Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass crooner Alison Krauss may not be the likeliest of musical combinations. But on this welcome collaboration album, they work beautifully together, wringing a kind of magic from other people's songs. The key to the album is its versatility. Between them, Krauss and Plant can handle a vast repertoire on their own, and here they take on the lot, from ...

Manufacturer: Decca

Manufacturer: Elektra

Over the years this Irish folk band has recorded with James Galway, Roger Daltrey, Nanci Griffith, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, and many more. For The Long Black Veil, they made their biggest haul yet: the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Marianne Faithfull, Mark Knopfler, Sinead O'Connor, Tom Jones, Sting, and Ry Cooder. Knopfler, Faithfull, and O'Connor wander off-key in their vocals. ...

Manufacturer: RCA Victor

Icelandic-Italian singer Emiliana Torrini has achieved much, but gained comparatively little, off the back of a career that has blossomed in a nook out of the mainstream's line-of-sight for over a decade. She's been a voice for hire for dance acts aplenty (Paul Oakenfold, Thievery Corporation), was the lungs behind the sky-reaching "Gollum's Song" in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and ...

Manufacturer: Rough Trade

How do you follow a debut record that achieved out-of-the-blue grandeur on its way to selling a quarter of a million copies? For Maine's Ray LaMontagne, it's all about shaking up the formula, evading repetition and delivering the unexpected. Till the Sun Turns Black finds the introspective singer/songwriter complementing his folk-country ways with traces of strings and horns and spooky ...

Manufacturer: 14th Floor

New Age diva Enya first became widely known when her 1988 album Watermark sold 4 million copies and launched the single "Orinoco Flow". Her follow-up, Shepherd Moons, was even more successful, selling over 10 million copies despite its slightly lower grade of ethereal enchantment. In 1997 she released Paint the Sky with Stars, an assortment of her best work from these two ...

Manufacturer: Wea

Joan Baez, whose career spans five super-impressive decades, proves she is still a force to be reckoned with on this 24th studio album. Focusing on major topics like wartime, religion and death, Baez has teamed up with Steve Earle, who has not only produced the album but contributed three songs (two new compositions, and an a cappella version of his "Jericho Road"). As on previous collections, ...

Manufacturer: Proper Records

One of the elements that's made the Chieftains the stellar Celtic band in the world is their love of innovative collaborations with mainstream pop stars. The Wide World Over: A 40-Year Celebration gathers into a single collection some of the Irish ensemble's most memorable moments, including predictable alliances with artists such as Van Morrison, who sings "Shenandoah", to additional ...

Manufacturer: RCA

Manufacturer: Columbia

The daughter of acclaimed British folk artists Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy has long been one of the major protagonists in the UK neo-folk renaissance. A dedicated and passionate artist, Carthy is also highly eclectic, as evinced on previous albums such as Red Rice, which blended drum & bass with folk fiddle amongst other unusual but largely successful experiments. ...

Manufacturer: Topic