Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have released their first new album in fourteen years, Raise The Roof, out now via Rounder Records. In a new interview with Time, the pair answered the phone from Nashville to talk about genre boundaries, Led Zeppelin joining TikTok, and the enduring impact of “When The Levee Breaks”. An excerpt follows:

Time: The Led Zeppelin classic “When the Levee Breaks” was part of your setlists when you were on the road together. John Bonham’s intro drum break has been sampled in hip hop many times, including by the Beastie Boys, Beyoncé and Dr. Dre. What do you think of the way it’s traveled and its cultural impact?

Robert Plant: "It ain’t cultural impact, for god’s sake. It’s just a really great drum sound, and the coolest sexy groove played by a wild man who was my brother. And it just happened to be recorded with such skill and magnificence, with about three microphones in a hallway in an old converted workhouse in Hampshire. That Headley Grange drum sound is the killer. Nobody could do it like Bonzo could do it. He was just extraordinary. Whether he was driving through a hedge in his mother’s car with me sitting next to him, accidentally missing the turn, or whatever it was, we were kids who grew up and found some new shapes."

Read the full interview at Time.com.

Like its platinum-selling 2007 predecessor, Raising Sand - which won six Grammys, including Album and Record of the Year - Raise The Roof delivers new takes on songs from legends and unsung heroes of folk, blues, country and soul music.

Recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, sessions for Raise The Roof began in late 2019 and wrapped just weeks before the world went into lockdown. “One of my favorite parts of this is the songs and songwriters that I had never heard of,” says Alison Krauss. “Working with Robert, and with T Bone, is always a great education in music history.”

Raise The Roof includes deep cuts by Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, Calexico and more. “It’s such a far cry from everything I’ve done before,” says Robert Plant. “I love the whole kaleidoscope of music that I’ve explored, but this is a place where you can think within the song, you can decide how to bring home an emotion. It’s another blend that we’ve got, and long may we have more of them.”

Order Raise The Roof here.

Raise The Roof tracklisting:

"Quattro (World Drifts In)"
"The Price Of Love"
"Go Your Way"
"Trouble With My Lover"
"Searching For My Love"
"Can’t Let Go"
"It Don’t Bother Me"
"You Led Me To The Wrong"
"Last Kind Words Blues"
"High And Lonesome"
"Going Where The Lonely Go"
"Somebody Was Watching Over Me"

"Somebody Was Watching Over Me":

"It Don't Bother Me":

"Can't Let Go" lyric video:

"High And Lonesome":

Plant and Krauss will be the special guests on the June 2022 London, UK headline show by the Eagles. The show will be part of next year’s American Express presents BST Hyde Park extravaganza, taking place over two weekends next summer.

Plant and Krauss’ 2022 tour dates are to be announced soon, but the Hyde Park audience will be among the first to witness new songs performed live by the great rock frontman and the 27-time Grammy-winner.

Stay tuned for updates.