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| This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #102 (October / November 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription. |
Six years before the Coen Brothers brought bluegrass music to popular notice and multi-platinum record sales with the soundtrack to the film O Brother Where Art Thou?, Alison Krauss was there. Her eclectic collection Baby Now that I've Found You, which included traditional bluegrass, old time gospel, country, and a cover of the Southern rock shouter "Oh Atlanta," opened up ears and broke down doors. Listeners, intrigued with Krauss' haunting vocals, fiery musicianship, and adventurous song selection, purchased the record in platinum-selling numbers, driving it to top-10 status on both country and pop charts.
Though Krauss has given bluegrass a face and an identity in mainstream music (the Wall Street Journal recently called her "the best known bluegrass singer in the world"), she's built her career with decidedly non-mainstream decisions. Coming out of the bluegrass tradition, she's set bluegrass purists' teeth on edge by recordings the songs of Shawn Colvin and Dan Fogelberg. And, at a time when solo stardom is the rage, Krauss sees her band, Union Station, as the foundation of her musical presence, and steadfastly balances solo projects for all band members with ensemble recordings. Despite (or perhaps because of) her ventures outside bluegrass canon, she's earned the admiration of — and invitations to record with — top traditional and progressive bluegrassers, including Ralph Stanley and Dolly Parton. Although a major label contract is the goal of most top selling artists, Krauss has remained with Boston-based independent Rounder Records and publicly thanked them for letting her make her records her own way.
For Krauss, that fierce streak of independence is about the song. "I just really want to keep on making better records, playing better, and see where the music takes us," she said. Ten years ago, she told the New York Times the same thing. Asked if she was looking for super-stardom along the lines of Garth Brooks, for whom she was then opening, she remarked, "Garth has a great show, but that's not my goal. My goal is to make good records."
If awards are a measure of that, the 31-year-old soprano is right on track, having taken home vocal performance, song, and album Grammys for New Favorite, her latest project with Union Station, which was released last fall. She adds this to 10 previous Grammys, as well as numerous country and bluegrass awards for earlier projects. Krauss and other Union Station members also were honored with Grammys for their work on the O Brother soundtrack. "I'm really grateful that they chose bluegrass for that movie," Krauss said of the surprisingly popular record. "There are so many other traditional musics that are equally deserving, but they chose bluegrass, they had a producer who knew what he was doing, and it's been a lot of fun and very rewarding for everybody."
Krauss herself first caught the bluegrass fire back when she was in grade school in Champaign, Illinois. Her parents had enrolled her in classical violin lessons, wanting to give the child a chance to see if she had musical talent. She liked the instrument but not the regimentation of classical music. "I studied classical violin until I was a about 11," she recalled, "but not really long enough to do any damage!" She heard John Pennell, then a graduate student at the University of Illinois, and his band Union Station, and became hooked on the combination of discipline and improvisation bluegrass playing requires. She soon began winning fiddle contests in the midwest, and when she was 12, was invited to make appearances with the Vincent Family's popular "Sally Mountain" country music show, to fill in when daughter (and future Bluegrass Entertainer of the Year award winner) Rhonda Vincent was on the road pursuing a solo career. Krauss still counts Vincent as one of her favorite bluegrass singers, and Vincent remembers playing twin fiddle with Krauss when she'd come off the road for dates with the family show. The young Krauss also appears on one of Vincent's early solo recordings.
But bluegrass was not the developing musician's only listening interest. "I love 70s rock. That's basically what I grew up with. There was a friend who lived across the park who had the top-40 rock stations on all the time, and that's what I listened to," she recalled. "As far as bluegrass influences then, J.D. Crowe, Ricky Skaggs, and Tony Rice."
At 14, Krauss was invited to join Union Station, the group she'd once enjoyed from the audience. John Pennell would move on to other work, but he remains one of Krauss' favorite songwriters, and she credits him for opening a door that led to her professional career in music.
Though she was at first known for her fiddle skills, her unique singing voice soon began attracting attention also. A tape of her work made its way to the Massachusetts-based roots music label Rounder Records, who offered her a contract. Her first recording, Too Late to Cry, came out in 1987, when Krauss was 16. By this time, the lineup of Union Station featured three other musicians who'd go on to deeper involvement in the music industry as well: Krauss' brother Viktor, who now plays with Lyle Lovett; Jeff White, an in-demand sideman with solo work of his own; and Alison Brown, who would receive Grammy nominations (and a win last year) for her innovative banjo work and, with Garry West, found Nashville's eclectic Compass Records label.
This is an excerpt from an article in Dirty Linen #102 (Oct./Nov. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.
