It took 14 years, but Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have finally recorded a follow-up to their “Raising Sand,” the 2007 LP that won both Grammy and Americana awards. “Raise the Roof” gets its official release Nov. 19, but three songs have been released over the past few months to prime the pump. This Randy Weeks tune, recorded by Lucinda Williams on “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” was the first. Producer T-Bone Burnett is once again at the helm, and he’s given it the same drum-propelled rockabilly feel that marked the sound of the duo’s first album.
“Raise the Roof,” like its predecessor, is composed of covers, though often in radical re-arrangements. There is one original, though. “High and Lonesome,” credited to Plant and Burnett, sprang from a studio jam session, and it contains some echoes of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”
