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MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN Does the album have a theme? How do you pick songs? ESSENTIAL KRAUSS The songs are about working your way I spend years gathering songs, organizing through a tough time and not knowing and keeping them in cabinets and bins. I when you’re going to come out of it. But pick ones that will fi t well together on an Alison Krauss’ recorded legacy now that wasn’t something we consciously went album, and hope that everyone likes them encompasses 12 studio albums, as well as for. We just went for what felt right, and that’s too. Oftentimes Ron and I get together and numerous collaborations and contributions how it turned out. I have to sing things that make demos for songs I feel need to be to tribute albums, soundtracks and so on. are important for me to say. I don’t want presented in a certain way. Barry wrote for Here’s where to start. to do a song simply because it’s catchy or the album, Ron and Jerry brought in a few clever. I’m drawn to songs that make me feel things for us to listen to as well. We sift NOW THAT I’VE certain I’m telling the truth. through everything. If I feel really strongly FOUND YOU: about something, even if everyone else A COLLECTION Did recording go smoothly? doesn’t like it, we still give it a shot. (1994) Not at fi rst. We went in and recorded for a This double-platinum week, and I thought, “This isn’t happening.” What led you to bluegrass? compendium marked We had some good songs, but not enough I loved harmony singing. I was also drawn many listeners’ fi rst for a strong album. I said, “Let’s take a to the themes—ideas of the simple life, exposure to an artist break. Let me go away and fi nd some more the hard life, the importance of family and whose recording career already stretched material.” Getting the title track proved to home. Where I grew up, you could drive back a decade. But it was two new tracks, be key. When we regrouped, we really anywhere and see the best farmland in the hits “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” and had some strong stuff. the country. Bluegrass brings to mind “When You Say Nothing at All,” that thrust such specifi c images. Krauss into the limelight. Did you take to the fi ddle easily? SO LONG SO No. I hated to practice and wanted no part WRONG ‘I groan when I of it. That said, when my brother [composer (1997) and bassist Viktor Krauss] and I played Nashville was hear some of my our instruments, our parents were always intrigued by the idea very excited. They were very encouraging. of a young crossover early stuff. But They knew they had to be to keep us solo star following the interested in playing. sudden success of Now That I’ve Found You. But for the follow- Randee St. Nicholas the material is Were you prepared for the spotlight at up Krauss returned to Union Station and such an early age? reasserted the still-developing outfi t’s identity great on those Maybe I recorded too early. I groan when as a unit—creating a sonic template that can ALISON KRAUSS I hear some of the early stuff. My singing still be heard today on Paper Airplane. albums.’ and playing was all at one speed. But the Two decades along, bluegrass’ conquering angel is still on the move material is great on those albums, and the A H U N D R E D songs fi t together well. They really mark MILES OR MORE: By Russell Hall a time in my life. A COLLECTION Why did you decide to cover Richard (2007) IF THERE’S ONE LESSON ALISON KRAUSS LEARNED FROM the insular bluegrass circuit to a broader audience, and expanded Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day”? Did the success of O Brother, Where Th e b o o k e n d working with producer T Bone Burnett on Raising Sand, the album her fan base yet again at the turn of the millennium with her crucial T Bone originally had that song in mind for Art Thou? surprise you? compilation to Now she and Robert Plant made together in 2007, it’s the importance of contributions to Burnett’s multiplatinum O Brother, Where Art Robert [Plant] and me. He showed it to us, Not as much as you might think. I always felt That I’ve Found You being in the moment. “I’ve always believed I could get a better vocal Thou? soundtrack. Although grounded in bluegrass tradition, the and at the time I felt I couldn’t do it. But that if more people got a chance to hear this offered fans one-stop by re-singing it, or manufacturing a vocal by putting together multiple 39-year-old Illinois native has always taken a broad musical view. I did keep thinking about it. Later, Robert music they would love it. If I was surprised, shopping for essential soundtrack numbers takes,” she says. “But I was wrong. When you sing an entire song “Growing up, I loved all types of music, not just bluegrass,” she says. Lee Castleman called and said, “I’ve got the it was only because it felt too good to be like “The Scarlet Tide” and “Down to the River in a single pass, you capture something that can’t be repeated. It’s Following her solo adventure with Plant (including an aborted perfect song for you, and I’m coming over to true. I remember the fi rst date we played to Pray,” as well as duets with James Taylor, all about communicating a feeling.” attempt at a follow-up) she returns to Union Station—Dan Tyminski, play it.” I asked him what it was, and he said on that tour. We were playing an arena, and Sting, Brad Paisley and John Waite. She may still be looking for new and more effective ways to Jerry Douglas, Barry Bales and Ron Block—for the new Paper “Dimming of the Day.” I said, “Oh, that’s a Norman Blake performed “Big Rock Candy do it, but Krauss has been communicating feelings through song Airplane. The album fi nds the group consolidating its sound with great song, but I can’t do it.” Mountain.” When he fi nished, there was a RAISING SAND pretty convincingly for more than two decades. Krauss has won 26 a straightforward set of originals, covers and contributions from roar from the crowd like a massive wind (2007) Grammys and countless other accolades since releasing her fi rst reliable collaborators like songwriter Robert Lee Castleman (who Why not? blowing. I thought, “My goodness, people Eyebrows raised at the album in 1985 as a teen fi ddle prodigy. By 1989 she had gathered penned the title cut). Krauss spoke from her home in Nashville about It’s been covered by such wonderful people, really do like this.” news that Krauss was the members of Union Station, the ace backing group that is still her her expansive musical palette, what she’s looking for in a song—and like Bonnie Raitt and Mary Black, that I felt recording an album of primary musical home. During the mid-1990s she graduated from why she so rarely writes her own. there was no way we could do a version that What draws you to T Bone? duets with one-time would be worthy. But then I started thinking His facility for encouragement. He truly Led Zeppelin singer of excuses for why it would be OK. I tried believes in the players there with him. He’s all Robert Plant. But the ‘I’m drawn to songs that make me feel certain I’m to rationalize, telling myself, “Well, no one in about the personalities of the people who are pair’s explosive vocal chemistry and producer bluegrass has done it yet.” It was an intense playing and singing, and about establishing T Bone Burnett’s smartly austere musical telling the truth.’ vocal for me to sing, because it hits close to a mood. He casts the recordings based on settings made for platinum sales and an home. I ended up loving it. very specifi c personality traits. During one Album of the Year Grammy win. 484848 49 M mag 10.indd 48 4/17/11 7:49:09 PM M mag 10.indd 49 4/17/11 7:49:39 PM MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN BOOTSY COLLINS AVRIL LAVIGNE STEVE EARLE NIKKI SIXX JOE BONAMASSA Burnin’ with blues ALISON KRAUSS Goes home R.E.M. In the now On stage with Union Station at the Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Concert, Nashville, October 2009 Rick Olivier Rick ‘It’s the songs you feel a kinship SUDDENLY SPEECHLESS FOO with that stay interesting.’ Alison Krauss recalls an onstage experience in the mid-’90s that proved unexpectedly overwhelming. She was slated to sing with song Robert, the band and I were cutting, we were. But we’ve still got the project in Dolly Parton for the recording of a concert he told me, “Don’t change the way you’re mind—Robert and I talk about it every time we album at Parton’s Dollywood theme park FIGHTERS playing. Don’t try to fi t in with the other get together.

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