With Alison Krauss, Robert Plant hasn't met a Grammy he hasn't won

"Never a dull moment," said Alison Krauss while accepting her fifth Grammy award of the night, this one the year's top prize, for Raising Sand with Robert Plant. Her Grammy tally now stands at 26, more than any other female's.

And since Plant was in on each of the new ones tonight, as well as the Grammy he and Krauss earned last year, his lifetime Grammy count now stands at seven awards plus a Lifetime Achievement recognition that was given to Led Zeppelin only four years ago.

So, with Krauss at his side, Plant has never met a Grammy he hasn't won.

Their Grammy wins tonight were:

• Record of the Year for "Please Read the Letter" from Raising Sand: The award goes to Plant, Krauss, producer T Bone Burnett, and engineer and mixer Mike Piersante.
• Album of the Year for Raising Sand: The award goes to Plant, Krauss, producer T Bone Burnett, engineer and mixer Mike Piersante, and mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen.
• Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals: The award goes to Plant and Krauss for their collaboration on "Rich Woman" from Raising Sand.
• Best Country Collaboration with Vocals: The award goes to Plant and Krauss for their collaboration on "Killing the Blues" from Raising Sand.
• Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album: The award goes to Plant and Krauss for Raising Sand.
  

It's the kind of treatment Led Zeppelin never received in its heyday. The group was nominated for Best New Artist in 1970 but lost to Crosby, Stills & Nash. And that was it for nominations that had anything to do with the music. Other aspects of the bands were recognized, though: Led Zeppelin II was nominated for its album cover but lost, and four subsequent albums -- Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence and In Through the Out Door -- were all nominated for Best Album Package but lost.

But in the spirit of reassessing the past, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album became one of 189 records or albums named to the Grammy Hall of Fame in February 1999, and the group received a Lifetime Achievement award in 2005.

Plant was nominated for new musical work two years in a row in the 1990s. The first time was for "Calling to You" from his solo album Fate of Nations, but it lost in the Best Hard Rock Vocal category to "Plush" by the Stone Temple Pilots. Then the following year's Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal went not to Page and Plant for their new version of "Kashmir" on No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded but to Blues Traveler for that hip, three-minute ditty called "Run-around." With Page 10 years ago, Plant's luck finally changed for the better, when the award in Best Hard Rock Performance went to them for their new single, "Most High," from Walking into Clarksdale. Then again in 2004, neither of Plant's Grammy bids yielded him a coveted trophy; he was nominated for Best Rock Album with his album Dreamland and Best Male Vocal Performance for his single "Darkness Darkness" -- yielded him a coveted trophy.

Not that it could have precipitated his current Grammy award streak, but 2009 marks the first time Plant attended any official Grammy ceremony. Even last year, when he and Krauss won in Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)," Plant opted to be somewhere else. It was a Grammy sweep on Feb. 8, 2009, though, when he showed up not only to perform a two-song medley with Krauss but also to accept their awards all night.

"In the old days, we would have called this selling out," remarked Plant upon receiving the Album of the Year award. "But I think it's a good way to spend a Sunday."