Raising Sand

Sydney took me to the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss "Raising Sand" tour concert last Tuesday at the Greek Theater and I want to thank her for a great experience. She also gave me the CD and typically I've been playing it over and over again to hear the words and stories and get it stuck in my head.

I had heard they had collaborated on an album and I remember thinking what a strange pairing this is; the Christian, country singer and one of the bad boys of rock and roll. But time has mellowed Robert somewhat and the blend is like Chocolate and Cherry, just flat good. Alison seemed a little shy on stage. I've seen her several times on Austin City Nights and she seems to be happy to let the band have more of the spotlight. She was the same way here, but her voice and fiddle smoked and Robert just puts on a great show. He is the master of the stage.

T Bone Burnett produced the album and played in the band. He also did several numbers in the middle of the show to give Alison and Robert a break. Besides the album tunes T Bone put together a blend of older songs with a new twist. If you saw "That Thing You Do" you remember how Jonathon Schaech's character wrote the title song as a slow ballad, but when the drummer Guy Patterson, played by Tom Everett Scott, got flustered on stage and increased the tempo the song took on a completely different flavor. Well they did this in reverse. They played Led Zepplin's "Black Dog" at about 1/8th the speed and "I'm In The Mood" about 1/2 speed. Only the hard core Zep fans recognized them early in the song. I didn't know what they were singing till the lyrics started. It was like a rediscovery for me. I hope they put them in an album.

The opening act was Sharon Little and if you've never heard of her it's because she just put out her first CD. I recommend you sample her stuff on the web. She has a smokey blues voice that reminded me of Janice Jopplin, but smoother - less raw. Check her out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD4bESDYj2g.

Before the show and after dinner at the new and trendy Kitchen 24 on Cahuenga (Syd knows all the hot spots)we had an unexpected treat when we went to Amoeba Records and the Watson Twins were performing live. Coincidentally, they were the backup for Jenny Lewis who was a member of Rilo Kiley. Dave Ford from Syd's video below was also part or Rilo Kiley. One more example of the six degrees of separation I guess.

Anyway, thanks little sis. It was a great evening.