Which raises the question: Why did it take Plant and Krauss 14 years of being besieged with pleas for a follow-up to come through with one? “The question you ask is one that everybody asks,” Plant says, batting away its inevitability. With drummer Jay Bellerose and guitarist Marc Ribot returning as band members, and new additions such as jazz great Bill Frisell and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, the album sounds warm, mystical and at times slightly foreboding, like an old friend you’re glad to see again who’s still a little mysterious.
The other wildly eclectic songs range from “Can’t Let Go,” originally popularized by Lucinda Williams, to an 18-year-old song by the indie-rock group Calexico from an under-remembered Merle Haggard classic to a nearly century-old tune by a blues singer who only ever cut six tracks and left no surviving photographs. On this mostly covers project, they even dip back into two of the catalogs explored on “Raising Sand”: those of the Everly Brothers and Allen Toussaint. In many ways, it feels like same time, next year, but 14 years later. 19, there will be a sequel: “Raise the Roof,” again produced by Burnett, with the studio, record company and several key musicians from the first round all revisited. He’s about to get another shot at a surplus. I could have had loads now - could’ve been giving them to family members.” I don’t know why I didn’t stick around a bit longer, actually. And yet, Plant says, “I team up with a remarkable young lady, and people just keep throwing them at me. How about that?” Led Zeppelin fans can insert a bitter laugh here: The group received a nod for best new artist in 1970 and then, infamously, didn’t get another until 2014, 35 years after Zeppelin’s breakup, when they won their first non-honorary Grammy, for a live album. “I’d never seen a Grammy before!” he exclaims as he recalls the trophies he and Krauss piled up (one for a single in 2008, then a five-Grammy sweep in 2009).
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