Letters in Music: "Please, Read the Letter"

My two-year stay in Lawrence, Kansas (USA) was a life-changing experience for me in many different aspects. A learning experience because you find yourself in a new country, a different community, without being in the comfort zone of your family, friends and neighbors. And you can't imagine what that implied for a girl from a hamlet in Santa Comba!

It had been a dream of mine to go the USA and I must say it did not disappoint. I found myself at ease, and in some respects, in a country more suitable to my personality, attitude and beliefs. I like the way they do things, some of their social codes and traditions, the way in which people interact with one another and their culture, for example their music.

In this regard, I love listening to different music genres and learn about world music. My Erasmus experience had already allowed me to find out about Greek, Italian, Chinese or Taiwanese music thanks to the people I met in halls of residence and at the uni. Kansas, however, was like a Master's degree in country music! I am really thankful to my good friend Summer Oakson, who took me by the hand to learn about the different types of country music and showed me there was country beyond Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks or Kenny Rogers, which were the singers I was familiar with thanks to the CDs I had bought in England or in Discos Gong in Santiago (I can't tell you how much I miss that store!).

Thanks to Summer, I learnt about Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Deana Carter, Martina McBride, Billy Currington, Scotty Emerick,... and many others. Long car rides singing to their lyrics and unforgettable concerts. One of those was the concert by Alison Krauss and Union Station in Kansas City (Starlight Theatre). For me, Alison Krauss and Candice Night (lead singer in Blackmore's Night) are the best female vocalists ever: honey-sweet, haunting voices.

The thing is that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant collaborated to create a beautiful record, Raising Sand, which was released back in 2007 and which contains a moving song about letter-writing, entitled "Please Read the Letter." Critics praised Krauss and Plant's vocal harmonization saying the "key to the magic is the delicious harmony vocals of the unlikely duo" (source: Wikipedia).

"Please Read The Letter"

Caught out running
With just a little too much to hide
Maybe baby
Everything's gonna turn out fine
Please read the letter
I nailed it to your door
It's crazy how it all turned out
We needed so much more

Too late, too late
A fool could read the signs
Maybe baby
You'd better check between the lines
Please read the letter, I
Wrote it in my sleep
With help and consultation from
The angels of the deep

Once I stood beside a well of many words
My house was full of rings and
Charms and pretty birds
Please understand me, my
Walls come falling down
There's nothing here that's left for you
But check with lost and found

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

One more song just before we go
Remember baby
All the things
We used to know
Please read my letter
And promise you'll keep
The secrets and the memories and
Cherish in the deep

Ah...

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

The song actually won the Record of the Year award at the 2009 Grammy Awards. ”There’s an air of fragility within the song. It’s about unfinished business," Plant said.

It certainly is an ode to the power of letters, and this one must have been quite important since no mail service was used, it was just "nailed to your door". Wow.