Walking into Clarksdale is the only studio album by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released by Atlantic Records on 21 April 1998. The album was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Abbey Road Studios. The album debuted on the Billboard's Billboard 200 album chart at No. 8, while reaching No. 3 on the UK Album Chart. The single "Most High" was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1999, and reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 26 in the UK. Plant re-recorded the song "Please Read the Letter" with Alison Krauss for their 2007 collaboration album Raising Sand. This re-recording won the Record of the Year award at the 2009 Grammy Awards. "House of Love" was later re-recorded with different lyrics by Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters for their 2014 studio album Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar. The title of the album refers to Clarksdale, Mississippi, a town in the Mississippi Delta considered to be the birthplace of blues music. Background and recording Following their successful No Quarter tour and subsequent live album release, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant began writing Walking into Clarksdale. For the new record, Page and Plant pursued a more stripped-down sound, eschewing the heavy orchestration of their live performances in favor of a more traditional four-piece band. The initial demos for the album were written by Page on a Harmony H1260 Sovereign guitar, first used during the recording of Led Zeppelin III. The band met at RAK Studios in August 1997 where they recorded "Burning Up" and "Shining in the Light". Shortly after, the band left RAK for Abbey Road's EMI Number Two Studio, where they recorded the rest of the album over the course of 35 days in August and September. Page characterized the band's approach as "minimalistic", stating that the band wanted to avoid "embellishments for the sake of it" and that "every note was played in its place to mean something." The album was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini, known for producing Nirvana's final album In Utero. Plant reported he had long admired Albini's music and recording techniques. Each song was recorded in a single take, with the full band live in the studio, with the exception of guitar layering on the title track and string and keyboard overdubs on