The New Oldies: #5 Album of the Year 2022: Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raise the Roof

Something seems to be missing these days. It seems that record companies, radio stations, and streaming services are pushing some the great established musicians to the background. As a result these veteran artists are not getting the attention they deserve. Enter the Top 10 Album Countdown: The New Oldies. The main point is simple – to make this list you must have at least 20 years of producing established music. The album by the artist must have been released between November 1st, 2021 and October 31st, 2022.

#5 Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raise the Roof

Back in 2007, former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant would team-up with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss to release a highly acclaimed album known as Raising Sand. Touted as an “unlikely duo”, the combination proved to work – and it even would net Plant and Krauss a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2007. It would take 14 years, but Plant and Krauss would reunite once again – this time to release another album together known as Raise the Roof. This album lands at the #5 spot on The New Oldies countdown.

Like Raise the Roof is a primarily a collection of cover songs. In a lot of ways, while I was hoping for more original music, what this collection does do is allow Plant and Krauss to focus on the performance of the music. While 2007’s Raising Sand had somewhat at a dark feel, Raise the Roof even felt darker. The original song written by Plant (with T.Bone Burnett), High and Lonesome is going to evoke memories of Led Zeppelin, but Krauss’ complementary vocals will remind you this is very much a collaboration album. Other standout tracks include Quattro (World Drifts In), Searching for My Love, The Price of Love, Go Your Way, Somebody Was Watching Over Me, and the very catchy Can’t Let Go.

This year Plant turns 75 and Krauss turns 52. I’m not sure how many more collaborations we will see with the two, but hopefully this won’t be the last