Raising Sand, Krauss's triumphant collaboration with Robert Plant, was never going to be the act of reinvention for the bluegrass star that it was for the ex-Zep singer. Reunited with her customary band, she cruises through a set of well-flossed modern country where the picking, on dobro, banjo, guitar and mandolin, is exemplary, but the material routine. Krauss contributes nothing self-penned and the job falls to journeyman writers, with a brace of well-judged covers for ballast (Richard Thompson's "Dimming of the Day" is a highpoint). While Krauss's crystalline vocals delight (not so Dan Tyminski's hollers), the album refuses to become more than its often pleasant parts.