Robert Plant & Allison Krauss: Killing the Blues

If you told me 35 years ago that Robert Plant would be singing country music, I would have said, “you’re crazy – this is guy that sang ‘Good Times Bad Times,’ ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘The Immigrant Song,’ ‘Black Dog,’ Rock ‘n Roll,’ and ‘D’yer Mak’er’ . . . say it isn’t so.” Well he did and did it well along with Allison Krauss on the duo’s LP: “Raising Sand.” It is our TV Thursday tune as it was used by J.C. Penney as a commercial bed.

Written by Chris Isaak’s bassist Roly Salley, “Killing the Blues’ had been previously covered by both John Prine and Shawn Colvin. As for Plant’s performance, it is as natural as Allison Krauss’ performance on these tunes and the chemistry between the two really works.

“Raising Sand” achieved critical acclaim and received the following honors:

• The CD placed #24 on Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums for 2007;
• The song “Killing the Blues” – placed #51 on Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Songs for 2007;
• Americana Music Association’s (AMA) Album of the Year. 2008;
• AMA Duo of the Year, 2008;
• The CD – Grammy for Album of the Year, 2009;
• The CD – Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album
• The song “Please Read the Letter” – Grammy for Record of the Year, 2009;
• The song “Rich Woman” – Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, 2009;
• The song “Killing the Blues” – Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, 2009;

The J.C. Penney Commercial

Plant, Krauss, and producer T. Bone Burnett are currently working on a follow-up to “Raising Sand.”