Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Please Read the Letter

I saw Alison Krauss with Union Station in Franklin Tennessee in the 1990s. I never knew she was that good of a musician. Her voice was great as well and I wasn’t a fan when I was given the tickets…but I was after I saw her.

Since the first time I heard this song…I loved it. It’s put together so well and Plants and Krauss harmonize beautifully. Please Read The Letter was originally off the Walking Into Clarksdale album by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. The song was written by Charlie Jones, Michael Lee, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant.

I listened to the Page and Plant version…it just didn’t have the magic that the Krauss version did. I usually go with the loud guitar but not in this case. Plant and Alison Krauss met at a tribute concert to Leadbelly, and decided to collaborate. They made an album together in 2007 called Raising Sand. The album featured production by T-Bone Burnett and songwriting by Plant, Tom Waits, Sam Phillips, Townes Van Zandt, and Gene Clark among others.

This version peaked at #20 in the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and #102 in the UK in 2009. I like the original version but Krauss’s harmony lifts this version up over that and turns into a great record. The arrangement of this version highlights the lyrics and enhances the song. I was hooked at the first listen.

Raising Sand won The Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2009. The song was off of the Raising Sand album. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in Canada (The Canada peak number I’m not sure about), #2 in the UK, #3 in New Zealand in 2007-08.

The follow-up album was released in 2021 and it’s called Raise The Roof.

Robert Plant:  “When we started this project together, the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves three days, and we said if it doesn’t work, we’ll just take lunch, and I’ll go back to Wolverhampton. But we brought this song out and it’s been given that Nashville touch and it feels pretty good.”

Page and Plant’s version

Please Read the Letter

Caught out running
With just a little too much to hide
Maybe baby
Everything’s gonna turn out fine
Please read the letter
I mailed it to your door
It’s crazy how it all turned out
We needed so much more

Too late, too late
A fool could read the signs
Maybe baby
You’d better check between the lines
Please read the letter, I
Wrote it in my sleep
With help and consultation from
The angels of the deep

Once I stood beside a well of many words
My house was full of rings and
Charms and pretty birds
Please understand me, my
Walls come falling down
There’s nothing here that’s left for you
But check with lost and found

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

One more song just before we go
Remember baby
All the things
We used to know
Please read my letter
And promise you’ll keep
The secrets and the memories and
Cherish in the deep

Ah…

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Please Read the Letter”

  1. I too saw AKUS in the 90s, and loved it. Alison’s voice was absolute perfection, and so was the band of elite musicians. I remember when the Krauss-Plant collaboration was announced, and I didn’t know what to think. Intrigued is what I tried to think, making myself keep an open mind. Then, when I heard this song, it knocked my socks off. I bought the CD and was glad I did. I found several gems on it for my playlist. After seeing videos of them perform Battle of Evermore on their tour, I regretted that I didn’t make it a destination to see them perform together live. I didn’t initially know of the LZ version of Please Read the Letter, but I do really like it as well.

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    1. She really impressed me when I saw her…yea the entire band did also.
      Their voices go really well together and it worked so well. I haven’t heard their last album though…I would like to give it a listen.

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      2. I decided to start on it right away, and 3 songs in, and I’m ready to buy the thing. It’s wonderful. It’s called Raise the Roof. It came out when I was knee deep in career transition, and I totally lost track of it after initially hearing they were recording album #2. Plant harmonizing with Alison’s voice is sublime.

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  2. I saw the pair in concert, and they were terrific. I can see how Plant had to restrain himself from going all ‘rocker’ when he sang with Alison. She’s so disciplined and their pairing is a surprising success. Great harmonies and wonderful chemistry on stage with the band.

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  4. Would love to see these two perform! I discovered Alison when she covered the Bad Company song Oh Atlanta, on what might have been her debut solo album? I no idea Plant and Page had recorded this song. You really hear what a song it is when these two sing it. They really are magic together, but honestly Alison can sing with anyone. Great post!!

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  5. I guess I prefer Plant to be on one side of wonderful and Krauss on the polar other, but it may also be because she does “Molly Ban” (on YouTube) with the Chieftains (with a harmonized assist from Kathy Mattea, I think) and it is beyond riveting!

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  7. I need to go listen to this again. I only first heard that album last year (maybe 2 years back) and was very pleasantly surprised. Good songs, well-played and their voices worked well together. We talked not long ago about what would Led Zeppelin have done if Bonham had lived; obviously purely hypothetical but this is another example (albeit many years later) of how Plant would have certainly wanted to change their sound up and go off in different directions. He seems a true musician in every sense.

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    1. He did try something different with this and it worked…not only worked but worked well.
      It would have been interesting to see where they would have gone.

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  8. I came across Alison Krauss by chance when looking for artists for Women Music March and was pleasantly surprised by how much I like her sound both with Union Station and with Robert Plant. She snuck up on me and got me good. Honestly Robert Plant can make anyone sound good and he’s sang with a least a few other female singers. Plant’s voice is one of the great voices of all time in my opinion, from his Zep to the now. Great choice for this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

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    1. Thanks Lisa! Funny you said that…I changed it from Saturday to Sunday…it just seems like a Sunday song.
      Usually I like the loud guitar version of songs but not this one. She grounded it. Seeing her live was wonderful and eye opening.

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  9. Fantastic! Im sitting on the bank listening to this great music. So much to like. Little touch of violin. Kraus is so good. Plant is always stretching his creativity. Works for me. I said this before but T-Bone could produce You and me and we might not sound to bad. I’ll start working on our play list. Starting with ‘You Light Up My Life”

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    1. I’ve been listening to this album for the last few days. I want to hear more of that blues Gregg Allman album that T-Bone produced. What I’ve heard from it is great.
      I’m ready to do it.
      You know….that is the true test…making You Light Up My Life sound listenable…

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      2. Well I’ll have to find that…no doubt.
        I just saw a video of them the other day backing David Cassidy…yea I did a double take.

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  10. Love that Page/Plant record. A very good rock record as I knew about this song title but I had no idea Plant recorded it. Boy they struck gold together didn’t they with the collaboration.

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      1. Sometimes this stuff works as Leppard on they’re latest album had Krauss on two tracks. They’re ok but should have been put at the back of the album as they kinda kill a bit of the vibe of the album. Sequencing could have been better as why would Leppard need to be a crossover act at this point is silly…

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      2. Wait…back up the truck. Krauss did a track with Def Leppard?
        That blows me away…yea I agree….A little late for a new image.

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      3. Yes the two songs are called Lifeless and This Guitar. Maybe to boost sales but it didn’t really make a difference.

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      4. I’ll check them out. I thought Plant was an odd choice for her…but…this beats it! Just an odd mixture.

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  13. I do like this, I’d kind of missed it but it is well worth adding. Love the ‘there’s nothing here that’s left for you /But check with lost and found.’ I love that shorthand that says more than a few words, more than meets the eye.

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  15. I enjoyed the whole of the Raising Sand album. I think Robert Plant deserves credit for continuing to try new things, when it would be easy for him to just live off his Led Zep back catalogue.

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