The two singers complement each other wonderfully well. Plant grounds Krauss's sweet contralto, while her voice tames Plant's rock god howl. Burnett backs the singers with a crack band, anchored by the superb guitar work of Marc Ribot and the outstanding percussion of drummer Jay Bellerose.

 For all the vocal talent, the real genius of Raising Sand lies in the selection and arrangements of the songs. From a cynically jaunty rendition of the Everly Brothers "Gone Gone Gone" to a wrenching version of Townes Van Zandt's "Nothin'", the musicians make these songs fully their own. This is particularly true of "Please Read the Letter", a tune originally released on Plant and Page's album Walking Into Clarksdale but magisterially recreated here. The old chestnut "Fortune Teller" gets a similar treatment, and with similarly wonderful results. In fact, there's not a stinker on the album.

There's a temptation to declare Raising Sand a classic-in-the-making. Certainly it deserves to be. The audience seems to agree: Plant and Krauss have gone on tour for the album, and the reviews so far have been even more wildly positive than those for the album. Raising Sand is the best work Plant has done since his days with Led Zeppelin, and it has allowed Krauss to grow beyond her country songbird roots. Their obvious respect for the music (and each other) is apparent on every song — this album is not an exercise in ego, but two legendary singers trying to do justice to the music. There is an honesty and lack of artifice here that is almost startling.

There are some die-hard Zeppelin fans who dislike the music for...well, for not being Zeppelin, and some Krauss fans who feel that she's gone slumming. Most, however, are finding the album and the tour to be a dazzling rebirth of American roots music. As the experiment has proven wildly successful, we can expect more work from Burnett, Plant, and Krauss. Certainly a concert DVD, and possibly even a follow-on album.

I find myself hoping mightily for more of this wonderful collaboration. Raising Sand is the best and most daring album released in the last decade.