Tag: Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss and Union Station, ALB

featuring Jerry Douglas

Every 23 years or so, my wife and I go to the Palace Theatre in Albany to see Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas, perform. We last saw them in 2003; Alison is one of my wife’s “K girls,” along with Diana Krall.

Since my wife’s birthday is in July – she really is difficult to buy for – the concert, on July 22, a day before Alison’s 55th birthday, was the obvious choice. The show was called Arcadia, in honor of the 2025 album that the band talked about here; it had been 14 years since the band had put out a music collection.

The opening act was Theo Lawrence, a young country singer, mostly alone with his acoustic guitar, who performed tunes from his most recent albums Chérie and Pickin’ & Singin’, which he was later selling vinyl copies of. He had an authentic country timbre for a dude who had been, according to a review, born in France. They were solid songs that could have come out six or seven decades earlier. Lawrence was joined for a couple of solid songs by Phil Hollie, a friend who has joined him on tour.

Main event

Alison Krauss and Union Station performed a bunch of songs I presume were from the Arcadia album – guess what my wife is getting for Christmas. The group played more melancholy songs and less bluegrass than I remembered from last time.

Texas-born singer Russell Moore was great. She still had her longtime banjo/guitar picker, Ron Block, and bassist Barry Bayles. The new kid on the block was the mandolinist Jacob Burleson, a solid, confident player.

Of course, dobroist Jerry Douglas was Jerry Douglas. A concert highlight was his unaccompanied solo spot on a medley of “American Tune” (Paul Simon) segueing into “Spain” (Chick Corea). But my favorite part of the show was the encore, where the band members sounded like they were standing around backstage warming up; it reminded me of the Million Dollar Quartet standing around.

At various points, the house lights would come up, and Alison would share stories about the various band members, which was highly entertaining.

One criticism of the show was that it was a bit warm, okay, hot in the Palace with what appeared to be a packed house.

Here’s Maggie Aulman review on the Metroland site. Oh, and in honor of Alison’s 55th natal day, here’s Coverville 1587: The Alison Krauss Cover Story.

Sunday Stealing is F.A.B. again

Ringo, Linda, Carlos, Alison, and Mick

Welcome to Sunday Stealing.

Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. We stole this from a blogger named Idzie, who called this the F.A.B. (film, audio, book) meme, so we’re F.A.B. again.

Movies

F. Film: What movie or TV show are you watching?

On Monday, my wife and I visited the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the comedy Caddyshack. Neither of us had ever seen it before, but we heard that it was very popular in 1980 when it came out. We were mostly unimpressed. Chevy Chase’s character was somewhat interesting, and Rodney Dangerfield was funny for a while, but Bill Murray seemed to be in another movie. I had to start looking at why so many find the film beloved.

The Wikipedia post was helpful: “The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release, with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield’s, Chase’s, and Murray’s comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, ‘Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began, there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration.'” If you’ve ever talked with a person who’s stoned, you’re not, and they think everything is hysterical? That may be this movie.

Harold Ramis, a first-time film director, noted that “In the DVD documentary, TV Guide had originally given the film two stars (out of four) when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time, the rating had gone up to three stars.” Maybe it’s better with repeated viewing.

Music

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

This being July, some of the birthdays are those of Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, Alison Krauss, Mick Jagger, and Jim Stewart. So I’ll play Linda, Santana, and the Rolling Stones. Who’s Jim Stewart? He co-founded the legendary STAX Records with his sister Estelle Axton. I also play a lot of compilations of Beatles covers, and I have many of them.

Photograph – Ringo Starr

Telling Me Lies -The Trio (Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris)

Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen – Santana

Maybe – Alison Krauss

I Am Waiting – The Rolling Stones

Green Onions – Booker T. and the MG’s

You Can’t Do That – Harry Nilsson

Text

B. Book: What are you reading?

My friend Fred Hembeck wrote so kindly about former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who died recently at age 73, regarding Fred’s participation in the Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, I thought I’d read the book The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck.

Please come back next week.

Music Throwback Saturday: Baby, Now That I’ve Found You

Alison Krauss is one of my wife’s “K girls,”

Alison Krauss - Now That I've Found You - FrontThe Foundations, as described in the Joel Whitburn books about the US Billboard charts, was an “interracial R&B-pop group formed in England.” The group had two US Top 20 hits before it disbanded in 1970.

Build Me Up Buttercup was a “gold” single in 1969, getting to #3 in 1969. Their earlier hit was Baby, Now That I’ve Found You, which charted in late 1967, reaching #11 in 1968; it also reached #33 on the R&B charts.

Alison Krauss, a country singer/songwriter/bluegrass fiddler born in 1971, had enough albums in her early twenties to put out a retrospective of the first part of her career, including songs from her solo albums, albums by Alison Krauss & Union Station, and Alison Krauss & the Cox Family. She also added a few new songs.

The first song on the album was essentially the title song, a very different take of Baby, Now That I’ve Found You, which reached only #49 on the country charts in 1995. But it won the Grammy for Country Female Vocal.

The final song was the hit country single (#3 country, #53 pop) When You Say Nothing at All, which sold over two million copies, and was named the Single of the Year by the Country Music Association.

Alison Krauss is one of my wife’s favorite artists; we saw her play with Union Station in 2003. She’s one of my wife’s “K girls,” as she puts it, next to jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall in our record collection. Her rendition of Baby, Now That I’ve Found You is one of my favorite covers, ever.

LISTEN

Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations HERE or HERE

Baby, Now That I’ve Found You – the Foundations HERE or HERE

Baby, Now That I’ve Found You – Alison Krauss HERE or HERE

When You Say Nothing At All – Alison Krauss HERE or HERE

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