Alison Krauss and Union Station - Lonely Runs Both Ways
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Free Music Notes for Lonely Runs Both Ways
Free Music Review: Another great effort from Alison and the Station
Hit: 5 Stars
At age 33, Alison Krauss has more Grammies - 17 - than any other woman performer (even Aretha Franklin), while her previous studio CD, 2001's New Favorite, is approaching platinum sales levels. These are especially impressive feats considering how true bluegrass lingers far from mainstream country and pop, and how steadfast Krauss's dedication to bluegrass has been.
With her ace band Union Station, Krauss's forte has been a surprising but effective combination of crackling neotrad country and quiet pop. On Lonely Runs Both Ways, she again turns repeatedly to Robert Lee Castleman's intelligent writing along with a Gillian Welch/David Rawlings composition they themselves haven't recorded ("Wouldn't Be So Bad").
Woody Guthrie's "Pastures Of Plenty" gets a brooding interpretation from Union Station's deep-voiced guitarist Dan Tyminski (who sang George Clooney's numbers in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Tyminski and hard-driving banjoist Ron Block's occasional lead vocals give the CD balance and weight, bringing it back down to earth after Krauss's cerebral singing.
Krauss, who began her recording career as a teen-aged fiddle prodigy, here gives her bowing dark, primeval tones in contrast to her light-as-a-feather vocals. Jerry Douglas plays dobro as imaginatively as ever as Krauss and Union Station transport serious bluegrass into the present without removing it from its past.
Free Music Review: Allison Krauss makes bluegrass music cool
Hit: 5 Stars
Lonely Runs Both Ways is a very good CD. I bought this CD because I enjoyed her work on the hit soundtrack O Brother Where Art Though Allison Krauss is a talented musician and vocalist. She really shows it on this CD.
My favorite song is the first single Restless. It is a great song about how someone can feel so lonely and be always on the run. Allison has such a beautiful and sensitive voice. I really felt the compassion in her voice on this song. Another highlight song for me is If I Didn't Know Any Better. It is a very pretty love song. Unionhouse Branch is a very good bluegrass song. Allison's fiddle playing on this track is so impressive. This song will definitely get you on your feet.
Pastures of Plenty features Allison's bandmate Ron Block on excellent vocals and banjo. I loved this song. It is about how we should work hard to preserve the beauty of the environment in the United States.
Crazy as Me is a track that shows Allison's skill on the acoustic guitar. It is a song about being fed up with all of the lies and deception people bring into relationships sometimes. I think this is one of the best songs on this album because of the lyrics. Allison Krauss makes bluegrass music sound cool. She is a very talented singer with a great band. I really enjoyed this CD.
Free Music Review: Of Alison, BBQ and Streetcars
Hit: 5 Stars
Twas the unmistakable, plantiff wail of the dobro that made me look up and watch an Alison Krauss song on CMT "If I Didn't Know Any Better" which features her walking down Broadway with Jack's BBQ neon sign in the background. And not just once do they show it, but over and over. Jack's hasn't crossed my mind in awhile - bit of a garish landmark from the outside........[heh, but the thought of it has my saliva glands working overtime..... Other than Lexington, NC BBQ and perhaps Hamil's BBQ in Madison, MS - nothing compares to the culinary experience of Jack's BBQ in downtown Nashville. You can smell it blocks before you get there. Once you step inside the rustic, exposed brick-wall shop, it's another world that reeks of nostalgia and the sweet smell of Hickory smoked BBQ.]
In one of her other videos, Alison features another of my favorite landmarks - the historic St Charles Streetcar in New Orleans. Which only just now... is starting to run again....
Maybe it's only because I've been there and done that - but Alison's angelic voice truly captures the magic of the musical moment - using both these places; you really *have* to see the videos to get the full effect. So fine. Oh and she has just produced an album for Alan Jackson; heh more than just a pretty face and a beautiful voice - that one.
Free Music Review: Love at second listen
Hit: 5 Stars
I am not an established blue grass fan. In fact, only twice had I heard Ms. Krauss sing: once she was providing background support for Melissa Etheridge on an awards show and the second time she was a featured performer at the recent CMA awards show. However, I just knew I had to have the song she sang on that show (I discovered that it was "My Poor Old Heart"). An Internet search keyed on the few lyrics I recalled took me to "Lonely Runs Both Ways".
At least one of the reviewers criticized the album for not being true blue grass. I think the viewer was at least partly right. Much of it has more of a straight country/western sound, but that didn't bother me a bit.
In reading reviews of Allison Krauss and Union Station I couldn't help be impressed by the passion displayed by many of the reviewers. They just love Alison Krauss. Well, they are right!
Other reviewers give much better analyses of the music on "Lonely Runs Both Ways" than I could ever provide, so I will simply testify that the music was some of the best I have ever heard. I don't know if I will develop into a true blue grass fan, but I will definitely buy more of Alison Krauss' music.
Try it. If you like either country or blue grass at all, you will love this.
Free Music Review: Another Pasture Of Plenty
Hit: 5 Stars
This is not primarily a bluegrass album. This is (as a friend calls it) an acoustic CD with:
- The usual mix of bluegrass (I don't have To Live This Way)), country (Borderline) and pop (If I Didn't Know Any Better) tunes with strong melodies and usually good lyrics. To my mind, the straight bluegrass tunes are not the high points, but the rest each have their own strong personality.
- One of the most enticing, captivating, engaging, angelic, ... female voices in recent memory. Listen for example to Goodbye Is All We Have.
- First-rate musicians at all positions (and yes, Jerry Douglas does add something. He sits in on Dolly Parton's Little Sparrow CD and does some great work there too). Unionhouse Branch is a fine bluegrass instrumental from his pen.
- Excellent recording that is a hallmark of this band for a long time (the earliest recordings lack some definition). The tracking and mixing is right on, right from the clear and crisp opening notes of Gravity to the end of A Living Prayer (a well-written, if obligatory, religious closing).
No, there's nothing ground-breaking here, and there are a couple of weak songs, but if you yearn for more AKUS in your CD player, this will do just fine, thank you.