Unlikely beauty

_Raising Sand._  Alison Krauss and, no kidding, Robert Plant.  Absolutely mesmerizingly beautiful.

I heard the review on NPR and intended to look for it, but my friend Kim beat surprised me with it this past week. As much as I love music, as much as I've been steeped in exceptional music since childhood, very few songs strike a chord this clear.  Billy Joel's "And So It Goes."  Some of Simon and Garfunkel.  Five for Fighting's "Hundred Years" (which came out shortly after my husband's eldest brother died in an airplane accident).  Some of Starland Vocal Band (but not "Afternoon Delight," their only really bad song).  Some musical-theater songs ("Children Will Listen" from _Into the Woods,_ for example).  Words and music have to work equally, because I'm a musician and a writer in love with melody, harmony, and language.

Krauss...and Plant.  I'd never have guessed.