Three years ago, bluegrass artist Alison Krauss was at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, performing with former Led Zeppelin man Robert Plant. The pair were touring their second collaborative album Raise the Roof, the follow up to 2007's amazing Raising Sand. The show was wonderful, a rare opportunity to see these iconic vocalists from different worlds find common ground and then luxuriate in it.
Three years later, and Krauss is back on the same stage. This time however, she's flanked by her long-time band Union Station and performing her own bluegrass, country and folk music. For the uninitiated, Krauss has one of the best voices in music. Plant knew it. With the possible exception of Patsy Cline, Krauss has the best female voice in the history of country. That's a big statement, but we stand by it.
This writer has a couple of close friends, sisters, in England, and their step-dad Jim Hirons is a bluegrass musician. As a result, this writer spent a number of summers in the mid-'90s going from one British bluegrass festival to another. Places like Ironbridge, North Wales, Didmarton, and the Yorkshire Dales. It was through that scene that the name Alison Krauss became known.
Despite the Plant thing, there's a nagging feeling that not enough people know how good Krauss is. People within the bluegrass scene know, but seriously, more people should know.
At the Greek on a Sunday night in July, Krauss and her band simply shone. The set list was magnificent, each and every band member performed at an exemplary level, and Krauss' voice kept goosebumps raised throughout. She's also a wonderful fiddle player, incidentally.
The night kicked off with two albums from the new Arcadia album--"Looks Like the End of the Road" and "Granite Mills." "Every Time You Say Goodbye," from the '92 album of the same name, is one of the highlights of the evening, and we get some of Krauss' great covers (the Temptations' "Baby, Now That I've Found You" and Paul Overstreet's "When You Say Nothing At All").
The rest of the band are so note-perfect, they threaten to steal attention away from Krauss on occasion. Russell Moore shares lead vocals, and he has a rich, emotive voice of his own, as well as being an incredible guitar player. Bassist Barry Bales, guitarist/banjo man Ron Block, Stuart Duncan (guitar, mandolin, fiddle), and celebrated dobro man Jerry Douglas all play a massive part in the Union Station sound.
There's never a dull moment, and by the time they finished with "There is a Reason" from the near-perfect So Long So Wrong album, the crowd at this beautiful theater had been well and truly dazzled. The grass was indeed blue in L.A.
Photos by Evan Buford (@Buford.jpeg)
