Raising the bar

Robert Plant has always had a soft side. Even underneath those Led Zeppelin yowls, the folk singer lingered in songs such as "Tangerine" and "Black Country Woman." \nNow, with a chance to let that voice shine through, Plant, with collaborator and bluegrass diva Alison Krauss, hushes and vocalizes lyrics in tender, haunting renditions of folk standards by the likes of Tom Waits, Gene Clark and the Everly Brothers. Their two voices work in fascinating tandem, with Krauss' beautiful feathery soprano floating in thirds above Plant's tempered howl, mimicking the close harmonies of the Everly Brothers, whose songs they cover. \nI should mention, though, that their devotion to classics doesn't make them overly reverent. They avoid the mistakes of Eric Clapton on Me and Mr. Johnson by choosing to truly adapt each song to their unique vision. Additionally, Krauss and Plant refuse to turn these tracks into yet another tiresome duet album by ensuring that they harmonize in spirit and sound. \nThough you might expect a jarring dissimilarity between their timbres, they dovetail perfectly, creating a cosmic beauty you wouldn't anticipate. After first performing together, fittingly, at a Lead Belly tribute concert, Plant and Krauss began discussing this project, searching for the elemental roots of folk music. Under the production of T-Bone Burnett, the weirdly familiar tunes sound alien, with voices we know singing in ways we don't quite understand.\nTake, for instance, "Killing the Blues," written by Rowland Salley and made famous by John Prine. Krauss and Plant trade in the folk guitar for wavering electric tones that fill the space between slower punctuated downbeats, all the while adding their own vocal harmonies that open and close delicately.\nThen, when rockabilly is called for on a tune such as the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone," understated percussion keeps the song churning beneath a hypnotically alternating guitar riff, and Plant gets in his wails within the boundaries of the tune.\nIn their quest for roots, Krauss and Plant succeed as collaborators and musical explorers, probing the origins of both their genres. Though media might ballyhoo the "odd couple" pairing, this album doesn't exasperate its listeners with harsh mishmashes. Instead, it weaves timeless songs and singers at the top of their craft into one of the year's best albums.