Alison Krauss & Union Station - Alison Krauss & Union Station Live Review

Bottom-Line: For anyone not already a fan of this touchstone Bluegrass group, this two CD set is a good place to start

I can't for the life of me tell you where or when I ever heard of Alison Krauss and her Bluegrass band Union Station.  I only know that I am glad I did.  Perhaps it was on one of my infrequent viewings of GAC (Great American Country), or perhaps I heard her on the radio, or perhaps it was on PBS' suburb Sound Stage.  However I heard of her, Alison Krauss and her band continue my deepening appreciation for music that has it root firmly planted in the heart of America.  It has been an appreciation born of the maturity of age, and the aging of the soul that longs to connect to something that moves it, that makes it take a deep, deep breath and shutter in the release.  I listen to all types of music, and together with Classical and R&B, Bluegrass is the only genre that stirs my soul and gives me pause to reflect on the beauty man is capable of creating. 

Bluegrass, like Jazz and Blues is a quintessential form of American music born of the diversity that is America.  Bluegrass as a style of music came into being sometime during the late mid 1940s.  Jazz, ragtime, and blues form the roots of Bluegrass, where the instrumentation and not vocals is the centerpiece of the music. 

Alison Krauss and Union Station are widely recognized to be at the forefront of the Bluegrass genre, and as a solo artist Ms. Krauss is arguable the most successful Bluegrass performer of this generation having earned some 17 Grammy Awards.  I bought Alison Krauss and Union Station Live, after hearing the single I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (CD 2, track 4) played on a local country music station.  The song with it rich melodies and soulful instrumentation snagged me and I bought the CD almost unheard. 

A double disc set with a collection of twenty-five emotive tracks, Alison Krauss and Union Station Live is filled with great music from opening track to last.  To be sure not all of the songs struck a cord; for example the chorus to Oh, Atlanta (CD 2, track 10) made little sense to me, but the instrumentation on all of the tracks was nothing short of brilliant.  This is real music folks and real Grammy worthy talent.  Every time I listen to it I find something else to like, a new song that didn't strike me before, speak to me in a new language, appeal to me on a new musical level.

A large part of Bluegrass' appeal is the instrumentation and here Alison Krauss and Union Station excel.  They play pure unadulterated music that will make you sit up and take notice, bob your heard, tap your feet, or plunge you deep into reflective thought. There is not sampling here, no electronic fakery, no slight of hand. 

Ms. Krauss, a virtuoso fiddle and violin player is the focal point of this group, and indeed her vocals are the lead on most songs.  Krauss' voice is, well, different.  Certainly not unpleasant to listen to, it does lack the octave range and depth of some of her more noteworthy contemporaries.  At times you can hear the strain as her voice seeks the high and lows, but can only manage to master the middle; it is not overly noticeable, certainly not enough to fray the music, but it is there, a little annoyance at the edge of my hearing, like the barely perceptible buzz of mosquito wings.  That is not to say all of her vocals are thusly rendered; track No.7, Disc 2 But You Know I Love You is an example of Ms. Krauss at her vocal best.            

Having listened to Alison Krauss and Union Station Live time and time again, I am now a fan of Bluegrass; who would have thought it? certainly not anyone who really knows me.  Where will all of this lead, why more Bluegrass of course.  For anyone not already a fan of this touchstone Bluegrass group, this two CD set is a good place to start, for it will give you a taste of what real traditional Bluegrass music is all about.     

Alison Krauss & Union Station is: Alison Krauss, lead vocal, fiddle, & violin.  Union Station comprises Dan Tyminski, acoustic guitar, lead and harmony vocalist; Jerry Douglas, dobro; Ron Block, banjo and guitar; Barry Bales, upright bass.