FOR a rock superstar who has no need to lift a finger again, Robert Plant continues to display a joyful willingness to stretch himself.

Here, he takes country singer/ fiddler Alison Krauss along for the magic carpet ride as they join a stellar cast of players on a set of songs ranging from the Everly Bros' Gone Gone Gone, through an elegant take on Tom Waits' Trampled Rose to the party favours of Benny Spellman's Fortune Teller and the heart-searing treatment of Gene Clark's Through the Morning, Through the Night.

Strangely, only Plant/Page's Please Read the Letter sounds at all out of place.

Krauss has never been more accessible and on the eve of the Zeppelin reunion, Plant has fashioned a whole new voice - let's hope he doesn't lose it.