What is Alison Krauss doing now?

“I think the last time we were here I was, what, 30 years old?” So said Robert Plant, now 74, in performance with Alison Krauss at Leader Bank Pavilion Friday night. Well, no, not quite, but it’s been a while; the pair last toured in 2008 after their debut collaboration, “Raising Sand,” took the world by storm.

Now they’re out in support of their long-awaited follow-up, “Raise the Roof,” on a tour with a portmanteau title — “Raising the Roof” — that encompasses both of those albums, and, as Friday’s fantastic show demonstrated, more besides.

Plant was the charming, impish master of ceremonies, with Krauss maintaining a stately silence beside him (until the band was introduced, when she described him as being from “the misty mountains, someplace in Middle-earth”). And overall, there wasn’t a lot of talk; it was their version of folk music — electric, intense, spectral — that did the talking. Words also weren’t necessary to manifesting their easy delight at being onstage with each other, by turn leading on vocals while the other looked on or winding their voices together. It didn’t hurt that they had the playing of a superb group of musicians alongside them: JD McPherson on guitar, Stuart Duncan and Krauss’s brother Viktor playing a variety of instruments, and drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist Dennis Crouch holding down a low end that plays an outsized role in the Plant/Krauss sound.

Get The Big To-Do

Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform at Leader Bank Pavilion.Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe

The pair’s efforts focused on “Raise the Roof,” but they also reached back to their 2007 debut for several songs. Along with the various corners of American (and British) roots music (the Everly Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Bert Jansch, and Anne Briggs among them) that their selections represented, they also drew upon the catalog of a certain group of ancients named Led Zeppelin.

They gave a muscular take to “Fortune Teller,” with Plant telling the tale until Krauss added a magnificent wail alongside him, followed by a roaring guitar take-off from McPherson. “The Price of Love” had an eerie cast, thanks to Krauss’s vocal keen and the frail of Stuart Duncan’s banjo. “You Led Me to the Wrong” featured the twinned fiddles of Duncan and Krauss and the sort of gripping vocal that made Plant famous, and “Trouble With My Woman” found a ferocious groove.

As good as the album cuts were — and they were very, very good — what Plant and Krauss wrought when they made heavy folk out of Led Zeppelin was something else entirely. Duncan’s fiddle turned “Rock and Roll” into a roaring country hoedown (“Some music is reflective, some is intense, and some kicks ass,” Plant said by way of introduction), while the duo’s harmonizing gave “The Battle of Evermore” an ancient sound. And an extended “When the Levee Breaks,” introduced by the spectral saw of Krauss’s fiddle and then winding its way to the Middle Eastern vibe of another Led Zep song, “Friends,” thanks to Duncan’s raging bowing and McPherson’s thunderous guitar riffs, had the spectacular force of the event it describes. It was the highest peak of an evening that was full of them.

Stuart Munro can be reached at

ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS

At Leader Bank Pavilion, Friday