Led It Be

That’s the way: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant lit up the stage in Canandaigua with music from their joint project, Raising Sand. VASILIY BAZIUK PHOTO

Canandaigua’s Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center, less confusingly referred to as C-MAC, kicked off their impressive summer lineup on June 7 with Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant sharing the stage with angelic bluegrass siren Alison Krauss. Still riding the wave of their critically acclaimed and Grammy-winning album Raising Sand (Rounder), released last October, the pair chronologically began their set with the first song off that release, “Rich Woman.”

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Before the song, however, in true
rock’n’roll form, Plant announced to the crowd, “It’s quite an
achievement to be opening the season here in. . . such a pretty venue.”
The comment elicited a roar of laughter from the crowd who realized
Plant either forgot what town he was in, or like everyone else,
probably could not recite the entire name of the Canandaigua venue.

T-Bone Burnett, lead guitarist
and mastermind behind the collaboration, plucked a droned-out,
reverb-heavy intro that evoked the nighttime feeling of staring at dust
in the headlights watching the road ahead go by like pixilated figments
of a fading dream. But the crowd woke up when Plant and Krauss
simultaneously appeared from behind the glittering gold curtain on
opposite sides of the stage. As they walked closer to the two
microphones standing side-by-side at center stage, there could not have
been a more apt metaphor for what nearly every
don’t-know-shit-about-shit music critic has labeled an “unlikely duo.”

Although certain songs stick to your
head, music is not meant to be static in the literal sense. Zeppelin
zealots expecting to hear Plant moan the orgasmic freakout from “Whole
Lotta Love” and country folk expecting the organic twang that helped
build Krauss’ reputation were probably turned off by this coming
together. But if you dig down to both of their roots, the same musical
silt of Americana will fall through your fingers when you open each
hand: It’s just been dug from different fields, dig? 

Like all the other covers on the album
and of this night, if you didn’t know the origin of the tune, you’d
think it was a Plant or Krauss original. The band’s acoustic
guitar-driven folk translation of Ray Charles’ “Leave My Woman Alone”
probably had more people thinking it came from the likes of Woody
Guthrie rather than the genius of soul. Burnett, who also produced Raising Sand,
selected the tunes that Plant and Krauss performed and made sure the
album wasn’t just going to be a sound-mirror run-through of random
covers by letting each singer’s musical personality reflect in the
texture of the song rather than trying to recreate the original
versions.

Burnett has been a troubadour’s shadow
wandering the music scene for years. If you haven’t looked in the right
direction, you’ve probably never seen or heard of him, but you’ve
definitely heard him. He’s collaborated with Tony Bennett, the
Wallflowers and Elvis Costello, while overseeing the soundtrack for
films such as Walk the Line and The Big Lebowski. And is
it possible to not think of the Dude’s “Gutter Balls” dream sequence in
the latter flick upon hearing “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition
My Condition Was In)” by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition?

Most of the evening’s performances saw
both Plant and Krauss harmonizing together, but some songs were
tailored for solo renditions. Plant walked offstage to let Krauss
blossom on her lonesome while singing Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose.” The song’s haunting arrangement made her stand out like a bright red rose amid a garden of dead flowers. Stuart Duncan,
who alternated on mandolin and guitar throughout the evening, made the
former instrument sound like creaky stairs in the middle of the night,
which in turn elicited the feeling of looking down them and seeing no
one there. 

“Black Dog” lacked the stop-and-go punch of the Zep original, however. Bassist Dennis Crouch
walked the bass slowly, while Plant and Krauss took turns warbling soft
vocals. One common complaint, even with people who like the album, is
that the tempo of most songs has about the same pace as a Valium tablet
sinking in quicksand. Drummer Jay Bellerose, however, did an
admirable job when the time came to channel the pile-driving backbeat a
la Zep drummer John Bonham, as his fills could rouse the sound of
thunder to a soft rain with the flick of a stick.

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For the other two Zep songs played at Canandaigua, “Black Country Woman” (off Physical Graffiti) and “Battle of Evermore” (from Led Zeppelin IV), the group on stage brandished the same instrumentation that was used on the original recordings. Buddy Miller
was also designated with guitar duties on the evening, but would also
switch over to mandolin or pedal steel when the tune called for it, and
especially on “Evermore,” made it clear that all of the members of this
band can hold their own with the best of them.

Another crowd pleaser that night was
“Gone Gone Gone,” the Everly Brothers’ cover that won Plant and Krauss
a Grammy for “Best Vocal Duo.” Also from the Raising Sand
album, “Through the Morning, Through the Night,” “Fortune Teller,” and
Emmylou Harris’ “Your Long Journey” were all warmly received. The
standout performance, however, was “Down in the River to Pray,” a song
that Krauss performed on the O Brother, Where Art Thou?
soundtrack. She took center stage while Plant, Miller and Duncan sang a
capella behind her; although it’s a solemn, seemingly penitent song
about wanting forgiveness, it seemed to draw the biggest response from
the audience. Maybe the non-believers forgave them after all.

—Tom Kahley