PLEASE READ THE LETTER - ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS
Robert Plant is reluctant to label the 13 songs he recorded with bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss for “Raising Sand” as duets. To the once and future Led Zeppelin frontman, their collaboration requires more than harmonizing, although they do that with subtlety and organic ease. Each track, including second single “Please Read the Letter,” is an intricately choreographed dance in which Plant and Krauss shift places to accommodate and complement the other. The song, which originally appeared on Plant and Jimmy Page’s 1998 album “Walking Into Clarksdale,” is a moving albeit unsurprising lament. But thanks to producer T Bone Burnett, who selected the covers for this project, the mood of “Please Read the Letter” is quiet resignation-meets-passionate hope. Plant’s hushed plea for understanding gains intensity as Krauss and Marc Ribot punctuate the sonic landscape with the fiddle and electric guitar, respectively.
