neatly with Burnett’s mysterious
arrangement, where the only man allowed
expect. Plant is a folk freak, so perhaps you
might expect him to tackle Anne Briggs’s
“Go Your Way”, but it’s still strange to
hear Robert Plant of all people singing
from the perspective of a woman left at
home, mending clothes, cooking food and
pondering if her man has gone to war. The
austerity of Briggs’ original is transformed
into something with more jangle, and
Plant’s delivery is from the heart; he might
be the most unlikely homemaker in the
history of rock, but when he creaks “I want
to die” you can well believe it. It’s Plant’s
best single moment on the record.
Then shortly after comes Bert Jansch’s “It
Don’t Bother Me”, another Plant favourite
but this time with Krauss on lead, her clear
and mesmeric vocals rubbing against Marc
Ribot’s spidery lead and the song’s metallic
drone but ironing out some of Jansch’s
wrinkles without weakening the meaning.
Plant’s harmonies add definition, but it is
Jay Bellerose’s fine drumming that brings
this one home. Bellerose plays on every
track and Ribot all but one; the core band
is rounded out by either Viktor Krauss
(Alison’s brother) or Dennis Crouch on
bass and multi-instrumentalists Russell
Pahl and Jeff Taylor, with additional
contributions from Burnett himself.
The band’s ability to weave between
genres without sounding like anything
other than themselves is impressive.
When Krauss takes sensual lead on a lush
version of Merle Haggard’s understated
gem “Going Where The Lonely Go”, the
band’s relaxed Nashville mode is one of
the few times they seem to be anywhere
near a comfort zone. Lucinda Williams’
“Can’t Let Go” (written by Randy Weekes)
UP ON THE ROOF
Three fine albums released by the crew between Raising Sand and now
ROBERT PLANT
BandOfJoy
ROUNDER, 2010
Plant bounced from the
Krauss collaboration
straight into the Band Of
Joy, the group he formed with Buddy
Miller, Darrell Scott and Patty Griffin.
Again, he dug into a deep vein of
Americana and traditional English folk,
recording a couple of tracks by Low as
DAVIDMCCLISTER
well as songs by Richard Thompson and
Townes Van Zandt. 8/10
16 • UNCUT • JANUARY 2022
to let rip is Stuart Duncan on fiddle. That
restraint is what makes it work, allowing
the song to escape blues rock clichés and
focus on the ambiguous lyrics, which
– like almost every song on the record
– is about love gone bad. The narrator is
SLEEVE NOTES
awaiting execution after shooting his best 1 Quattro (World
friend over a love affair – “a man has to Drifts In)
fight, for what he thinks is right, even if it 2 The Price Of Love
3 Go Your Way
puts him in the ground”. One of the small
4 Trouble With My
– with Plant on lead – has the band pleasures on Raise The Roof is the way Lover
imitating The Shadows or Link Wray; it Plant and Krauss frequently swap gender 5 Searching For
follows immediately from Plant’s reading roles; this one is slightly more complicated My Love
of “Searchin’ For My Baby”, originally a as Reed was a woman singing from the 6 Can’t Let Go
million-seller on Chess by Bobbie Moore perspective of a man, and Plant now 7 It Don’t Bother
and here delivered as a straight soul ballad restores the male gaze. Me
but with no sense of jarring dislocation The album’s one non-cover is another 8 You Led Me To
as the band effortlessly switch between blues piece, “High And Lonesome”, one The Wrong
9 Last Kind Words
styles. Allen Toussaint’s “Trouble With My of the album’s rockier moments. Plant
Blues
Lover” was originally a classic northern shares a writing credit with T-Bone Burnett 10 High And
soul track sung by Betty Harris; the Raise having contributed lyrics for a song that Lonesome
The Roof version has more of a desert developed from Burnett’s improvised riff. 11 Going Where
strut, with Bellerose’s percussion running It’s the most Zep-worthy moment on the The Lonely Go
through it like a heartbeat. The vocal is record but still slots neatly among the other 12 Somebody
also markedly different. Where Harris was songs in terms of sensibility and sound, Was Watching
sharing her pain with the word in a belting partly thanks to the way Krauss’s wily Over Me
soul style, Krauss seems to be talking to harmony undercuts the main vocal.
Produced by:
herself, internalising the emotion until she Raise The Roof closes with another
T-Bone Burnett
gets to the sultry refrain “when he puts his heavier track, “Somebody Was Watching Recorded at:
arms around me…” when the suppressed Over Me”, which has Emmylou Harris Sound Emporium
passion explodes into outright lust, on backing vocals and was written by Studios, Nashville.
supplemented by Plant’s seductive echo. singer-songwriter Brenda Burns. The track Additional
Krauss’s other stand-out performance was recorded as wizened blues by Pop recording at
is on “Last Kind Words Blues”, a stunning Staples on his 2015 posthumous record Blackbird Studios,
country blues written by the mysterious produced with Jeff Tweedy. The original Nashville; Top Cat
Geeshie Wiley, a blueswoman who cut – very different – version was recorded Studios, Wiltshire
Personnel: Alison
six sides in 1930 but about whom little is by Maria Muldaur as a gospel number
Krauss (vocals,
known. Krauss comes at it like bluegrass, with Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples strings), Robert
bold and true and pure, highlighting on backing vocals. There’s something Plant (vocals),
the spiritual side of secular blues and significant in the way a single song and Emmylou Harris
emphasising the stark poetry of the lyrics: songwriter can touch on so many genres (bk vocals), Buddy
“If I get killed, if I get killed, please don’t of American roots music, and the version Miller (electric
bury my soul/I prefer just leave me out, let on Raise The Roof sits somewhere between mandolin, guitar),
the buzzards eat me whole”. It’ll send a the two previous recordings, with Plant Bill Frisell (guitar),
shiver down the spine. and Krauss delivering it almost as a duet, David Hidalgo
(jarana, guitar),
Plant’s chance to channel the blues their first since the album’s scene-setting
Marc Ribot
comes on “You Led Me To The Wrong”, opener. Between those two tracks, much (guitar, baritone
originally a white country blues by Ola emotional and musical territory has been guitar, requinto,
Belle Reed. Plant’s pent-up desire to covered. Let’s hope it isn’t another 14 years banjo, bass),
unleash the inner rock god contrasts until the next one. T-Bone Burnett
(guitar, mellotron,
HOW TO BUY... six-string bass,
bkvocals), Jeff
Taylor (dolceola,
celeste, piano,
marxophone,
bass accordion),
Russel Pahl (pedal
ALISON KRAUSS VARIOUS ARTISTS steel, six-string
PaperAirplane CrazyHeart bass, bass, guitar),
ROUNDER, 2011 NEW WEST, 2010 Viktor Krauss
Krauss’s first post-Plant T-Bone Burnett’s big (bass, upright
album was with Union successes pre-and- bass, mellotron),
Station, her bluegrass post Raising Sand came Dennis Crouch
ensemble. Paper Airplane saw her through his soundtrack work, most (bass), Colin
follow a through-line from Raising Sand notably with O Brother Where Art Thou? Linden (resonator),
by tackling less-traditional material in 2000 and Cold Mountain in 2003, both Stuart Duncan
such as Jackson Browne’s “My Opening of which ploughed a similar furrow to (banjo, fiddle,
Farewell” and Richard Thompson’s Raising Sand. In 2010, he scored another mandolin, cello),
“Dimming Of The Day” alongside old hit with the Grammy-winning OST to Jay Bellerose
and new bluegrass tunes. She followed Crazy Heart, featuring Jeff Bridges and (drums)
that with 2017’s Windy City, a more Colin Farrell performing classic country
traditional country diva recording. 8/10 material alongside a few originals. 7/10