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.