Alison Krauss and Union Station, Red Rocks, September 2, 2011

Alison Krauss and Union Station

by Geoff Anderson 

            Alison Krauss and Union Station often get lumped into the “Country” music category, but occasionally, they end up in the more accurate “Bluegrass” classification. Modern Country music seems to be little more than run of the mill pop music with an occasional steel guitar, a big hat, a hint of Texas twang and subject matter that centers on lyin’, cheatin’ and stealin’. Bluegrass, on the other hand, puts much more emphasis on the musicianship, both instrumental and vocal, rather than hat size. AKUS lay down some traditional bluegrass on occasion, but more often, they take a more or less traditional bluegrass instrumentation and put their own twist on the style. This, of course, drives bluegrass purists crazy, but there’s little fun that’s more delicious than driving purists crazy.

            By her own admission, Krauss and her band deal with death and dying and hard times in general on a regular basis. Musically, that translates into songs mostly in a minor key. It’s not just a high lonesome sound, it’s haunting music that consistently sends shivers down the spine. Occasionally, a love song seeps through, but even those usually have a touch of sadness or regret. The band draws its material from a wide variety of song writers, sometimes from the band, sometimes traditional, sometimes contemporary. A good example of the latter is the band’s cover of Peter Rowan’s “Dust Bowl Children.” Although penned only a few years ago, it sounds like something right out of the 1930s, Woody Guthrie style. Another highlight Friday night was Richard Thompson’s delicate “Dimming of the Day,” a tune he wrote in the early ‘70s. Unmitigated bluegrass broke out Saturday night on a regular basis with “Rain Please Go Away,” the traditional “Sawing on the Strings” and “Wild Bill Jones.”

            One thing that sets AKUS apart from most bluegrass bands is, of course, Alison Krauss herself. As they say out in the country, she sings just like a little ol’ angel. Just barely 40, she’s been playing professionally for over 25 years. Besides singing, she’s also an award winning violin player, or fiddler as they say. She recently gained some cross over exposure through her dalliance, er, collaboration with Robert Plant in 2007’s Raising Sand which picked up six Grammy awards. Now that her hanging-with-a-rock-star phase is over, she’s back to her roots and her long-time band.

            Krauss introduced band-mate and dobro player Jerry Douglas as “one of the best musicians of any genre.” Douglas could stay home in Nashville and make an extremely comfortable living as a session player and not have to deal with the hassles of touring. But he chooses to go on the road with Krauss and the band which is a coup for Krauss, the rest of the band and the audience. Monitor problems plagued the beginning of the show. When the band first started to play, they gave up to allow some time to work on the monitors, but Douglas remained on stage and worked out an impromptu solo. He meandered his way into the “Star Spangled Banner.” The orderly and generally patriotic crowd got the hint part way through and stood up. Fortunately, we didn’t have to suffer through a baseball game next. Douglas had another solo slot about half way through the set and used it to play a medley that included Chick Corea’s “Spain.”

            Dan Tyminski is another indispensable member of Union Station. George Clooney lip-synched to his singing on “Man of Constant Sorrow” in the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” He sings lead vocals on about a third of the tunes and is Krauss’ chief harmonizer. He and Ron Block continually switched stringed instruments from guitars to banjos to mandolins. All the instrumentation, by the way, is strictly acoustic. Douglas plugged in his dobro, but all the other instruments were played next to microphones for a pure acoustic sound unfettered by even the attachment of a pickup.

            Barry Bales on acoustic bass and backing vocals rounds out the core of Union Station. For Saturday night’s show, the band expanded with the addition of Josh Hunt on drums and John Dedrick on piano and vocals. Here again, the band was straying from strict bluegrass tradition. However, those two members were only on stage for about a quarter of the show and Hunt almost always used brushes, mallets or his hands on the drums for an understated approach to percussion.

For the encore, the band gathered around a single multi-directional microphone. Even Douglas unplugged. Many bands bring their sets to a boisterous climax in the encore. AKUS, on the other hand, brought the dynamics down but raised the emotional intensity with the subject matter of the songs. “Whiskey Lullaby” is the story self-destruction brought on by infidelity. Krauss recorded that one with country star Brad Paisley (check the size of the hat on that guy). “Your Long Journey” appeared on Raising Sand and is about saying goodbye to a spouse on his deathbed. “Down to the River to Pray” is another tune from “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” Krauss sang that one a cappella, except for several thousand audience members in accompaniment. Given the gospel nature of the tune, it was like the Easter sunrise service. The closer was another gospel-inflected tune, “There is a Reason.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w6TggWtOgU&feature=related Paper Airplane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9GvHSF0JYc&feature=related Dust Bowl Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Wu6q5txyY Outside Looking In, CD version, Tyminski vocal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvKtxTsVoMo Baby, Now That I’ve Found You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR_8EgQj3tg Sawing on the Strings

http://alisonkrauss.com/home

Set List

Jerry Douglas opening including Star Spangled Banner
Paper Airplane
Dust Bowl Children
Bluegrass instrumental
Daylight

Sinking Stone
Let Me Touch You For Awhile
Ghost in this House

Baby, Now That I've Found You
Rain Please Go Away
Sawing on the Strings
Wild Bill Jones
Every Time You Say Goodbye

Jerry Douglas solo including Spain
Pastures of Plenty, Dan Tyminski solo, banjo, vocal
The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn

Dimming of the Day
Lie Awake
Searching, Ron Block vocal
Stay

Bonita and Bill Butler
Miles to Go
Man of Constant Sorrow

Any Old Time
Oh, Atlanta
Encore

When You Say Nothing at All
Whiskey Lullaby
Down to the River to Pray
Your Long Journey

There is a Reason

The Band

Alison Krauss, vocals, violin

Dan Tyminski, vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo

Ron Block, vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin

Jerry Douglas, dobro

Barry Bales, bass, vocals

Josh Hunt, drums
John Dedrick, piano, accordion