Robert Plant and Alison Krauss received the highest honours at last night’s Grammy Award ceremony in LA, when ‘Raising Sand’ was named Album of the Year and “Please Read The Letter” won Record of the Year.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss on amazon.com

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss on amazon.co.uk

The duo also took home awards for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “Rich Woman”, Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for “Killing The Blues” and Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album for ‘Raising Sand’.

Last year Robert and Alison received a Grammy for their single “Gone Gone Gone” in the only category they were eligible for.

Last night they performed “Rich Woman” and “Gone Gone Gone” with producer/bandleader and fellow Grammy winner T Bone Burnett along with a stellar cast of musicians including Buddy Miller, Dennis Crouch and Jay Bellerose.

T Bone Burnett as producer and Mike Piersante as engineer/mixer also received Grammys for Record of the Year and Album of the Year.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Myspace

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Official Website

Good afternoon. With the Grammy’s taking place next week (February 8, 2009) and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss announced to perform at the bash, what better time to stoke the Grammy fire and fill you in on the show…

The duo have been nominated for an impressive 5 awards including, Album of the Year, (for their Mercury nominated ‘Raising Sand’) and Record of the Year, for their stunning single “Please Read The Letter”.

Duffy will be in attendance on the night after gaining 3 nominations for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for “Mercy”) and Best Pop Vocal Album (for ‘Rockferry’). She will also be presenting an award.

Jason Mraz will be at the ceremony. He’s been nominated in 3 categories. Jason is up for, Song of the Year (for the irresistible “I’m Yours”), Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Engineered Album.

As well as the success in his homeland, Jason is finally receiving notable acclaim and success this side of the pond. His album ‘We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things’ broke into the Top Ten this week at No. 8. His worldwide smash-hit single “I’m Yours” is currently No. 11 in the iTunes chart, on course for the top Ten.

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Rufus Wainwright is speaking at the Oxford Union on Thursday (Feb 5th), Rufus will field questions in a Q&A session about his first, upcoming opera ‘Prima Donna’ which premieres at the Manchester International Festival – the world’s first festival of original, new work on July 10th, 14th, 17th (evening) and 12th, 19th July (Matinee) at Manchester’s Palace Theatre.

Rufus is also up for a Grammy nomination next Sunday for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album (for ‘Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall’).

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In breaking news, Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour goes back on the road this Summer. Already the No.1 biggest grossing tour in history for a solo artist, Madonna kicks off the tour at London’s O2 Arena on Independence Day (July 4th) and then Manchester’s MEN Arena (July 7th).

Never one to miss out, Madonna is up for 3 Grammy Awards too, for Best Dance Recording (for Give It 2 Me), Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (for 4 Minutes) and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical (for 4 Minutes – Junkie XL Remix).

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Saddened by the loss of singer-songwriter John Martyn, Jersey Budd had some kind words to say: “John Martyn was one of only a few people to leave me absolutely spellbound by his musical genius. It turned out that I was the last person to ever be asked to support John. Whatever I achieve in music, this will go down as one of my proudest moments, and a great honour.”

Jersey continues to impress, and impress is exactly what he did on Wednesday at Water Rats. The singer-songwriter showcased songs from his stunning forthcoming album ‘Wonderlands’.

Jersey releases his infectious new single “Visions Of You”, February 16th.

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Russell Brand is currently on his 28-date, sold out UK tour, but due to phenomenal demand he announced a rare and simply unmissable, stand-up show at London’s O2 Arena, April 17th.

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Politics enthusiast Will Young takes to the Question Time hot seat next Thursday (Feb 5th). Will, who is a fan of the show assured us that he is swotting up on the hot topics of the day.

Will releases his last-ever physical single ‘Let It Go’ from the same titled album on March 2nd.

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Delta Spirit were impressive on Tuesday night at Borderline. The five-piece ripped through a storming set that included their irresistible single “Trashcan”.

They play their last London gig tonight at Koko (Club NME), before heading back to the U.S. They are playing SXSW in March before returning to the UK for more live dates. Their stunning album ‘Ode To Sunshine’ is released March 23rd.

The nominations for the 51st annual Grammy Awards were announced at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre, with MBC’s British contingent gaining a hatful of nominations.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss continue to impress, and will compete in five categories:
- Album of the year (for ‘Raising Sand’)
- Record of the year (for ‘Please Read The Letter’)
- Best contemporary folk/Americana album (for ‘Raising Sand’)
- Best pop collaboration with vocals (for ‘Rich Woman’)
- Best country collaboration with vocals (for ‘Killing The Blues’)

Duffy also had an excellent night gaining three nominations:
- Best new artist
- Best female pop vocal performance (for ‘Mercy’)
- Best pop vocal album (for ‘Rockferry’)

MBC’s American artists also scored highly. After providing one of the night’s stand out performances, five-time Grammy winner John Mayer was rewarded with five nominations:
- Best male pop vocal performance (for ‘Say’)
- Best pop collaboration with vocals (for ‘Lesson Learned’)
- Best solo rock vocal performance (for ‘Gravity’)
- Best song written for Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media (for ‘Say’)
- Best long form music video (for ‘Where The Light Is – Live in Los Angeles’)

Jason Mraz also had a good night, gaining three nominations (song of the year, best male pop vocal performance, best engineered album, non-classical), while Madonna (best pop collaboration with vocals) and Rufus Wainwright (best traditional pop vocal album) walked away with one nomination apiece.

The Grammy Awards show takes place February 8th 2009.

Grammy Official Website

Like Plant, we hail from West Bromwich in the heart of the Black Country (indeed, my dad frequented the same drinking hole as Planty) and wondered what the leonine rock god must make of the changes to the ’second city’ since he last strolled its streets. Gone are the grubby factories and warehouses, replaced by shimmering glass towers and a slick, cosmopolitan atmosphere. We were certainly struck anew by the city’s transformation as we wandered down the canal-side before the gig.

It seems Brum is not the only thing to have changed – there’s no trace of a Black Country twang in Plant’s voice and his partnership with Krauss on ‘Raising Sand’ is a departure from the heavy rock of his Led Zeppelin days. It’s also the stuff of music critics’ wet dreams: a beautiful bluegrass angel collaborating with the hoary old man of rock to make one of the finest and unlikely parings in recent musical times.

Anticipation was high for this, Plant’s homecoming performance. From a purely anthropological bent, there was also much fun to be had in identifying fans there for Alison Krauss and those there for Robert Plant. Needless to say there were ponytails aplenty on men of a certain age and later in the evening, some head-banging in the aisles to some of the rockier numbers. Of course I can only speculate that they were Led Zep fans …

But before I discuss the main act … the support. This was Scott Matthews, Wolverhampton-based urban-folk troubadour whose band and he were, he cheerily confessed, ’shitting ourselves’. The local feel of one up-and-coming Black Country lad supporting another made good, set a nice tone and the audience warmed to Matthews fast. He opened with the beautiful “Dream Song”, arguably his best work to date, and gave a soulful and professional support to the main act.

As “Rich Woman’s” swampy guitars kicked in, Plant and Krauss crept out from either side of the stage each looking a million dollars. There’s a strange kind of symmetry seeing them live, all big blond hair and even bigger voices, although this is as far as the visual resemblance goes. In her diaphanous, floaty dress with her perfectly coiffed hair, Alison Krauss looked like she’d been whisked in from Stepford; whereas Robert Plant, wearing block colours and some pretty fine winkle pickers, looked every inch the rock god. He trod the stage like a caged animal for the first few songs, a mesmerising “Sister Rosetta” and “Through the Morning, Through the Night”, and I like to think it did the old boy some good when he finally let rip on tracks like “Nothin” – it certainly looked and sounded like it!

The two were on fire; their voices were nothing short of awesome and melted into each other’s tones perfectly. “Stick with Me Baby” was mesmerising. I’d expected them to sound good, but this good? Krauss’s demure presence belied a torrent of feeling conveyed through her singing which was by turns eerie and angelic. Her rendition of Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose” was goose-bump inducing and her violin playing exceptional. Her voice was as sweet as honey but more penetrating than any I’ve heard in a long time, filling every crevice of the cavernous NIA.

Despite the obvious difference between her vocals and Plant’s blues wail, his voice was equally on form. He sang as if he wanted to tear the audience’s eardrums out on tracks like “Gone, Gone Gone” and an old Led Zeppelin track (that’s the head-bangers happy then).

By far his finest moment was on “Fortune Teller”, an amusing old standard on which Alison supplemented his bluesy delivery with haunting backing vocals. Of this track he confided that he’d first come across it in the ’60s and that only two others knew it – he got ‘free prescriptions and a long memory’ he self-deprecatingly joked.

On other songs his sound was more restrained, allowing the gravely textures of his voice to reveal themselves in a wonderfully new way. The two were generous to each others’ performances, stepping back to spotlight the others’ strengths through songs which ranged from the old standards from “Raising Sand” and beyond, to blues, country and soul.

The legendary T-Bone Burnett, a black-clad, narrow and angular presence on the stage, was met with adulatory cries of ‘you the man T-Bone!’ from an enthusiastic crowd when he performed two of his own tracks. Krauss nodded to his producing the score to ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’, on which Krauss sings, when she threw in “Down to the River to Pray” with Plant joining in for backing vocals.

To see the three on stage together, their chemistry and obvious ease with each other, was a live crystallization of the successes of ‘Raising Sand’ and was really something. In short, the gig was a triumph. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss made it look so easy and surpassed the elegance of their recordings. Long may the partnership between the bluegrass beauty and rock beast continue.

By: Lindsey Davis