Robert Plant

Jo chats to rock legend Robert Plant about his new album with Alison Krauss, Raise The Roof.

Raise The Roof is out November 19 and sees the former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant and 27-time Grammy-winner Krauss reunited after some fourteen years, following the historic success of their first collaboration Raising Sand (2007). That reached #2 on the Official UK Chart and earned six Grammy Awards including Album and Record of the Year.

Like its predecessor, Raise The Roof was produced by T Bone Burnett. The album features twelve new recordings of songs by legends and unsung heroes including Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch and more. Other highlights include a Plant-Burnett original, “High and Lonesome,” and the classic “Can’t Let Go,” written by Randy Weeks and first recorded by Lucinda Williams.

The songs selected for Raise The Roof alternately reflect deep-rooted influences and new revelations. For his part, Robert Plant was keen to introduce the English folk traditions he has loved since adolescence, while Krauss cites hearing “Quattro (World Drift In)” by the American group Calexico, as “the moment I knew we’d make another album.”

“We wanted it to move,” Krauss continues. “We brought other people in, other personalities within the band, and coming back together again in the studio brought a new intimacy to the harmonies.”

Plant adds: “You hear something and you go ‘Man, listen to that song, we got to sing that song!’ It’s a vacation, really—the perfect place to go that you least expected to find.”