Krauss and Rice team up and the music flows

ALAN SCULLEY
From New York Times Syndicate
August 08, 2007 5:50 PM EDT

ALBANY, N.Y. -- After taking much of 2006 off from touring, Alison Krauss and Union Station recently returned to action by fulfilling a long-standing dream -- touring with guitarist Tony Rice, whose 30-year career has seen him become one of the most respected figures in acoustic music with a discography that takes him from contemporary bluegrass to jazz.

The shows from that recently completed run of dates found Krauss and Union Station serving as Rice's backing group and put Krauss on stage together with an artist whose career, she says, provided a model for her to follow.

"He's made, in my mind, timeless records, and his records effect me long after I turn them off," Krauss said of Rice in a recent phone interview. "They're full of ideals and really paint a wonderful picture of the person who I believe that is, by what he chooses to sing. When I think of records that are truly effective and life-molding, like his albums are to me, it's just a textbook."

Krauss has done a good job following Rice's example so far: Her recording career is now in its 20th year and has seen her gain unprecedented success while achieving her place as the leading name in bluegrass.

The native of Champaign , Ill. , won several major fiddle contests before she entered her teens, and at age 13 signed with the independent roots music label Rounder Records. Union Station backed her on her 1987 debut album, "Too Late To Cry"; the first group album, "Two Highways," followed in 1989.

Alternating between solo and group albums early in her career, Krauss' 1990 disc "I've Got That Old Feeling" signaled a first step toward wider recognition. It became her first charting CD, reaching No. 75 on Billboard's album chart and earning Krauss a Grammy, the first of 20 -- the most by any female artist.

Krauss' place in the commercial mainstream was cemented in 1995 with the release of "Now That I've Found You: A Collection," which gathered together older songs and covers of songs by the likes of the Beatles ("I Will") and the Foundations ("Baby, Now That I've Found You"). The CD went on to sell more than 2 million copies and spawned a top five country hit, "When You Say Nothing at All." Since then, Krauss has released four more studio albums, three with Union Station and one solo, and each has gone gold with more than 500,000 copies sold.

Her 2002 concert album with Union Station, "Live," went double platinum with sales of more than 2 million. Throughout her career, Krauss (like Rice, who has done trailblazing acoustic jazz albums with David Grisman, among others) hasn't hesitated to step beyond bluegrass from time to time. Especially on her solo albums, Krauss has ventured into a wider range of acoustic music, with songs that have drawn strongly on folk, country and even pop.

Her new CD, "A Hundred Miles Or More: A Collection," continues that trend. The album compiles previously released songs from soundtracks (such as "Down To The River To Pray" from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Scarlet Tide" and "You Will Be My Ain True Love" from "Cold Mountain"); compilations ("Baby Mine" from the 1996 CD "The Best Of Country Sing The Best Of Disney"); and from guest appearances on albums by other artists ("Get Me Through December" from Natalie MacMaster's 1999 CD "In My Hands" and "Missing You," on John Waite's recent album, "Downtown/Journey of a Heart").

The collaboration with Waite, who has spent his entire career in rock, as a solo artist and with the bands the Babys and Bad English, may seem like an unlikely pairing. But Krauss said she jumped at the chance when Waite asked her to record the new version of his signature pop hit "Missing You."

"I've always loved all different kinds of music, and he's such an incredible singer," Krauss said of Waite. "I'm familiar with what he does. I have many records of his."

Another duet with Waite, "Lay Down Beside Me," is one of five newly recorded tracks on "A Hundred Miles Or More."

Krauss said while it may appear that she uses her solo albums to stretch stylistically beyond the bluegrass of her CDs with Union Station, she actually has no such grand plan.

"I really get led by whatever material I find that is interesting," she said. "I just do whatever's inspiring at the time. It's not that I'm trying to go for something. It's just if it's inspiring and happens to go there. It's not about 'Oh, I want to do this kind of record.' It always starts with the material."

Krauss' willingness to explore new musical territory will become even more apparent later this year with the release of a CD she recently completed with former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.

Exactly how the record with Plant sounds stylistically was a subject Krauss found difficult to articulate.