By Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner

The unique pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, whose “Raising Sand” album has emerged as one of the past year’s major critical and word-of-mouth sales success stories, has resulted in an extensive U.S. and European tour starting April 20. After a brief run of dates in the mid-South, the tour jumps across the pond on an 11-date European tour in May before returning for more North American concerts in June and July, with dates to be announced.

What this means for a possible Led Zeppelin tour, which gained attention following the band’s recent successful one-off benefit show, is unknown due to the worldwide tour with Krauss. It was though that Zeppelin, which Plant fronts, but to prepare for such an endeavor the band would need time to rehearse and the get the production down pat, leaving very little time to play those festivals and stadiums.

Plant and Krauss will perform songs together onstage from “Raising Sand” as well as songs from their careers with a band led by album producer T Bone Burnett. The two offer a preview of the tour on Feb. 11 when CMT airs "CMT Crossroads: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss."

“Raising Sand” debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart following its Oct. 23 release on Rounder Records and was certified RIAA gold soon after. "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)," the first single from the album, was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals."

Robert Plant/Allison Krauss itinerary:

April
20 Louisville, KY – Palace Theatre
22 Knoxville, TN – Knoxville Civic Coliseum
23 Chattanooga, TN – Memorial Auditorium
26 Birmingham, AL – BJCC Arena

May
5 UK Birmingham, NIA Academy
7 UK Manchester, Apollo
8 UK Cardiff, International Arena
10 GER Dusseldorf, Phillipshalle
11 BEL Brussels, Forest National
13 FRA Paris, Le Grand Rex
14 NET Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall
16 SWE Stockholm, Hovet
18 NOR Oslo, Spektrum
19 NOR Bergen, Bergenshalle
22 UK London, Wembley Arena

(The image accompanying this story is from TheBluegrassBlog.com)