ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS

 

ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS

DALLAS [July 7,2008]:  AN HEGELIAN ANALYSIS AND REVIEW
 
BY MAJ. LEAGUE

Brought to you by FRESHCHAOS.com

 

 


 
When “thesis” encounters “antithesis,” the conflict is resolved, at least in the simple dialectical analysis usually attributed to Hegel [1], by the reconciliation of their common truths and creation of a new “synthesis.”  And so it was last evening for two and a half hours in the Nokia Theatre just outside Dallas, as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss brought their Raising Sand Revue to North Texas.  Contemporary bluegrass met early heavy metal and, there on the state-of-the-art sound stage, demonstrated for the sold-out audience a fresh, amalgamated sound, perhaps a new genre in popular music that might be called bluegrass-folk-country-blues-gospel-roots-rock.
 
Readers do not need introductions to either performer, and familiarity with their 2007 platinum album “Raising Sand” is presumed. [2]  Suffice to say that any quizzicality a new listener might feel, when first apprised of the ostensibly unlikely pairing, is quickly dispelled by the harmonic blending of the normally disparate voices and the unique orchestrations of the songs, most of which the producer, T. Bone Burnett, rescued from the mists of the sixties and seventies.  Robert Plant, the Led Zeppelin wailer, has a quite fine voice, even at his age, which is six weeks shy of 60, particularly when he sings sotto voce, as he does almost all the time with the much younger Alison Krauss, who in a few weeks will be age 37 and who is one of the premiere bluegrass artists of  the day.  And Krauss, for her part, can capably devote her sweet and strong soprano, as well as her fiddle, in the service of these long-forgotten country and pop songs as well as Led Zeppelin standards, all delivered in duet to a formidable beat.
 
Any attempt to understand “Raising Sand” and the music of Plant and Krauss must begin with recognition that Burnett, the producer and a guitarist in the band, has undergirded the entire presentation, except a couple of Krauss’ nearly a capella gospel offerings, with exceptionally powerful percussion provided by drummer Jay Bellerose.  Drumming is the underappreciated sine qua non of popular music [3], and Bellerose’s drumming is the strong foundation on which Burnett has built the music of “Raising Sand.”  Reviewers have overlooked the role of Bellerose and this fundamental aspect of the Plant-Krauss synthesis.  [4]  It is the catalytic agent that melds and unifies the old and the new.
 
The concert last night began, as the album does, with the bluesy “Rich Woman,” delivered with that sort of percussion and sung crisply by the duo, followed by the Ray Charles song “Leave My Woman Alone.”  Then came the first of a half dozen Led Zeppelin anthems, “Black Dog,” which nicely illustrated the possibilities of such fusion for the appreciative crowd.  Two of the darker tunes of the cd were next, “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” by Sam Phillips and Gene Clark’s “Through the Morning, Through the Night,” followed by another moment of glad confluence in the form of a medley of the bluegrass song “It’s So Long and Goodbye to You” with Plant’s Zeppelin tune “In the Mood.”  The coruscating alternation of bluegrass and Zep songs continued with a folk song followed by “Black Country Woman.”
 
Then came a short set featuring Burnett with another song he is presently rescuing from the shadows of the past, Doug Sahm’s (Sir Douglas Quintet’s) “Dynamite Woman,” and his own “Bon Temps Rouler.”
 
Krauss then re-took the stage for “Trampled Rose” from the cd and several gospel tunes, including Ricky Skaggs’ “Green Pastures,” and “Down to the River to Pray.”  Plant re-joined her for the album’s song “Killing the Blues” by Rowland Salley [5] and he sang the bleak “Nothin’” by Townes van Zandt, which set the table nicely for “The Battle of Evermore,” which received a standing ovation, before the duo launched into the Everly Brothers’ forgotten song “Gone, Gone, Gone” (on the cd), and then Zep tunes “The Letter,” (also on the cd) and “When the Levee Breaks.”  One last gospel moment, “Your Long Journey” by Doc and Rosa Watson, ended the show’s grand Hegelian synthesis.
 
Instruments employed in this venture included Bellerose’s powerful drum kit, all manner of guitars, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, and two fiddles, one of which was played admirably, as one would expect, by Krauss.  I did not see any keyboard.  Plant wielded the microphone stand with experienced hands.  Both artists wore simple black outfits, hers a sleeveless black dress with knee-high, black, stiletto-heeled boots, and his a short-sleeved black shirt and black leather pants with pointy-toe Western boots.  Obviously the emphasis was on the music. 
 
The only criticism this reviewer can level is that the artists omitted from this particular concert my favorite song from the album, the 1960 tune “Stick With Me Baby” written by Mel Tillis.  Catchily sung by Plant and Krauss, this song’s affirming message deserves repeated play:
 
Everybody’s been a-talkin’; they say our love wasn’t real
That it would soon be over; that’s not the way I feel
But don’t worry, honey; let them say what they may
Come on and stick with me, baby; we’ll find a way
Yes, we’ll find a way
 
Everybody’s been a-talkin’; yes, the news travels fast
They said the fire would stop burnin’; that the flame wouldn’t last
But I don’t worry, honey; let them say what they may
Come on and stick with me, baby; we’ll find a way
Yes, we’ll find a way
 
Come on and stick with me, baby. . . .
 
My dictionary defines “synthesis” as “the dialectic combination of thesis and antithesis into a higher stage of truth.”  That is precisely what this reviewer experienced when Alison Krauss and Robert Plant teamed up last night at the Nokia Theatre.  Their tour continues until later this month [6]; if you have the opportunity, see it.
 
NOTES 

[1]  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770-1831. [2]  The cd may be heard, in its entirely, at robertplantalisonkrauss.com   [3]  See, e.g., Bob Cianci, Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties, and Daniel Glass, The Ultimate History of Rock'n'Roll Drumming: 1948-2000. [4]  See the Dallas Morning News review, together with the New York Times review , the NPR review , and the Rolling Stone review .  [5]  Rolling Stone reports that this tune has been picked up for a Ralph Lauren advertising campaign.  [6] Latest Tour News.   

 

 

 

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