Alison Krauss was just 16 when she released her debut album in 1987 - with a backup band named Union Station. Two years later came her first joint-group album and, yes, the now-titled band was Union Station. Some three-plus decades later, the song-writing, fiddle-playing singer, who earned superstar status, has just released Arcadia her latest album with that very band.
And while most of the original members have long gone, there is one significant big-name change from the line-up in 2011 when Krauss & Union Station released their last album Paper Airplane.
For gone is co-lead vocalist Dan Tyminski who found fame as the singing George Clooney on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to the blockbuster Oh Brother Where Art Thou.? Krauss, too, would see her career blossom through her contribution to the movie soundtrack.
Tyminski has - with the band’s blessing - left to concentrate on a solo career. He has been replaced by another big-name vocalist Russell Moore who has spent some years with bluegrass outfit IIIrd Tyme Out. Moore, like Tyminski, is also on guitar and mandolin. He joins Union Station regulars Jerry Douglas (dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo-guitar, vocals) and Barry Bales (bass, vocals).
Moore’s transformation into Union Station is of no surprise to many industry insiders. Arcadia has been released by Down The Road Records which was launched two years ago by the three renegade founders of Rounder Records. This was the label who signed Krauss when she was 14 and Rounder also had Moore’s other-half IIIrd Tyme Out in its stable. Douglas too was with Rounder when he was a member of JD Crowe & The New South some four decades ago.
Moore actually takes lead vocals on four of the 10 tracks. He wastes no time making his mark on “Granite Mills,” one of two tracks pre-released as promotional singles. The song, written by Timothy Eriksen, is an historical lament on an 1874 fire which killed more than 300 at a textile mill in New England. Moore’s haunting vocals nicely invoke the tragedy in the sad, detailed narrative.
The first scene was a cruel one, the girl so young in years
She was standing at a window, and her eyes were bathed in tears
She was standing at the window as she called her mother’s name
“Oh, mother, mother save me,” and she fell back in the flames
Now it was my opinion, and it’s my opinion still
They might all have been saved, had the truth been told
From the flames of the burning mill
Kraus, a winner of a phenomenal 27 Grammys, said in a promotional statement that the stories of the past are told in the album’s music: “It’s that whole idea of the ‘good ole days when times were bad.’ Someone asked me ‘how do I sing these tragic tunes?’ I have to. It’s a calling. I feel privileged to be a messenger of someone else’s story. And I want to hear what happened.”
The other single, “Looks Like The End Of The Road” opens the 10-track album. One of two songs on Arcadia written by Jeremy Lister, it is also a bleak lament – this time on love - and it sees Krauss assume early ownership of Union Station with her distinctive beautifully-fluctuating vocal range.
It’s the end of the circus
And I’m feeling sad like a clown
My makeup is drowning
In blood, sweat and tears
From my heart and I fear that
When I look around
I lost what I found
Krauss first heard this lost-love song during the COVID lock-down and parked it in her mind for any forth-coming album. “Usually I find something that’s a first song, and then things fall into place,” Krauss said. “That song was ‘Looks Like The End Of The Road.’ It just felt so alive and, as always, I could hear the guys already playing it.”
The bitter waltz is enhanced by an ornate musical arrangement orchestrated by her brother, bassist Viktor Krauss, who had a hand in developing much of the string adaptations throughout the album
And Viktor gets a song-writing credit on “The Hangman,” a song based on a 1951 poem by Maurice Ogden which Krauss first came across 15 years ago. She asked Viktor to compose a melody for Ogden’s verse and the poet is listed as a co-writer. The song is essentially a parable about being a bystander to evil. Ogden wrote it about America during the McCarthy era. The fact that it may have parallels today makes it a pertinent selection. Moore is at his tenor best when he gets the lead - with minimal backing - on the ominous fable.
Into our town the Hangman came
Smelling of gold and blood and flame
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air
And built his frame on the courthouse square
Another poem turned into a song by Krauss is “Richmond on the James.” It was written by G.T. Burgess - first published in 1864 - and is a heartfelt tale of loss, relating to the dying words of a Civil War soldier on the banks of the James River at Richmond VA.
The 21st century interpretation Krauss gives to the original poem never loses the true intent of Burgess, though the foot-tapping, banjo-infused melody turns it into a more of a tribute than a lament of loss.
Take the sword home to my brother
And the star upon my breast
To my young and gentle sister
The one that I loved best
And a brown lock from forehead
To my mother who still dreams
Of the safe return of her soldier boy
From Richmond on the James
Though the 19th-century poem is now obviously in public domain, Krauss rightfully gives Burgess a co-credit. He would be proud of the sheer musical beauty she injects into his prose. It is indeed the standout track.
There is some respite from the gloom when Moore gets to demonstrate his energetic vocals on “North Side Gal.” This is a real romper-stomper - progressive bluegrass at its best, with everyone having their instruments at full throttle.
While a Jeremy Lister song opens the album, it closes with his other composition “There’s A Light Up Ahead.” And here Krauss provides a fitting conclusion by again demonstrating her astonishing vocal range which has helped define the expanse of Americana music. High pitched guitar strings by Douglas provide a nice transition into Krauss’s hushed, almost whispering, vocals. But by the time the song – and indeed the album – concludes, her distinctive soprano tones are at full pitch. They provide a fitting crescendo to an album which demonstrates not only wonderful musicianship but also insightful story-telling,
In the intervening years between albums, there has been little musical recreation for Krauss and her band.
Krauss herself inherited a new fan base in 2007 when she joined Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant in probably the most unlikely duet in modern music. Their debut album Raising Sands would win a Grammy. And in 2021 the pair teamed up again to produce a much-applauded follow-up release Raise the Roof. In between - in 2017 - Krauss released her fourth solo album Windy City which covers 10 classics she selected with producer Buddy Cannon. The album was more country than bluegrass, but indicative of her genre code-fusion career since her child-prodigy days. Bales and Block would back her both in the studio and on tour to promote the beautifully-interpreted album. And, of course, she would later tour with Plant in a series of sold-out concerts.
Douglas has long been regarded as the best dobro player in the business – so good they named a guitar after him! His association with Krauss actually goes back to when she was a teenager, though he is formally listed as joining Union Station in 1998. In recent years, he has become an in-demand studio musician in Nashville, as well as producing big names like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and in recent months he toured as leader of the house band to mark the 30th anniversary of the Transatlantic Sessions series – a long-time favourite with acoustic purists. Notwithstanding all that, last year he found time to release a solo album The Set, which includes the finest instrumental version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” you will ever hear.
Now his touring will go into top gear next month when Alison Krauss & Union Station kick off a mammoth Arcadia promotional tour across the U.S. with more than 70 gigs already scheduled through late September.
It will no doubt bring back memories of 2001 when Krauss and co embarked on a tour of similar proportion to promote the double Grammy-winning album New Favorite, released in the same year as Oh Brother... The high-profile tour, which would introduce bluegrass to a wider audience, was just underway when the 9-11 tragedy struck and the resulting intensive security impacted on her shows. The band will be hoping for no such disruption this year.
Paul Cutler
Editor Crossroads – Americana Music Appreciation