Hail to the voices of Alison and Robert

I'm not going to take her advice that "you say it best when you say nothing at all." Instead, I'm going to say what's on my mind about Alison Krauss and her recent Grammy win for the album "Raising Sand," with Robert Plant.

Now, I've never ever heard of Robert Plant until recently. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've listened to very little rock music of the '70s, and since he was in the group Led Zeppelin, I would have never used his name in a household fashion. I just didn't get off on that kind of music.

Alison Krauss, that's a different story.

First, I must repeat once more to any reader who may not know----I've been called tone deaf; my mother told me at a young age I could not carry a tune in a bucket. In my old age and her older age, she can't hear me because she's deaf and can't really tell that I'm still as tone deaf as ever.

A lifetime of yearning to be able sing but knowing the results constitute noise pollution to anyone within hearing distance has made me hyper-inspired by those who can carry a tune and especially those who have beautiful voices with which to carry the melodious notes that keep most listeners in awe.

Such a voice belongs to Alison Krauss. I always believed that such a voice belongs to Joan Baez also. And, as for the male counterparts in my favorite genre of country, I'd have to pick Vince Gill and John Denver.

I've had the good fortune to listen to three of the four live in concert. Some day I'd love to go see Vince Gill. John Denver sang in Spokane several years ago at the old Coliseum, and my friend Marilyn gave us tickets to go see him in return for keeping her family friend's son at our home for a week.

I saw Joan Baez in Boise at the Big Easy with my kids.

One of the "profound quotes of life that always stick with us" was uttered one May morning in 1995 when Willie had been offered tickets to go see REM at the Gorge.

Willie and I hadn't been getting along so well that week of his senior year, so he knew that a carefully-crafted public relations ploy was a must in convincing Mom to allow him to drive halfway across Washington, attend an evening concert at the Gorge, return in the darkness of the night, go to school and work at Arby's at Patty Melt Boy----all in one day.

Yup, it would take a lot to convince an already irritated mom of a senior spreading his wings.

Willie found the words though.

"Mom, you know how much you love Joan Baez," he began, "Well, that's how it is for me with REM."

It worked. He went to the Gorge, and a few years later, while the kids were attending college in Boise, we all went to see Joan in concert. What a performance that was! Makes me mad she's coming to Sandpoint this month and her concert sold out almost before I knew about it.

Anyway, I saw Alison in concert at the Festival at Sandpoint several years ago when she was just breaking into fame. I loved her voice before the concert and even more afterward. I also loved how she, like Joan Baez, came across as a down-to-earth, genuine, everyday human being. Much different from our experience with Himself Lyle Lovett!

Any time Alison Kraus performs, I stop in my tracks to listen. I love it when I'm in the barn shoveling and one of her songs comes on the Morning Stampede.

And always, I wish that for just a time, I could carry a tune and put out so pure a sound as she does. Her voice moves me to awe, just like the most beautiful of horses racing across a field of green grass or the most elegant and delicate of flowers bursting open among the buds.

It's a temporary fix, listening to the sound that few humans can produce, but it's what makes hers and Joan's and Vince's and John's stand out among the many singers whom I love.

I bought the Grammy Album of the Year the other day and began listening while driving to and from town. It's unlike anything I've ever heard, with unique instrumentals and two beautiful voices blending toward perfection. I may not have listened to Robert Plant in the '70s, but I love him now.

This album is not necessarily country. It's hard to define, except to suggest contemporary, cosmopolitan and powerful. I can see why it won, and once more, Alison Krauss has demonstrated her broad range of musical talents with her voice. She's not bad with a fiddle either.

BRAVO, Alison and Robert! Led Zeppelin, maybe you're not so bad after all, now that you've come of old age like the rest of us!

And, next time I see my son, Willie and there's an Alison concert in the region, I'll say, "You know how much you love REM . . . please take your old mom to see Alison."

As for Joan, are there any ticket scalpers hanging around Sandpoint who want to work a deal?