Plant, Krauss collaborate on new album

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, two singers who hail from wildly different districts on the pop music landscape, announced Friday the upcoming release of “Raising Sand,” an album that finds them col- laborating with the guidance of Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett.

Plant, of course, was a sort of caterwauling demigod on the 1970s rock scene with Led Zeppelin, an act that ranks fourth on the all-time list of album sellers (only the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks top Zeppelin’s 109.5 million albums shipped, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America).

Singer-fiddler Krauss, meanwhile, has won 20 Grammy awards, more than any other female artist, and her forlorn and angelic voice has helped reinvigorate public interest in bluegrass music, especially with the soundtracks to “Cold Mountain” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” Burnett was the architect of the award-winning “O Brother” collection.

“Raising Sand” will feature songs written by Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Gene Clark, Doc Watson, Little Milton Campbell, Phil and Don Everly and Mel Tillis. The release from Rounder Records is due Oct. 23.

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-- Geoff Boucher