Post by Doug on Oct 22, 2005 21:52:29 GMT -5
Krauss, band deliver an honest good time
BY ROB HUBBARD
Pioneer Press
Country music has always had a lot of heartbreak in it. But the mainstream Nashville artists too often mask the hurt in clever wordplay and slick, upbeat arrangements. Perhaps that's what makes the widespread popularity of Alison Krauss and her band, Union Station, so exciting. Krauss seems to seek out songs that portray sadness as forthrightly as possible, and she sings them with a disarming honesty that few other country artists dare offer.
On Friday night at Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis, Krauss and her band not only delivered on the emotional honesty that marks their two decades of tunes, but gave the evening the air of a relaxing living-room jam session, thanks in part to Krauss' low-key but very funny extended intros and the kind of astounding instrumental prowess for which the band is known. While some among the 3,161 at Northrop may have felt that there was a tad too much talking, they couldn't complain about the sparkling way in which the band performed over the course of two hours and 25 songs.
Union Station is a band that spent the first several years of its career being known only in bluegrass circles, but has now become among the most popular bands in country music without veering very far from the mountain music that's been at the root of its sound all along. Krauss has always been a special talent in both her smooth siren voice and a fiddling expertise that was winning her national contests in her teens. She has the skills to carry a show alone, but has surrounded herself with outstanding musicians.
If Krauss is the hypnotic torch singer of the group, then dobro master Jerry Douglas is the closest thing to an acoustic guitar god, with his jaw-dropping solos being the second unmistakably distinct element of the band's sound. Throw in the voice of Dan Tyminski, best known as George Clooney's vocal stand-in in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and you have a hot ensemble.
The most memorable moments Friday came when Krauss would bring emotional intimacy to a moving ballad like "Goodbye is All We Have" or "It Don't Matter Now," and then the band would fly into an instrumental rave-up filled with hot-picking solos. And a solo section by Douglas was simply spectacular, particularly on a version of the Allman Brothers' "Little Martha" that required two guitarists on the original.
BY ROB HUBBARD
Pioneer Press
Country music has always had a lot of heartbreak in it. But the mainstream Nashville artists too often mask the hurt in clever wordplay and slick, upbeat arrangements. Perhaps that's what makes the widespread popularity of Alison Krauss and her band, Union Station, so exciting. Krauss seems to seek out songs that portray sadness as forthrightly as possible, and she sings them with a disarming honesty that few other country artists dare offer.
On Friday night at Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis, Krauss and her band not only delivered on the emotional honesty that marks their two decades of tunes, but gave the evening the air of a relaxing living-room jam session, thanks in part to Krauss' low-key but very funny extended intros and the kind of astounding instrumental prowess for which the band is known. While some among the 3,161 at Northrop may have felt that there was a tad too much talking, they couldn't complain about the sparkling way in which the band performed over the course of two hours and 25 songs.
Union Station is a band that spent the first several years of its career being known only in bluegrass circles, but has now become among the most popular bands in country music without veering very far from the mountain music that's been at the root of its sound all along. Krauss has always been a special talent in both her smooth siren voice and a fiddling expertise that was winning her national contests in her teens. She has the skills to carry a show alone, but has surrounded herself with outstanding musicians.
If Krauss is the hypnotic torch singer of the group, then dobro master Jerry Douglas is the closest thing to an acoustic guitar god, with his jaw-dropping solos being the second unmistakably distinct element of the band's sound. Throw in the voice of Dan Tyminski, best known as George Clooney's vocal stand-in in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and you have a hot ensemble.
The most memorable moments Friday came when Krauss would bring emotional intimacy to a moving ballad like "Goodbye is All We Have" or "It Don't Matter Now," and then the band would fly into an instrumental rave-up filled with hot-picking solos. And a solo section by Douglas was simply spectacular, particularly on a version of the Allman Brothers' "Little Martha" that required two guitarists on the original.
