For those who are late to join the excitement that swirls around Alison Krauss, this is an exceptional time. Though she’s become the toast of music for years, she’s gone back to her bluegrass roots and given fans a chance to join her. Now Krauss is on tour with Union Station — dobro player Jerry Douglas, guitarist Dan Tyminski, banjo player Ron Block and bassist Barry Bales — behind “Paper Airplane,” their first album together since 2004. Although the album has won critical and popular acclaim since its April release, it almost didn’t come to fruition.
“I was hoping the band were going to be excited about it,” Krauss told Rolling Stone of gathering with her band two years ago this month to record. “I got self-conscious. We had to step away, and I said, ‘We don’t have it — I have to mess around and gather more things.’ ”
| ONSTAGE |
| Allison Krauss & Union Station |
| » When: 8 p.m. Sunday |
| » Where: Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Art, Filene Center, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna |
| » Info: $30 to $48; 877-WOLFTRAP; wolftrap.org |
Suffice to say, whatever she did worked, as evinced by the 11-track album being called “Grammy Ready” by Rolling Stone and other critics. In addition, her current tour is gaining critical reviews across the country.
No small part of the success, many said, is the magic that Krauss works with Union Station. Legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe recently said that he’s been a fan of Krauss & Union Station since he saw them on television about 15 years ago.
“I have everything they have ever done, everything,” Howe said of his album collection. “You know, a lot of people love their music, [including] Brad Paisley. … They have a lineup made in heaven.”
Krauss, of course, had quite a successful musical partnership recently with Robert Plant. Although the duo won a 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for “Raising Sand,” they hit a creative dry spell afterward. That’s when Krauss decided to regroup with Union Station.
She brought with her lessons she learned from working with Plant and famed producer T-Bone Burnett.
“Prior to ‘Raising Sand,’ I used to think I could manufacture a better vocal because of the opportunities that the studio gives you — singing things and putting them together — but because of T-Bone and Robert, that’s not the way I want to approach it anymore,” she said.
Though she tells Rolling Stone that she and Plant will work together again, collaborating with Union Station is where her heart is now.
“Working with this band is where I really find out what’s going on,” she said. “The five of us have something that is meant to stay together.”
