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The year's most unexpected musical pairing actually works. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, country fiddler/singer Krauss and Led Zep's sonic hedgehog move beyond what you might imagine in this foray into rootsy country and folk.

Christopher Berkey/The New York Times (ENLARGE)
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
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A low-key Plant harmonizes beautifully with Krauss in atmospheric, blurred covers of Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Mel Tillis and the Everly Brothers, along with the bluesy Plant-Jimmy Page collaboration "Please Read the Letter."

"Raising Sand" is the sound of true collaboration.

—Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Daily News