Alison Krauss - A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection
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Free Music Notes for A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection
Free Music Review: Greener pastures (not just blue grass)
Hit: 5 Stars
The other night I watched Alison Krauss on Austin City Limits (on the world's best TV set -- the "Sharp Aquos LC42D62U 42" 1080p LCD HDTV," please see my review for that one.) And I fell in love, all over again with a singer who could one day transcend all categories.
Really, could be anything better than watching a favorite singer, accompanied by top-notch musicians, in `high definition' perfection, on that venerable PBS stage in Austin? Staring close up into those de-lovely eyes I thought again of Rodgers & Hart's 70-year-old-but-timeless ode to imperfect beauty: "Is your figure less than Greek? Is your mouth a little weak?" (but) "Don't change a hair for me!"
Beyond the voice -- that pulses between womanly and childlike -- and an exquisite delivery that simply melts your heart, Alison Krauss is radiantly beautiful, isn't she? Yet, how can that be? To paraphrase Larry Hart Funny Valentine, "Is your nose a little big?")
Yet when she's doing what she does best, with a microphone, Alison Krauss to my eyes is the most beautiful girl in the world!
Did I mention those eyes? A hundred miles deep! - and filled with depths of innocence and gentleness . . . and . . . something else - beyond words . . . something "earthy" and yet great depths of simple understanding, like a saint!
Well! I simply had to run out to the mall to obtain this collection: "A Hundred Miles or More." There isn't a dud among the 16 tracks - almost all of which, display facets of Alison's brilliance AWAY from bluegrass country roots; everyone will have different favorites here: Mine, include . . .
One of my favorite Disney tunes from DUMBO --- the heartbreakingly beautiful "Baby Mine" -- surely the best-ever recording since the original. Certainly the best rendition since Steve Tyrell gave us a `father's' take on this poignant ballad (on his "Disney Standards" album of last year). Oh what wouldn't I give to see Alison perform this one "live."
(Come to think of it, can you imagine Alison Krauss with a 70-piece orchestra having her way with, oh . . . just about ANYTHING at all, from the Great American Songbook.]
No weak sisters on this album! But as a life-long James Taylor fan I'm particularly smitten with their duet on "How's the World Treating You?" And Alison's acapella brilliance on "Down to the River to Pray" is, well . . . out of this world!
If this were a live concert I'd be standing, clapping the skin off my hands, and crying "encore!" As it is . . . I can only hope that (like Chris Botti did for us last summer) you'll come north of the border, and sing a few of these, "live and in person," some magical summer night.
Mark Blackburn
Winnipeg Manitoba Canada
Free Music Review: Something old, something new, all excellent
Hit: 5 Stars
Alison recorded some tracks specially for this album, while other tracks had previously appeared on other people's albums. It provides a great way to round up tracks that fans might otherwise miss out on, but this part-compilation certainly doesn't round up all such tracks. I would have liked Alison's incredible cover of 9 to 5 to be included here. Anybody who wishes to buy it must but the album for which it was originally recorded (Just because I'm a woman - the songs of Dolly Parton). I'm sure that there are plenty of other tracks that could have been included but weren't. Maybe more of them will be rounded up one day.
Of the previously released tracks, I was already familiar with Down to the river to pray (from the O brother soundtrack), Baby mine (from Best of country sing the best of Disney) and I give you his heart (from the Prince of Egypt Nashville soundtrack). I'd certainly have been familiar with some of the others had I remained gainfully employed and had money to spend. These include Molly Ban (from the Chieftains album, Down the old plank road), How's the world treating you (a duet with James Taylor from Livin', lovin', losin' - songs of the Louvin brothers), Whiskey mountain (a duet with Brad Paisley from his album, Mud on the tires) and the two Cold mountain tacks (Scarlet tide, You will be my ain true love). Of course, there's no knowing exactly which of those albums I would have bought, but I expect I'll buy some of them eventually, especially as I have this album to remind me that these are desirable albums.
The song that immediately stands out is Sawing on the strings, if only because it is the only up-tempo track It's brilliant and it would be nice to see Alison do more such tracks, but she loves those ballads that make up the rest of the album, including the two covers of Don Williams songs that bookend the album. You're just a country boy (the opener) is a gender-adaptation of I'm just a country boy. Lay down beside me (the closer) actually appeared first on a Kenny Rogers album on his eponymous 1977 album featuring Lucille. Don's own version didn't appear on album until 1978, when it was included on his Expressions album. Here, Alison sings it as a duet with John Waite. He is famous for Missing you, a song that he and Alison also recorded as a duet for this album.
There is plenty of great music here, although a little more variation in tempo might have made it even better.
Free Music Review: SCATTERED DIAMONDS
Hit: 5 Stars
As far as I'm concerned Alison Krauss sings like an angel, fiddles like the devil and can do no wrong. If you don't agree you might as well stop reading now.
This is a collection of gems that Alison has provided to others as duet partners, for tribute albums and for movies plus 5 new or unreleased tracks. It includes Best Song Oscar Nominees "The Scarlet Tide" and "You Will Be My Ain True Love" both from Cold Mountain, the Grammy nominated duet with James Taylor "How's The World Treating You" from a Louvin Brothers tribute CD and the multiple 2004 CMA Award Winner (Best Song, Best Vocal Event and Best Video), her duet with Brad Paisely on the perfect "Whiskey Lullabye." Speaking of lullabies, there's also "Baby Mine" from a collection of Disney songs.
If that's not enough to satisfy you, there's more movie music her - the immensely touching "I Give You To His Heart" from The Prince Of Egypt and the sheer brilliance of the a capella "Down To The River To Pray" from O Brother! Where Art Thou. Other collaborators include the Chieftains and John Waite with whom she remakes his hit "Missing You" and reveals a more forceful, earthy power to her usually ethereal voice and they also duet on Don Williams' "Lay Down Beside Me" which is one of the previously unreleased songs on the CD.
But it is the other 4 we've not heard before that start off the CD and are the true treasures here. "You're Just A Country Boy" warns a guy about the dangers of going after a higher class woman, "Simple Love" describes exactly that and the singer's desire for one, "Jacob's Dream" is the stunning narrative of two little boys who go missing and the heartbreaking "Away Down The River" in which a dying woman comforts the one she leaves behind. All 4 could not possibly be any better and "Jacob's Dream" sound like it could become Alison's signature
song.
The unimpeachable quality of these four new songs makes me glad that Alison chose not to wait for 6 or 7 more for a completely new album to release them, which could have taken years. To get all those other scattered diamonds gathered back into one place is just the icing on a delicious cake.
Free Music Review: Pure crystal vocals. Excellent !
Hit: 5 Stars
Not exactly a best of rather more a gathering of tracks that might be less familiar with the work she's done outside of bluegrass and her albums with Union Station.
It's an interestingly eclectic compilation that embraces both her film soundtrack contributions and collaborations.
Both in the case of the traditional folk tune "You Will Be My Ain True Love" which was an Oscar nominated duet with Sting from "Cold Mountain". Other film music is represented here with "The Scarlet Tide", again Oscar nominated from "Cold Mountain", "I Give You To His Heart" from the animation "The Prince of Egypt" and, perhaps best known, the unaccompanied own "To The River To Pray" from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
Not strictly a soundtrack recording, the bluegrass fiddling "Sawing On The Strings" stems from the 2004 CMT Flame Worthy Awards show while "Baby Mine" is trawled from a Disney tribute album.
It's another tribute collection, this time to the Louvins, that provides "How's The World Treating You", a haunting old school country duet with James Taylor.
Elsewhere on the collaborations front there's mainstream country suicide ditty "Whisky Lullaby" from Brad Paisley's "Mud On The Tires" while "Get me Through December" and "Molly Ban" respectively hail from albums by Natalie MacMaster and The Chieftains.
Perhaps the most surprising pairing though is with rocker John Waite whom she shares duties with on his biggest hit, "Missing You".
A second duet with Waite, the moody yearning country ballad "Lay Down Beside Me", is one of five previously unreleased recordings (all produced by Krauss) that make this all the more essential for Krauss completists. The remaining four new cuts all come at the start of the album, running down from mountain air piano ballad "You're Just A Country Boy" through the rippling Appalachian tinkles of "Simple Love" and the bluesy folk "Jacob's Dream" to slow swaying, banjo flecked lullaby "Away Down The Rive"r that shows off Krauss's pure crystal stream vocals to excellent effect.
A new album should be along later this year or early next, but for now this will tide fans over quite nicely.
Free Music Review: Celebrating Sorrow
Hit: 5 Stars
I fell in love with Alison when I discovered her first vocal album in 1988, made the year before when she was sixteen. I tracked back to her fiddle work with her brother, and have followed her career since. Though not always completely entranced by her subsequent work, I find her an extremely talented and fascinating musician.
I purchased the present album, "A Hundred Miles or More," this weekend while on a long drive and listened to it with my wife on the car's CD player. By the time we got to the last track, she was sobbing almost uncontrollably, and she begged me not to ever make her listen to it all the way through again. When we got home, I downloaded and printed the lyrics to all the songs, and I found that some were not so sad as they seemed in the first hearing. While several deal intensely with death and lost love, others are more upbeat when you read the lyrics apart from the performance. But the presentation, even of the more upbeat lyrics, tends to lean toward heartache and tragedy. The style seems to celebrate sorrow, even making apparent sorrow out of situations which are not of themselves inherently sorrowful.
But there can be beauty also in sorrow and suffering, and Alison's work here in this album radiates transcendent beauty. It is also a joy to hear her again on her fiddle--and this time also on the viola. Her fiddle work is absolutely first rate. The various songs range from story ballads in the traditional immigrant Scot southern mountain manner to contemporary, and some contemporary work is written and performed in the old traditional style. The arrangements are perfectly suited to the intent of the songs. The dobro, banjo and mountain dulcimer--even the Hammond organ--are perfect in their places. Along with her other talents, Alison is a gifted producer, wonderfully pulling together all the pieces to make an outstanding total work.
A couple of quibbles: This is not her best rendition of "Down in the River to Pray." And PLEASE, Alison, could you PLEASE cut out the backbeat? It doesn't become you.