Post by fogcitygal on Aug 11, 2007 4:04:43 GMT -5
from the Washington Times:
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Krauss' sleepless good nights
By Scott Galupo
August 10, 2007
"Alison Krauss is singing over the phone, and I'm hurriedly trying to think of a way, any way, to prolong this private recital.
The song is "Bluer Than Blue," by crooner and nylon guitar picker Michael Johnson: "Sadder than sad/You're the only light this empty room has ever had," sings the unmistakable, sweetly spellbinding soprano on the other end of the line.
Snap out of it.
Miss Krauss is making an important point — and that's her discovery that Mr. Johnson, a '70s pop hit maker who went country in the '80s, performed other people's songs.
"I thought he wrote all his music," says Miss Krauss, who is to appear tomorrow night at Merriweather Post Pavilion with her longtime ensemble, Union Station.
"When I found out that he didn't, I couldn't believe it," she continues. "It made me look at him very differently. I thought, 'No, he hasn't written this stuff, but he's chosen this material either because it reflects who he is or who he wants to be.' "
Miss Krauss, 36, a virtuoso fiddler since childhood, has for two decades been a pre-eminent interpreter and popularizer of American roots music. She has won 20 Grammys — more than any other female artist — and her creative standards are as uncompromising as any singer-songwriter's. For her, corralling just the right batch of songs at the right moment is a sort of parallel art form.
"I never go, 'Hey, I want to do this kind of thing' and then go try and find the material for it," she says. "The material always dictates what the record is going to be."
Her latest effort is "A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection," an odds-and-sods chronicle of the past 10 years that gathers previously unreleased material, a handful of new songs and soundtrack work for movies such as "Cold Mountain" and the monumental "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
Miss Krauss says she culls songs — whether folk and bluegrass traditionals or new compositions from choice songwriters such as John Pennell and Robert Lee Castleman — that "keep me up at night."
"If the lyric is strong, then I can't get it out of my mind," she says, "and if I can't get it out of my mind and I feel bad when I think about it, then we usually end up doing it."
Initially, Miss Krauss was unmoved by the idea of another compilation — despite the mainstream breakthrough that was 1995's roundup "Now That I've Found You: A Collection" (2.5 million in sales to date).
"I didn't want to do a compilation last time," she recalls. "I just thought, 'You have stuff from all different places, and you put it all on one record. How is that going to fit together?' "
This time around, thematic coherence was even more of a challenge. "There are different producers, and a good majority of the tunes were suggested by whoever I was working for at the time," she says.
Yet, with the addition of new songs plus the star power of duets with James Taylor, Brad Paisley and John Waite, Miss Krauss warmed to the idea.
"When I look back, it was just a really amazing decade — the people I've met and got to work with," she reflects.
Despite major-label interest after the back-to-back success of 1989's "Two Highways" and 1990's "I've Got That Old Feeling," she has remained fiercely loyal to the same independent label, Burlington, Mass.-based Rounder Records, for 20 years.
The label's luminaries — flat-picking masters Doc Watson and Tony Rice, banjo genius Bela Fleck, and the late bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown among many others — are Miss Krauss' heroes. "The records that came out on Rounder are the ones that made me want to play music," she says. "I love the history."
It didn't hurt, either, Miss Krauss recalls with a chuckle, when Rounder reps gave their Illinoisan child prodigy — innocent as she then was of the imperatives of image management — some gentle fashion advice.
"We'd play radio stations when I was a teenager, and I'd show up in the clothes I'd slept in," she says. This was no indie-rocker look of calculated dishevelment, Miss Krauss says with a laugh. "This was just, 'She's obviously slept in her clothes — in the van.' "
Fast forward to the far less fashion-suicidal 21st century, and Miss Krauss finds herself collaborating with classic-rock legend Robert Plant (the two recorded a duets album slated for release this fall) and in demand as a producer. She recently helmed albums for the "newgrass" trio Nickel Creek and country superstar Alan Jackson.
Miss Krauss applies the same criterion to her producing efforts that she does to her role as a performer. "If it's something I feel like I can add to, then I take the job," she says.
Not without some trepidation, says the mother of 8-year-old Sam (her son with ex-husband Pat Bergeson). "If it's your own record, it's your own rules and time — especially when you have a family. I really feel like I fail at everything when I'm producing. You can't say, 'OK, I'm done for the day.' You're on somebody else's deadline."
She adds: "I felt like the only time I could be completely focused, without any distraction, was when my child was asleep. Well, you can't start your workday then and expect to be any kind of mother in the morning.
"But, you know," she says, laughing, "boo-hoo."
"I've been incredibly lucky," Miss Krauss reflects. "To be able to skate in and out of different types of music has been wonderful. I feel like I'll leave with more than I came with." "
---------------------------------
Krauss' sleepless good nights
By Scott Galupo
August 10, 2007
"Alison Krauss is singing over the phone, and I'm hurriedly trying to think of a way, any way, to prolong this private recital.
The song is "Bluer Than Blue," by crooner and nylon guitar picker Michael Johnson: "Sadder than sad/You're the only light this empty room has ever had," sings the unmistakable, sweetly spellbinding soprano on the other end of the line.
Snap out of it.
Miss Krauss is making an important point — and that's her discovery that Mr. Johnson, a '70s pop hit maker who went country in the '80s, performed other people's songs.
"I thought he wrote all his music," says Miss Krauss, who is to appear tomorrow night at Merriweather Post Pavilion with her longtime ensemble, Union Station.
"When I found out that he didn't, I couldn't believe it," she continues. "It made me look at him very differently. I thought, 'No, he hasn't written this stuff, but he's chosen this material either because it reflects who he is or who he wants to be.' "
Miss Krauss, 36, a virtuoso fiddler since childhood, has for two decades been a pre-eminent interpreter and popularizer of American roots music. She has won 20 Grammys — more than any other female artist — and her creative standards are as uncompromising as any singer-songwriter's. For her, corralling just the right batch of songs at the right moment is a sort of parallel art form.
"I never go, 'Hey, I want to do this kind of thing' and then go try and find the material for it," she says. "The material always dictates what the record is going to be."
Her latest effort is "A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection," an odds-and-sods chronicle of the past 10 years that gathers previously unreleased material, a handful of new songs and soundtrack work for movies such as "Cold Mountain" and the monumental "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
Miss Krauss says she culls songs — whether folk and bluegrass traditionals or new compositions from choice songwriters such as John Pennell and Robert Lee Castleman — that "keep me up at night."
"If the lyric is strong, then I can't get it out of my mind," she says, "and if I can't get it out of my mind and I feel bad when I think about it, then we usually end up doing it."
Initially, Miss Krauss was unmoved by the idea of another compilation — despite the mainstream breakthrough that was 1995's roundup "Now That I've Found You: A Collection" (2.5 million in sales to date).
"I didn't want to do a compilation last time," she recalls. "I just thought, 'You have stuff from all different places, and you put it all on one record. How is that going to fit together?' "
This time around, thematic coherence was even more of a challenge. "There are different producers, and a good majority of the tunes were suggested by whoever I was working for at the time," she says.
Yet, with the addition of new songs plus the star power of duets with James Taylor, Brad Paisley and John Waite, Miss Krauss warmed to the idea.
"When I look back, it was just a really amazing decade — the people I've met and got to work with," she reflects.
Despite major-label interest after the back-to-back success of 1989's "Two Highways" and 1990's "I've Got That Old Feeling," she has remained fiercely loyal to the same independent label, Burlington, Mass.-based Rounder Records, for 20 years.
The label's luminaries — flat-picking masters Doc Watson and Tony Rice, banjo genius Bela Fleck, and the late bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown among many others — are Miss Krauss' heroes. "The records that came out on Rounder are the ones that made me want to play music," she says. "I love the history."
It didn't hurt, either, Miss Krauss recalls with a chuckle, when Rounder reps gave their Illinoisan child prodigy — innocent as she then was of the imperatives of image management — some gentle fashion advice.
"We'd play radio stations when I was a teenager, and I'd show up in the clothes I'd slept in," she says. This was no indie-rocker look of calculated dishevelment, Miss Krauss says with a laugh. "This was just, 'She's obviously slept in her clothes — in the van.' "
Fast forward to the far less fashion-suicidal 21st century, and Miss Krauss finds herself collaborating with classic-rock legend Robert Plant (the two recorded a duets album slated for release this fall) and in demand as a producer. She recently helmed albums for the "newgrass" trio Nickel Creek and country superstar Alan Jackson.
Miss Krauss applies the same criterion to her producing efforts that she does to her role as a performer. "If it's something I feel like I can add to, then I take the job," she says.
Not without some trepidation, says the mother of 8-year-old Sam (her son with ex-husband Pat Bergeson). "If it's your own record, it's your own rules and time — especially when you have a family. I really feel like I fail at everything when I'm producing. You can't say, 'OK, I'm done for the day.' You're on somebody else's deadline."
She adds: "I felt like the only time I could be completely focused, without any distraction, was when my child was asleep. Well, you can't start your workday then and expect to be any kind of mother in the morning.
"But, you know," she says, laughing, "boo-hoo."
"I've been incredibly lucky," Miss Krauss reflects. "To be able to skate in and out of different types of music has been wonderful. I feel like I'll leave with more than I came with." "