The album was met with critical acclaim, earning an averaged score of 87 from compiled reviews on Metacritic. This album was #24 on Rolling Stone December 17, 2007. Raising Sand received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Being There called it "one of the year’s very best", and Allmusic called it "one of the most effortless-sounding pairings in modern popular music", but stated that some of the songs " like tossed off". JamBase called the album "subtle, focused and full of life" and said that it was "highly recommended". Village Voice commented on the album, saying it was "powerfully evocative" and "utterly foreign, oddly familiar, and deeply gratifying." The compilation of songs on Raising Sand were hand-picked by the producer, T Bone Burnett. Entertainment Weekly described the cover songs that make up the album as "eclectic", and Village Voice said that "T Bone Burnett flaunts his typical curatorial genius with a whole set of 'have we met before?' tunes". The instrumental quality of the album was also praised; BBC described Krauss's fiddle as "coruscating" and "raw", and Music Box said that Krauss "exceeds all expectations". The guest instrumentalists were also praised, with BBC saying that the guests "make this a stunning, dark, brooding collection, comparable in tone to Daniel Lanois' masterful job on Dylan's Time Out Of Mind." Critics praised Krauss and Plant's vocal harmonization, with one critic saying that the "key to the magic is the delicious harmony vocals of the unlikely duo." Various music critics described Alison Krauss's vocals as being "spellbinding", "honey-sweet", "weepy", "saccharine", and "haunting". On the other hand, Robert Plant's sometimes "wailing" vocals were described as "orgasmic", and "slithering", in regard to his lead roles. "Gone, Gone, Gone " was released as a single and won the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 50th Grammy Awards and was nominated for the Americana Award for "Song of the Year". The song "Killing the Blues" was #51 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. On February 8, 2009, the album won all five awards for which it was nominated at the 51st Grammy Awards: Album of the Year; Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album; Record of the Year ; Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals ; and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Raising Sand was the second of three country albums to win Album of the Year, after Dixie Chicks's Taking the Long Way and followed by Taylor Swift's Fearless. The album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize in the UK. In December 2009, Rhapsody ranked the album #2 on its "Country’s Best Albums of the Decade" list. The online music service also called it one of their favorite cover albums of all time.
Chart performance
The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling about 112,000 copies in its first week, the highest chart position for either artists' solo work, although Plant had previously reached #1 several times with Led Zeppelin. Raising Sand was certified platinum by the RIAA on March 4, 2008. After the album's success at the 2009 Grammy Awards, the album topped the BillboardTop Rock Albums chart and Top Internet Albums chart for the first time on the week of February 28, 2009. The album also hit the top of Canadian Top Country Albums, and also peaked at #2 in Billboard Top Country Albums, being stuck behind part of 35 weeks non-consecutive chart topping Fearless by country singer Taylor Swift. Selling 77,000 copies on a 715% increase, Raising Sand jumped 69-2 on the Billboard 200. The album entered the Top 5 on the UK Albums Chart, going on to reach #2 in January 2nd 2008.
Follow-up album
According to Ken Irwin of Rounder Records, and producer Burnett, the duo started work on a second album in 2009. In a 2010 interview, Plant indicated that the follow-up sessions were unsuccessful.
