Each year I like to pick a few CD's for my dad's holiday gift. He's been getting into music in recent years, and since he's new to the music scene, I'm not limited to new releases and can cherry pick the entire canon of music history, which is great fun. This year I started with Dusty in Memphis, which I knew he would dig. Then I picked up the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss album Raising Sands, which I've been curious about since it came out late last year. We listened to it together and I really enjoyed its moody understated feel for the most part. The album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, features a great roster of players, from Marc Ribot to Norman Blake, with Plant and Krauss singing duets on songs from the likes of Gene Clark and Tom Waits. Upon first listen, this one jumped out at me.

Killing The Blues