If the pairing of 59-year-old Robert Plant, hard rocks leading frontman, and 36-year-old Alison Krauss, the honey-voiced instrumental darling of contemporary bluegrass, ever seemed like an odd match, well, it was only because the doubters were clearly only familiar with both artists on the most surface of levels. Plant, for one, has always been a folkie at heart going back even before the quieter moments of Led Zeppelin III and further underscored by his fondness for Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan covers throughout his solo career. As for Krauss, well, shes been an out-of-the-closet classic rock junkie for years, having gone so far as to record with both Bad Company and John Waite. So its really no wonder that their first album together, 2007s Grammy nominated, platinum-certified Raising Sand, sounds like the record both artists were born to make. Under the profoundly smart production of T Bone Burnett (an accomplished artist in his own right and the mastermind behind the blockbuster O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack), Plant and Krauss play off each others strengths as naturally as he ever did with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page or she ever did trading instrumental licks with the other members of her acclaimed bluegrass outfit Union Station. Whether romping through the Everly Brothers Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On), braving the haunted spaces of Townes Van Zandts Nothin or breathing sweet new life into Plants own exemplary Please Read the Letter (a co-write with Page), Plant and Krauss prove that nothing be it age, genre or mighty ocean can stand in the way of two artists destined to make beautiful music together.