The Graham Album Review #2239
Click on CD Cover for Audio Review in streaming mp3 format | |
Alison Krauss & Union Station: Arcadia
(Down the Road Records as broadcast on WVIA-FM 5/7/2025)
| Click on CD Cover for Audio Review in streaming mp3 format | |
Alison Krauss & Union Station: Arcadia
(Down the Road Records as broadcast on WVIA-FM 5/7/2025)
Bluegrass music has certainly expanded its stylistic scope since the days when Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys defined the genre for a couple of decades. But starting in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a generation of musicians who grew up on rock and jazz began bringing those influences into acoustic music played on the instrumentation of bluegrass. On the one hand, there was the New Acoustic scene with a healthy helping of jazz influence with more sophisticated harmonic structure and sometimes swinging rhythms. There have also been the bluegrass-oriented jam bands like String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon. One performer who has been pursuing yet another direction is Alison Krauss. A child prodigy on fiddle, she was attracting attention on the bluegrass scene since age 12, and released her first album for Rounder Records at age 16 with the band Union Station. Over the years, Ms. Krauss has been known for her warm, airy vocals, which lent themselves to ballads, more than upbeat bluegrass picking. Her early record deal required her to alternate between solo albums and records with the Union Station band, and her first solo album, I’ve Got That Old Feeling from 1990, found its way onto the Billboard country music charts. And since then, she had won twenty-seven Grammy awards in various categories.
In recent years, she has been concentrating more on her solo work, which took a more decidedly Nashville country direction, though she also did two interesting duet albums with Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant.
Now after 14 years, she has reunited with most of Union Station for a new album called Arcadia. Often co-lead vocalist and mandolin player Dan Tyminski in Union Station is pursuing his own projects. So joining the band in his place is Russell Moore, lead vocalist with the bluegrass group IIIrd Time Out, who won several awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association in the vocal category. Returning to the fold are Dobro luminary Jerry Douglas, Ron Block on banjo and guitar, and Barry Bales on bass. Moore and Ms. Krauss alternate vocals, and the album is almost two in one, with Ms Krauss’ tender ballads, and Moore singing more traditional-sounding bluegrass. The material is all contemporary, though with the exception of one song co-written by Ms. Krauss, it’s all from different external composers, including two by Ms. Krauss’ older brother and bassist Viktor Krauss. Arcadia as an album is replete with sad songs.
Opening is one of the tracks with Ms. Krauss on vocal, a piece called Looks Like the End of the Road. The song in waltz time has a distinctly melancholy texture, and with the exception of bluegrass instrumentation, could have been a theatrical song. <<>>
Russell Moore’s first vocal is on the song called The Hangman co-written by Ms. Krauss’ brother Viktor Krauss. Lyrically, it’s almost Halloween-like with its spooky sound and death-filled lyrics. <<>>
A track called The Wrong Way is more more in keeping with Ms. Krauss’ solo work, a melodic but melancholy song that reflects on one’s life’s regrets. <<>>
With Moore again on the lead vocal is Granite Mills, written by Timothy Erikson. It’s a kind of classic disaster song, in this case about a factory fire in Fall River, Massachusetts. It’s nicely done with a great contribution from Jerry Douglas’ Dobro. <<>>
Another song co-written by Viktor Krauss is One Day of Shine, another sad-sounding but very attractive piece, with Ms. Krauss’ vocal style at her best.
The one song co-written by Ms. Krauss is Richmond on the James about the only track on which Ms. Krauss does the vocal and that has a real bluegrass sound. It’s about a Civil War battle in 1862. <<>>
About the most upbeat bluegrass tune on the album is North Side Gal, written by J.D. McPherson, who worked with Ms. Krauss on her joint albums with Robert Plant. Once again, with the bluegrass style, it’s Russell Moore who does the lead vocal. <<>>
The album ends with There’s a Light Up Ahead, written by Jeremy Lister, who also wrote the album’s opening track. And like that song, as a composition, it could fit into a theatrical musical, though the bluegrass instrumentation adds much to it. Vocally, it’s classic Alison Krauss.
After some fourteen years pursuing various musical projects, some of which were not very bluegrass-oriented, it’s nice that Alison Krauss has reunited with Union Station for a very enjoyable album of contemporary songs alternating between bluegrass and the more ballad-oriented material that Ms. Krauss has made her trademark. Russell Moore of the IIIrd Time Out band does a great job on the vocals for more bluegrass-oriented material. The musicianship is world-class, and Jerry Douglas’ Dobro adds much to the sound.
Our grade for audio quality is close to an “A.” While there is somewhat more volume compression that I would like, the sound is clean, warm and inviting, with just the right about of ambiance when the music calls for it.
Since her days as a bluegrass fiddle prodigy, Alison Krauss has been making music that has expanded the range of bluegrass into sophisticated pop song territory. The new album with Union Station is more of a band album, and in doing so, represents both sides of Ms. Krauss’ musical persona.
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