Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
06/15/08
Bonnaroo Music Festival
Manchester, TN
Rich Woman
Leave My Woman Alone
Black Dog
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
Through The Morning, Through The Night
So Long Goodbye To You
Fortune Teller
In The Mood
Black Country Woman
Bon Temps Roulez
Trampled Rose
Green Pastures
Down To The River
Nothin’
The Battle Of Evermore
Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)
One Woman Man
I’m one of the few people I know who didn’t particularly care for Raising Sand. I had high hopes for it, though as I think about it I’m not sure why (I’m not much for Led Zeppelin, I know very little of Robert Plant as a solo artist, and while I love Krauss’ voice, her songs I usually find to be lousy.) Perhaps it was the hype, or perhaps I dug the idea of an old rocker teaming with the bluegrass queen. Whatever the reason, the record never did it for me.
I like parts of it, some of the songs are good and intellectually I dig the match-up plus the use of old blues numbers, but at the emotional gut level it leaves me kind of flat. The brooding, dark production didn’t help either. Every song felt like death knocking at the door. Which was maybe the point, but it sure didn’t make me want to listen.
This concert though, I like a lot more. The dark production is still there, but less so. In a live setting the songs breath a little more, the Tennessee sun is allowed to shine just a bit. Or maybe they just scatter in a few uptempo songs.
I particularly like their take on a couple of old Zeppelin songs. Listen closely to “Black Dog” it is less godofthunder then the original but a lot more spooky.
themidnightcafe.org 
HUGE AK fan here, will see her live any chance I can get, but even I was no fan of the few songs I heard on this album. The hype was huge but to me it just sounded like AK singing songs she shouldn’t have been singing and Plant doing the same.
I went in expecting to hear AK sing songs like AK sings songs and to sing songs that AK typically sings. An outsider may have enjoyed all this more than I.
Great marketing, but artistically kind of like looking at an abstract painting and trying to figure out what the creator meant.
Jamison, I really liked the idea and I think they were trying to do something different than what either of them are known for. So no big rock songs or sweet bluegrass numbers. Intellectually I like the record, or I like the idea of the record, but it just doesn’t move me when I listen to it.
Everyone entitled to an opinion, as is often pointed out.
In Mine -> the original version of Humble Pie shoulda ended up where the led zeppler’s did and vice-versa. Better lead guitar player (Peter Frampton – The Herd), much much better singer (and guitarist, Steve Marriott – Small Faces), Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley, and 17-year-old drummer, Jerry Shirley, from The Apostolic Intervention. Better material too.
While Alison is a virtual goddess, more Emmy nominations than any other living woman and a great star of bluegrass and ‘real’ country music. I have 3 or 4 other concerts in this tour and she kinda carried the old rock star along.
Still, as Jamison said back a while, marketing. Marketing and hype – thats the zep.
Peace everyone. just my misguided opinions. I could certainly be wrong, probably am w/ my track record.
Take care of yourselves!
Rod.