Robert Plant and Alison Krauss released Raise the Roof on November 19, 2021. Their second album together reunited them with producer T Bone Burnett, who had overseen 2007’s Raising Sand. Across 12 tracks, they drew on English folk, American country, blues and soul, alongside a new song written by Plant and Burnett.
“Searching for My Love” reached back to a song Plant had sung at school. Originally recorded by Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces, it had remained on his list of songs to share with Krauss. Their version later received an official music video directed by Matt Mahurin in February 2022.
The long interval between albums hadn’t ended their exchange of ideas. Krauss told Vanity Fair in 2021 that they had continued sending each other songs while pursuing other work; Lucinda Williams’ recording of “Can’t Let Go” was one she had wanted to sing with Plant for years. They wanted the reunion to have an identity of its own.
Calexico’s “Quattro (World Drifts In)” supplied the decisive push. Plant sent it among his suggestions, and Krauss described hearing it as “the moment I knew we’d make another album” when the release was announced. It became the opening track. Plant also wanted space for the British folk music he’d followed since his teens, which led to recordings of Bert Jansch’s “It Don’t Bother Me” and Anne Briggs’ “Go Your Way.” Krauss singled out the Briggs performance as a high point and valued discovering songwriters she hadn’t known through Plant and Burnett.
Sessions began at Nashville’s Sound Emporium in late 2019 and were completed just before the pandemic lockdown in 2020. Drummer Jay Bellerose and guitarist Marc Ribot played on every track, giving the sessions a consistent core as the material moved between different traditions. Burnett pushed them to preserve the feeling of early performances. In a 2021 Associated Press interview, Plant explained that the producer discouraged returning to first takes to tidy everything up, a difficult adjustment for Krauss. “The less precision is quite often the better, because it’s soulful stuff,” Plant said.
Their different habits ran right through the vocal arrangements. Speaking to PBS NewsHour in 2021, Krauss described bluegrass singing as a discipline built around matching phrasing and even vowel sounds until several voices seem to become one. Plant’s instinct was to leave room for unexpected turns. She had to anticipate where he might go, while he welcomed the uncertainty. Krauss preferred repeated passes in the studio; Plant felt his emotional commitment was strongest in the first few takes. Their work together required each singer to respond to habits that didn’t come naturally. That tension helps explain why familiar songs could change so much once the pair began singing them.
The Everly Brothers’ “The Price of Love” gave them a particularly clear example. In that same PBS conversation, Krauss said the original’s bright melody sat against painful words, and that their treatment brought those lyrics into sharper focus. Alongside those reinterpretations, “High and Lonesome” gave Plant and Burnett a writing credit of their own: it was the original composition in an album otherwise built from other writers’ songs.
Raise the Roof debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums, Americana/Folk Albums and Bluegrass Albums charts.
