ROBERT PLANT/ALISON KRAUSS--RAISING SAND

This is NOT your father's type of duets album. Whereas most such albums are time- (and pocket-) fillers for the artists involved, this work stretches far beyond such boundaries. Indeed, it is one of the best albums of the year. The unlikely pairing of former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant and bluegrass superstar Krauss came about when Plant asked Krauss to work with him after they met at a 2004 Leadbelly tribute concert. Three years later, they finally got together, and the results are amazing. Krauss, of course, has one of the best voices in country music today. Plant, while well-known for his Zeppelin days, has also put out a string of solo albums that have demonstrated his remarkable range and depth as a vocalist. Together, their voices blend superbly, almost to the point where you are hard-pressed at times to tell whether it is both of them singing together or one of them double-tracked. The material they work with covers a wide swath of musical territory, encompassing blues, country, and pop. Just a look at some the artists covered (Mel Tillis, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, the Byrds' Gene Clark, the Everly Brothers, even a Page/Plant tune form their Walking Into Clarksdale album) gives you an idea of the range of material they present. T-Bone Burnette's production choices are equally inspired. The general feel is one of hushed melancholy, almost like recent Emmylou Harris albums, and owing a strong debt to Daniel Lanois's work with Harris, Bob Dylan, and U2. With world-music percussion (a staple of Plant's most recent, and excellent, solo album, Mighty Rearranger) drifting in and out, weeping pedal-steel guitars, Krauss's own fiddle-playing taking in gypsy-like licks as well as country styles, and the outstanding guitar and banjo work of avant-jazz player Marc Ribot contributing an array of soft, lyrical lines, the music is an absolute treat, but always keeps the vocalists in the foreground. Overall, the album yields a feeling that this music is both old and new, both American and foreign. One highlight is their take on Sam Phillips' "Sister Rosetta Tharpe Goes Before Us". Tharpe was one of the first prominent blues/gospel singers who also wrote and played her own instruments, and Plant and Krauss pay her tribute by taking this country/blues song to exotic heights, with their voices blending beautifully and Krauss' Eastern-European fiddling a revelation. Their version of the Everly Brothers' pop nugget "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" is also a standout, with their entwined vocals rivaling that of the Everly siblings (a tall order!). Indeed, Plant and Krauss's voices fit so well together that, when a few of the songs ("Polly Come Home," "Trampled Rose") tend to feature one voice or the other, you eagerly await the passages where they once again join up. Outstanding talents from differing genres coming together to make one of the years best albums is a notion fervently hoped for but rarely achieved in today's music world. Here is the achievement. Raising Sand is fantastic.