One of the albums of 2007 that I apparently missed, was "Raising Sand" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. This sublime album is acoustic and country in essence, but has quite a few twists. For instance, "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" carries an Arabic tinge. Plant's voice hasn't sounded this good for a long time. Krauss sounds like what I imagine Neko Case could in 20-30 years. T-Bone Burnett has done good with the production of this album, creating a simple sound where the instruments and sheer song-material rules, not dreadful effects.

Here's the wonderful, almost bedtime-story-ish track "Killing The Blues", which will be gone after a week's stay at my blog.

[audio:https://niklasblog.com/wp-content/2008-01-10-ktb.mp3]

Unexpected bonus: this free track from Neko Case that she's releasing due to her re-issuing her three albums.