Alison Krauss, Robert Plant win again

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's critically acclaimed collaboration, "Raising Sand," took top honors at the annual Americana Music Assn. awards Thursday in Nashville. The collection was named album of the year, and Krauss and Plant also were chosen as duo of the year. Drummer and singer Levon Helm was recognized as artist of the year.

Other awards went to Buddy Miller (instrumentalist of the year), Mike Farris (new artist) and Hayes Carll (song of the year, "She Left Me for Jesus," written with Brian Keane).

The group gave lifetime achievement awards to John Hiatt (songwriting), Jason & the Scorchers (performance), Tony Brown (producer/executive), Larry Brown (instrumentalist) and Terry Lickona (executive), as well as its Spirit of Americana free speech in music award to Joan Baez. The President's Award was bestowed posthumously on Jerry Garcia.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Krauss and Plant performing at the Greek Theatre in June by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times