Robert Plant And Alison Krauss Win Grammy Album Of The Year

Raising Sand, from Led Zeppelin vet and bluegrass superstar, wins five Grammys on Sunday night.
By James Montgomery with MTV News staff


Alison Krauss and Robert Plant accept the award for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

"I'm bewildered," Robert Plant said onstage as he accepted the Grammy Album of the Year award with Alison Krauss on Sunday night. "In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it's a good way to spend a Sunday."

He was probably one of the few who were surprised, because Raising Sand, which won five trophies at Sunday night's show, is in many ways the perfect Grammy album. It features two respected veterans, a critically lauded producer, some sandpaper-and-velvet vocals and a baker's dozen of time-tested standards.

You're probably familiar with Robert Plant from his Led Zeppelin days, and you might be aware of producer T-Bone Burnett's work on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack (it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002). And if you don't know who Alison Krauss is, she possesses a haunting set of pipes and is one of the meanest fiddle players in the world. Oh, and she's won 21 Grammys, more than any other female artist and the seventh-most in history.

Really, she's the key to Sand's success, and not just because of her voice (or her fiddle playing). She and Plant first met in 2004, at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to legendary bluesman Leadbelly, and the former Zeppelin man was amazed by her knowledge of American Roots music — so much so that they began kicking around the idea of recording an album together. Three years later, Sand was released.

And while Plant possesses the more famous voice, the album's finest moments radiate from Krauss. Whether she's getting bluesy on Little Milton's "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" or entwining with Plant's husky voice on songs like "Please Read the Letter" and Roly Salley's winsome "Killing the Blues," she more than carries her end of the bargain.

And perhaps that's also due to producer Burnett, who handpicked the 13 songs the duo cover on Sand. His arrangements are sparse — giving the two voices ample room to breathe — yet dense, warm and crackling at the same time. It's a testament to his work that he's often given just as much billing as Plant and Krauss on the project ... and it's certainly justified.

To date, Sand has sold more than 1 million copies, heaped tons of acclaim and actually earned a Grammy last year — "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" took home the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

One expert was surprised not by the album's success, but by the fact that it's actually quite a good album.

"At first, the album seemed like a vanity project. ... Two names, clearly a one-off record, didn't have to be any good, you know?" New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica said. "Led Zeppelin fans would buy it because of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss would get a check. But it actually turned out to be a really thoughtful, really good record. So when you combine all that with the fact that the Grammys love to lionize one of their own, I could really see it taking home some awards."

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If there's one thing Lady Gaga is great at, it's making an impression. And the singer clearly did that on Monday night when she stopped by "Late Show With David Letterman" to chat it up on the day her Born This Way album was released.

Wearing a black mask, barely there black boy shorts, knee-high lace-up leather boots, a black jacket over a black rubber bra, and another of her Morticia Addams-style black and blonde wigs, Gaga clearly put the late-night legend on edge with her odd behavior. She began by reaching out and complimenting his orange tie while stroking it, prompting the unflappable Letterman to quip, "Why stop?"

But Dave, who is used to being provoked by everyone from Madonna to Joaquin Phoenix and Courtney Love, took it all in stride and asked Mother Monster to explain why she came out wearing a mask. "You have a mask on. Does this represent something or we don't care what this represents?" he asked her.

"I'm Batman," Gaga shot back, humming a bit of the Dark Knight's old-school TV theme. "What are you wearing, I mean, what aren't you wearing, I mean it's great, don't get me wrong," he stammered when asking about her revealing get-up. Gaga explained that she only liked the jacket, so that's the part she chose to wear. "You and I are very different in that way," Letterman responded. "I have never thought to myself, 'I'm just going to wear my underpants.' "

"Why not, I'm sure you'd look nice," Gaga said, taking off her mask. "You'd be surprised," she added, to which he cracked, "Yes, I'd be very surprised ... and you'd be surprised also ... and so would the local authorities."

Later in the interview, Gaga claimed that she found the outfit in the garbage on her way into the studio.

The pair continued their friendly banter, talking about Gaga's days as a bad waitress (she flirted too much with guys who were on dates), which progressed to Gaga shamelessly flirting with the host while trying to avoid answering a question about whether she currently has a boyfriend. She revealed that she spent the previous night chatting with fans on Twitter and drinking a bottle of wine to celebrate the midnight release of the album.

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The infamous egg, which made its debut in February at the Grammys, is a spiritual place, the singer said. "How much time do you spend in it? Is it tough to get insurance?" Letterman wondered.

"Well, no, because for me, it's a place where I can meditate and experience rebirth," Gaga explained. "So I just get inside of it and close it and then when I feel that I have been reborn spiritually, I just, woo, come out."

In keeping with the regeneration theme of the album, when asked how long this rebirthing process takes, Gaga said, "It depends. ... I just really believe that you can be reborn over and over and over again until you find that part of you that is the best you that you can be, so I encourage everyone to be that way. I wonder what would happen if I put you in an egg?"

After a series of inane questions, including one about whether it's true she relaxes by fly fishing and whether it's true she once ate a Barbie doll's head during a concert (actually, she said, it happens "all the time"), Gaga grabbed Letterman's sheet of notes and ripped it up. "I'm just so fed up with all of this," she grumped before handing back on half of the sheet and stuffing the other in her mouth to chew up.

Don't miss MTV News' hour-long, exclusive interview "Lady Gaga: Inside The Outside" airing Thursday, May 26, at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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