Alison Krauss & Union Station- Arcadia
Label: Down the Road
Producer: Alison Krauss & Union Station
Through the decades, the gathering of Alison Krauss and her exquisite bluegrass band, Union Station in the recording of a studio album has increasingly become a rare and special occasion. The release of Arcadia marks the ensemble’s first studio output in fourteen years, a gap that is twice as long as the seemingly arduous seven years that separated the group’s two preceding records. As is always the case during these sabbaticals, Krauss and her comrades remain impressively active with their own endeavors. But as sublime as Krauss’ own solo work or her one-off collaborations with artists like Robert Plant may be, her voice always sounds at its most naturally majestic when singing with the boys of Union Station.
It takes but one line into the wondrous album opener and first single, “Looks Like the End of the Road” to reaffirm this statement. Hearing this woman sing remains one of the most magical experiences in all of modern music, and if left to judge the passage of time solely based on the performance delivered here by Krauss, now in her early fifties, you’d think you were still witnessing her revelatory breakthrough in the late 80s. If anything, Krauss’ voice is at its most pure and ethereal peak to date. The same could be said for the musicianship of bandmates Jerry Douglas (dobro), Ron Block (guitar/banjo), Barry Bales (bass) who all remain legendary in the mastery of their respective instruments, though their outfit does enter this album with the most significant departure in its history, with the absence of Dan Tyminski. He’s replaced by vocalist and revered bluegrass stalwart, Russell Moore, who you’d be forgiven for mistaking for Tyminski himself; Moore is a dopple-ganger for Tymsinki both vocally and stylistically. Consequently, with with the rest of the band, he proves to be the perfect rustic, grassy foil to Krauss’ smooth and peerlessly sophisticated vocals. Like Tyminski before him, he imbues fabled story songs like “The Hangman”, the grimly tragic “Granite Mills”, and a great interpretation of JD McPherson’s “North Side Gal” with the kind of rugged, rustic charm that feels classic and old-timey, while still relevantly moving from a modern-day perspective.
And just as their taste in musicians remains as impeccable as it always has, so too can be said for the group’s taste in material and songwriters. The ever-reliable band favorite, Robert Lee Castleman continues to provide the kind of superbly haunting songs tailor-made for Krauss’ exalted soprano, contributing the eery “Forever”, as well as the heart-wrenching “The Wrong Way”, a co-write with Tyminski. Meanwhile, the outstanding musical poetry of Jeremy Lister bookends the record beautifully with the aforementioned “End of the Road” and the inspiring finale, “There’s A Light Up Ahead”. Krauss’ own brother and fellow artist, Viktor Krauss also gets multiple credits on Arcadia with his contributions on “The Hangman”, and the mysteriously seductive “One Ray of Shine”. All of these works prove to be reciprocal vessels for the marvelous talents of the AKUS roster, further emboldening a body of work that while not prolific, remains one of the most remarkable of its generation. With the telling of their musical stories, this group has always masterfully maintained the rich heritage and legacy behind the sources of these tales and balanced it with the contemporary perspectives and relevancies to today’s life experiences. After all, the bitter but formative life lessons taught through the experiences of everything from war and romance, to heartbreak and missed opportunities remain timeless through the years.
And it’s this same timeless balance that Alison Krauss & Union Station has always brought to bluegrass music as a whole, on their way to becoming the genre’s most significant act of the post-Ricky Skaggs generation. As they evolved from the home-spun nature of their earliest records toward the elegant pop-trappings of their O’Brother-era glow-up, they ushered in the new Newgrass movement of the 21st century, laying the foundation for everyone from the members of Nickel Creek and Trampled By Turtles to fresh noisemakers of today like Sierra Ferrell and Billy Strings. They themselves may no longer technically qualify as “new” grass, but as long as they continue to produce records like Arcadia, they remain the gold-standard for all others to follow in that sphere. And while past trends may indicate the next step on the journey may be another decade down the road, here’s hoping the end of the road is nowhere on the map for Alison Krauss & Union Station.
Track Listing:
- “Looks Like the End of the Road” (Jeremy Lister)
- “The Hangman” (Viktor Krauss, Maurice Ogden)
- “The Wrong Way” (Robert Lee Castleman, Dan Tyminski)
- “Granite Mills” (Timothy Eriksen)
- “One Ray of Shine” (V. Krauss, Sarah Siskind)
- “Richmond on the James” (Alison Krauss, G.T. Burgess)
- “North Side Gal” (JD McPherson)
- “Forever” (Castleman)
- “Snow” (Bob Lucas)
- “There’s A Light Up Ahead” (Lister)
The 706 
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