Robert & Alison-Raising Sand

Interesting string on this recording. I just picked this up and absolutely love it.

I had no real expectations for this disk and actually first listened to a copy on the crappy headphone set up at Boarders out of pure curiosity. Even under those conditions, I could tell that the material had been selected and recorded with care. When I looked at the case and it said "produced by T Bone Burnett", I thought, "Well Duh".

I find the mix of vocals when Krauss and Plant sing together really unique and surprisingly wonderful. I have to agree with Sfar above that the stylistic signature of this album - if there is one - belongs to Burnett and Ribot first, with Krauss second, and Plant third. Strangely though, I think Plant owns the actual performances. When he is singing I can't help but focus on his voice which comes off as subtle and richly textured. The earthy and bluesy flavor of the material serves all the artists well.

I can't speak for the vinyl release, but I find the CD version of this recording to be very good, easily in the top 15-20% in my collection in terms of sound quality. Not being up to the level of the live Union Station LP is a pretty high bar that not many recordings attain. So is the "Raising Sand" LP really poorly produced, or just not totally fantastic? As far as I can tell, Burnett is a production fanatic, and I think it shows on the redbook version of this recording with lots of depth, multiple layers of sound with timing and space there in spades. Perhaps not the blackest blacks between cuts though...

I love Zepplin, but I can see why hard core Plant fans might be disappointed with this record. If you know anything about Burnett or Krauss, I don't think this loping country and blues tinged album would be surprising except for how the end result hangs together and turned out much better than than most people would have thought. For some reason it reminds me of JJ Cale's debut recording "Naturally", and that's saying quite a lot.

If anything, the CD is recorded a little hotter than I like. This is a common problem these days as engineers mix recordings to shine when compressed and played back on an iPods. I still think that the production is excellent with lots going on in the rhythm, tone and timing departments.

So on reading updates to thread I threw this on because I upgraded my optical cable with generally very good results and wanted to test it with this recording that I had recently been considering as a possible reference disk. Wow! So much (too much) bass!! Was expecting to hear what @mcondo mentions and I had experienced since my system is way better than it was in 2008.  But my current system has substantial bass capabilities, and apparently so does this new cable.

I had just been listening to redbook of Muddy Waters “Folk Singer” which was sounding FANTASTIC, depth, detail, timing, quiet silences. The contrast with “Raising Sand” bass dominance was not subtle. Unfortunate, because all other elements of the recording are excellent. May have to try it on vinyl now.

Just to test another Burnett recording that I think has balanced and spooky good production I tried Bruce Cockburn’s “Nothing but a burning Light”, and it sounded terrific, no bass bloat.