Post by philly on May 3, 2015 16:29:09 GMT -5
Alison Krauss explored bluegrass' dark side at the New Orleans Jazz Fest
PHOTOS OF AKUS AT THE FESTIVAL
Keith Spera
on May 01, 2015 at 11:22 AM, updated May 01, 2015 at 2:24 PM
Alison Krauss served two masters at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz Fest on Thursday (April 30): Appalachian tradition and contemporary country songcraft. Each was informed by an intricately woven thicket of stringed, acoustic instruments.
The four members of her Union Station ensemble – dobro player Jerry Douglas, guitarist/vocalist Dan Tyminski, banjoist Ron Block and bassist Barry Bales-- did not include a drummer. None was necessary. Whatever rhythmic needs were not satisfied by Bales' upright bass were covered by Krauss' curt chops at the strings of her violin, and the strong right wrists of Tyminski and Block.
Calm and centered while singing, Krauss was endearingly deadpan, dry and awkward in her between-song banter. "Many years ago we went to the Rock 'n' Bowl," she announced. "That was so much fun. Is that still around?" (Yes, it is, in a newer, larger incarnation than the original that she likely visited.) Her pre-show meal included gumbo from a Jazz Fest vendor that she couldn't identify beyond its location in "food position No. 2"; she apologized and promised to get the name. Following an inconclusive bit of banter with Bales, she deadpanned, "Well, anyway, that was an interesting exchange." Her soft, uber-pleasant, wide-eyed speaking manner recalled that of Will Ferrell's clueless keyboard-playing lounge singer.
The show at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell was billed as Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. Krauss recalled how, during her early years in Nashville, she fantasized about the possibility of even meeting Douglas. His contributions to the seminal 1975 album bluegrass album "J.D. Crowe & the New South" launched a prolific career as country music's go-to steel guitar specialist; he's contributed to more than 2,000 albums over the past 40 years.
For the past 18 years, he has been a member of Union Station while also sustaining a solo career. Wearing his dobro on a strap, he held it horizontally to his body and played it like a lap steel. He made clear why he gets all that work.
Tyminski sang lead as frequently as Krauss. His tenor is straight out of an Appalachian holler. Not surprisingly, he was chosen to supply the singing voice for George Clooney's Soggy Bottom Boys character in the Coen brothers' 2000 Depression-era film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" At Jazz Fest, Tyminski reprised "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," a highlight of the film and its multimillion-selling soundtrack.
Their connection to traditional mountain music is very much intact. In the encore, Tyminski and Block took up acoustic guitars and joined Krauss in a cluster around a single microphone for "When You Say Nothing At All." The other musicians joined them, still around the one microphone, for the Hank Cochran ballad "Make the World Go Away." They also revisited the "O Brother" soundtrack for one of Krauss' contributions, "Down to the River to Pray."
An element – oftentimes, much more than just an element – of sadness runs through much of Krauss' material. Floods, failed farms, coal mine disasters, lost love – that's the stuff of traditional bluegrass and country. She'll find the cloud that comes with the silver lining, as the lyrics of "Paper Airplane," the title track of her 2011 release, made clear. "Every negative thing that could happen to somebody happened in there," she observed of one song. In another, a young farmer's corn crop, planted in June, is killed by a frost in September. In "Whiskey Lullaby," both former partners in a broken romance drink themselves to death.
In the devastating ballad "Ghost In This House," Krauss and Tyminski harmonized on such lines as, "I'm just a whisper of smoke/I'm all that's left of two hearts on fire/That once burned out of control/You took my body and soul/I'm just a ghost in this house."
"Paper Airplane" is adult contemporary country pop, sung, with Krauss' effortless precision, in a lovely, bright voice, one that manages to be simultaneously delicate and steely. But the arrangement's underpinnings consist of some really fine picking by Douglas and, on mandolin, Tyminski. The lyrics' last line? "Our love will die, I know."
PHOTOS OF AKUS AT THE FESTIVAL
Keith Spera
on May 01, 2015 at 11:22 AM, updated May 01, 2015 at 2:24 PM
Alison Krauss served two masters at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz Fest on Thursday (April 30): Appalachian tradition and contemporary country songcraft. Each was informed by an intricately woven thicket of stringed, acoustic instruments.
The four members of her Union Station ensemble – dobro player Jerry Douglas, guitarist/vocalist Dan Tyminski, banjoist Ron Block and bassist Barry Bales-- did not include a drummer. None was necessary. Whatever rhythmic needs were not satisfied by Bales' upright bass were covered by Krauss' curt chops at the strings of her violin, and the strong right wrists of Tyminski and Block.
Calm and centered while singing, Krauss was endearingly deadpan, dry and awkward in her between-song banter. "Many years ago we went to the Rock 'n' Bowl," she announced. "That was so much fun. Is that still around?" (Yes, it is, in a newer, larger incarnation than the original that she likely visited.) Her pre-show meal included gumbo from a Jazz Fest vendor that she couldn't identify beyond its location in "food position No. 2"; she apologized and promised to get the name. Following an inconclusive bit of banter with Bales, she deadpanned, "Well, anyway, that was an interesting exchange." Her soft, uber-pleasant, wide-eyed speaking manner recalled that of Will Ferrell's clueless keyboard-playing lounge singer.
The show at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell was billed as Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. Krauss recalled how, during her early years in Nashville, she fantasized about the possibility of even meeting Douglas. His contributions to the seminal 1975 album bluegrass album "J.D. Crowe & the New South" launched a prolific career as country music's go-to steel guitar specialist; he's contributed to more than 2,000 albums over the past 40 years.
For the past 18 years, he has been a member of Union Station while also sustaining a solo career. Wearing his dobro on a strap, he held it horizontally to his body and played it like a lap steel. He made clear why he gets all that work.
Tyminski sang lead as frequently as Krauss. His tenor is straight out of an Appalachian holler. Not surprisingly, he was chosen to supply the singing voice for George Clooney's Soggy Bottom Boys character in the Coen brothers' 2000 Depression-era film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" At Jazz Fest, Tyminski reprised "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," a highlight of the film and its multimillion-selling soundtrack.
Their connection to traditional mountain music is very much intact. In the encore, Tyminski and Block took up acoustic guitars and joined Krauss in a cluster around a single microphone for "When You Say Nothing At All." The other musicians joined them, still around the one microphone, for the Hank Cochran ballad "Make the World Go Away." They also revisited the "O Brother" soundtrack for one of Krauss' contributions, "Down to the River to Pray."
An element – oftentimes, much more than just an element – of sadness runs through much of Krauss' material. Floods, failed farms, coal mine disasters, lost love – that's the stuff of traditional bluegrass and country. She'll find the cloud that comes with the silver lining, as the lyrics of "Paper Airplane," the title track of her 2011 release, made clear. "Every negative thing that could happen to somebody happened in there," she observed of one song. In another, a young farmer's corn crop, planted in June, is killed by a frost in September. In "Whiskey Lullaby," both former partners in a broken romance drink themselves to death.
In the devastating ballad "Ghost In This House," Krauss and Tyminski harmonized on such lines as, "I'm just a whisper of smoke/I'm all that's left of two hearts on fire/That once burned out of control/You took my body and soul/I'm just a ghost in this house."
"Paper Airplane" is adult contemporary country pop, sung, with Krauss' effortless precision, in a lovely, bright voice, one that manages to be simultaneously delicate and steely. But the arrangement's underpinnings consist of some really fine picking by Douglas and, on mandolin, Tyminski. The lyrics' last line? "Our love will die, I know."