like he's "happily going along because he's got nothing better to do" when he harmonizes. When he is the lead, he sounds like he'd rather be singing something else. Great voice, expert mechanical skill, but no soul.
Krauss's previous effort included one duet with John Waite (a remake of his "Missing You"). That song was radically different from everything else on that album, but it was only one song. It's okay to have an "out there" track in the mix, and it was beautifully done. But this album is just one random redirection after another. And none of them are very good songs. One wonders where they even came up with
this lackluster set list.
If you were waiting for an explosion from the fusion of the great Led Zeppelin singer and the greatest female vocalist on the planet, you'll be disappointed.
It's amazing. They sing great. The band plays great. The album stinks.
 A TIMELESS SOUL MOVING EXPERIENCE * OUTSTANDING * PHENOMENAL* & TRULY EXTRAORDINARY! DESERVES A GRAMMY October 23, 2007
28 out of 36 found this review helpful
The mysteriously sublime fascinating energy, stellar vocal quality and amazing musical delivery ROBERT PLANT and ALISON KRAUSS have created IS RAISING SAND. A tribute to rock and roots music, delivering heart and soul moving range, the songs and the care in creating an outstanding musical experience is all too evident. You can "feel" their care, heart and soul in the music.
This CD cannot be pinned down to one single genre because it bridges and interconnects rock, blue grass, country, R & B, and even a distinct quality with each song that is entirely unique. PLANT and KRAUSS' voices are extraordinary. The interplay between them creates a moving, exciting EXPERIENCE.
The WAY they sing grabbed my heart. They exude a depth and passion that stirred me at my core. Their extraordinary & rare qualities makes this music timeless.
ROBERT PLANT IS TRULY OUTSTANDING - his passionate delivery is nothing shourt of soul stirring. While I don't like to single out specific songs because the album as a whole is a statement of collaborative genius, I was especially moved by how he sang "Please Read the Letter". There are parts of the song towards the end that you can hear his 1970's fascinating style. He's still got that one-of-a-kind magic and its deeper, richer, at its pinnacle.
ALISON KRAUSS HAS THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL - it is rare indeed to experience so much range. To sum it up in three words, RAISING SAND is RICH, DEEP AND EXTRAORDINARY. I was especially moved by her voice and energy in "Trampled Rose" - ironically, the incredible song has a "Kashmir-esque" quality to it. It is HIGHLY ORIGINAL and PHENOMENAL.
The instrumental music is soul stirring.
ROBERT AND ALISON, THANK YOU FOR MAKING MUSIC THAT MOVES THE SOUL. I am thrilled and ecstatic for you - who deserve as much joy as this CD is sure to bring millions. You both deserve a GRAMMY for this CD - 10 Stars!
Whole lotta love,
Barb
[Tech Update] The MP3 of the full album downloads perfectly with Amazon's music downloader. The quality of the MP3 is EXCELLENT. WELL WORTH the small download fee.
 tasteful to a fault October 24, 2007
22 out of 33 found this review helpful
If the old timers in Appalachia had been raised on NPR and Starbucks this is what their music would probably have sounded like. The musicianship here is impeccable. The production is meticulous. There is not one note that's offensive or in bad taste. There is also very little life to the performances.
I have been an Alison Krauss fan for years and I buy all her cds even though it's been a while since I've actually found any of them to be very interesting. If you go back to some of her earlier recordings, before "When you say nothing at all," there was actually a little grit in her singing voice. Listen to "It's Over" and you'll hear what I mean. At some point, however, she started to sing in a soft, whispery voice that sounds like she's channeling Jackie Kennedy. It's beautiful, but after a while everything begins to sound the same and she sounds less and less like a real human being.
This cd is not bad and it will make excellent background music, but these people are way to talented to be settling for that.
You get what you put into it October 26, 2007
22 out of 56 found this review helpful
And in the case of the marvelously talented vocalists Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, both the effort and the result is "NOT MUCH."
Have you ever noticed how tight a band sounds after they've been on the road for a few months, polishing their performance and getting live crowd feedback? Well, as the promo video for this album made clear, Plant and Krauss both set aside a few days in their busy schedules to knock off this album, before parting ways again. The music was chosen by someone else (T-Bone Burnett), and they may have had a chance to rehearse it a couple of times before laying down the tracks in the studio (probably separately, I suspect). Despite the superb credentials of the backing musicians, the fact that this is not and never will be a unified group is all too evident.
Everything about "Raising Sand" screams "artificial." It's a lightweight confection, concocted in the studio. But fancy engineering can't disguise the fact that neither Krauss nor Plant were really into the music, or even that familiar with it. Their expertise allowed them to fake their way through passably, but the absence of passion and live performance experience with it cannot be disguised.
Take a pass on "Raising Sand." Albums like this are the reason why CD sales are crumbling. Somebody is exploiting us here to raise some quick bucks by trading on famous names.
So Sorry November 1, 2007
22 out of 43 found this review helpful
I'm a die-hard Alison fan. Indeed, i literally worship everything she and Union Station have done since day one. Really, I have loved her since back in the day of Hee Haw and the Cox Family and going forward. I love her so much. Plus, I grew up in the rock and roll of Led Zep. What an anticipation of this pairing! My gosh, the best of bluegrass and the best of rock. Never have I pre-ordered a CD until now with such anticipation of an amazing amalgam.
But, I'm so sorry to say that this tanks. There's no bluegrass. There's no rock & roll. They sort of stab at a little country sound but what we have here are a few hacknyed rockabilly tunes which, frankly, sound like they belong in an old Elvis movie score. I kept thinking "Girl Happy". Not that there's anything wrong with that but gee whiz, the King did that 40 years ago and better. The other tunes are Russian gypsy strumming stuff that frankly puts me to sleepers.
I wish they had kicked it up a notch or 100. God bless you both for trying (and the harmonies hold such promise!) but I think you need to stick to your genres.
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