“Let’s catch the fire and see what we’ve got,” Robert Plant said about why he and Alison Krauss went back into the studio to record their new album, Raise the Roof, the follow-up to 2007’s six-time Grammy-winning album Raising Sand. With their combined talents and diverse tastes, the cliché about the odd coupling of bluegrass princess Krauss and rock god Plant doesn’t apply. Along with their first album and tour, this reunion, recorded prior to the pandemic (with a 2022 tour to follow), is a testimony to their mutual respect for a wide spectrum of music—country, soul, folk, and blues. Their collaboration was, once again, produced by T Bone Burnett, who played guitar, contributed song ideas, and assembled the musicians. Here, in two separate phone calls conducted by Lisa Robinson—Plant from England and Krauss from Nashville—they talk about their love of traditional American music and their work with, and admiration for, each other.
Lisa Robinson: Especially after your huge success with Raising Sand, why did it take 14 years for you to work together again?
Robert Plant: You tend to get preoccupied with the forces of the moment. I keep landing in all sorts of different places, and I never think about continuity on any level—although I like adventures. As you might remember, my head is quite easily turned, and if I get an offer to do something a little left of center, I’m gone.
Alison Krauss: We never really stopped talking about it. I used to hear Lucinda Williams [who sings backing vocals on the album] sing “Can’t Let Go” for years, and I thought it would be so much fun to do it with Robert. I’d send him songs and he’d send me songs back. We both did other things, but this was the perfect time.
Plant: Alison and I had both been on the road with projects that at least temporarily were coming to a finale. The door opened, so I just got on a plane and made my way to Alison’s front door again. And T Bone was thrilled—the energy was just growing.
Krauss: We didn’t want it to be a continuation; we wanted this album to have its own identity, and it does. Through the years we thought, wouldn’t this be nice, wouldn’t this be nice, then when it’s time, when things are inspired, everything comes together real quick.
The two of you started working together in 2004 when you performed together at Robert’s request in Cleveland at a Lead Belly tribute concert. Why do you think the combination of the two of you works so well?
Plant: The great thing about us working together was, is, and remains the enthusiasm and the diligence about it. Even though some of these songs are coming out of the ark, they are evocative and quite magical—never mind how they’re translated. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did.
Krauss: The first conversation I ever had with Robert was about [the late banjo legend] Ralph Stanley. When people asked me about Robert and I told them that, they said, “No way.” Bluegrass folks thought that was so amazing, and I had no idea he knew about any of that.
Plant: I know my way around the Delta pretty well, and I still love listening to those records from the 1930s—King Solomon Hill, early Lemon Jefferson stuff. I mean I’m British, but something must have happened along the line; maybe my mother played some weird shit before I was born. Think about it, you and I have known each other a long time, and I thought I knew America—I was steeped in Skip James and Bukka White, but I never really knew America until I worked with Americans.
Krauss: My experience of working with Robert was that he was such a generous personality. When anyone would ask, I would say you’d love him, and he’d love you. He’s a student of all kinds of music. You won’t find anyone more respectful of other people’s experience and expertise in a certain genre. He’d say listen to this, watch this…like Egyptian music or African music—just such a love of history. When he was living in Texas, he was reading about the history of the land; he was fascinated by the music that came from there.
Plant: I feel like a kind of overactive and overly chronologically gifted student. I’m always interested in what’s going to happen around the corner. After Raising Sand, I went on my way and played with Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin, and they were extraordinarily talented people who knew songs and artists I never knew, so I was very lucky. Then I saw Alison, we were both playing on a show with Willie Nelson—I think in Oklahoma—and I was really enjoying hearing her sing in her loquacious, beautiful style. We just led towards each other again.
After all those old Zeppelin tales about sexual antics and raging your way around the world, you’ve now worked with some very strong women—Alison and Patty. Do you feel you’ve evolved both musically and personally?
Plant: Well, I hear you Lisa, but I don’t always make a great job of everything. Wouldn’t it be great if there were no flaws in the picture, but unfortunately…I’m just bumbling along, and I’ve been very fortunate to spend time with these people.
You always told me you didn’t want to go back and do what you described as “poodle rock.”
Plant: Well, I did have the mullet, so I was at the scene of the crime….
Were you involved in the Zeppelin documentary shown at this year’s Venice Film Festival?
Plant: Minorly. I’m fully aware of all this, but it’s really hard to get romantic about it—despite the fact that it changed my life and allowed me to mature and to move through the sphere. I’m not very good at reminiscing.
I think the slowed-down, sensual version of [Zeppelin’s] “Black Dog” that you and Alison did live on the Raising Sand tour is the best version of that song.
Plant: I agree. And everything has its time if you’re lucky. I was 21, 22, 23 years old when we sang those songs. You’ve got to give us a margin for some untoward enthusiasm. Ultimately, it becomes what it becomes. I listen to that [old] stuff now, and the energy is magnificent, [but] I don’t really know the guy who’s singing. I’ve heard a lot about him, but I don’t know what the hell his game was.
Were you both shocked at getting six Grammys for Raising Sand, including record and album of the year in 2009?
Krauss: Everything about [the success of] that whole record was a shock. Being in the studio together was so lighthearted….
Plant: Bear in mind, I’ve been making records since 1966, and I’d never had a Grammy. At that event, I was thinking, This is not where I’m actually supposed to be. And Alison said, “Oh, shut up.” And every time we went up to the podium, I kept seeing Coldplay start to stand up, and I’d say, “Sit down! My turn! Fuck off!”
Were they standing up because they thought they were going to win or giving you a standing ovation?
Plant: Well, I think they had to modify one for the other halfway through.
Alison, you had the most Grammys of any woman—27—until this past year. Now Beyoncé has 28.
Krauss: I think she is just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever seen. She is a force of nature. Seeing her with Tina Turner [at the 2008 Grammys] was just unbelievable; to see someone honor someone so well and remain their own. I walked by her once, and I remember everything—the dress she had on, and I thought she just had the most beautiful face, just shocking.
You finished this record right before the world shut down. How did COVID affect the album’s completion?
Krauss: We finished the last overdub two days before everything shut down, and then I was in the studio while T Bone and [engineer] Michael Piersante mixed it.
Plant: There were some minor details. I went back to England, where, for the last 10 years, I’ve been working in a studio near Peter Gabriel’s studio near Bath. So I was able to fly my harmonies in here and there, taking instructions from the gang in Nashville.
How did you narrow it down to 12 songs?
Krauss: That was hard. But we had to. We had more than that that we liked. But our label [Rounder] allows us to be artists; it’s a real gift to be able to keep your privacy ’bout what you’re working on and not to have to expose it until you’re ready.
Plant: It’s like, when are you going to let this thing go? Shall we wait until 2022? To be honest, I’m no spring chicken anymore, and I want to hear some singing that’s coming out that’s got a new lean to it. So you’ve just got to let it go.
Why the title Raise the Roof?
Plant: In England, when we really kick ass and go for it, we say “raise the roof.” There’s no hiding place. Here it comes. It’s a musical explosion.
Krauss: We felt like it was a celebration.
Hair, Marwa Bashir (Plant) and John Grimes (Krauss); makeup and grooming, Lorrie Turk; set design, Ruby Guidara. produced on location by Carey Kotsionis. for details, go to VF.com/credits.
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