Each year Alison Krauss, in partnership with superb country band Union Station, manages to release a record that figures strongly in our ‘albums of the year’ nominations. In 2003 it was her magnificent live CD, in 2004 it’s this very recent release.

Krauss manages to smooth the edges of mainstream country music through her understated and beautiful vocals, and magical instrumental arrangements. She and her band also have a healthy respect for traditional Bluegrass music, and have been a key influence in bringing it firmly back into the mainstream of country music. This album is a wonderful mix of both country traditions, while injecting a strong folk feel into the more mainstream compositions. Opening track, Gravity is a prime example of the latter. It’s a beautiful, gently meandering song with wafting guitar passages and a fragile, sweet Krauss vocal. Restless follows with a more upbeat vibe (in tune with the song title) while remaining understated and gentle. Rain Please Go Away is pure upbeat, joyous Bluegrass with superb banjo passages from Ron Block and spot-on vocal from Dan Tyminski.

Krauss then returns with the moving, supremely melodic and very beautiful Goodbye To All We Have. It’s one of many highlights with her gentle, expressive vocal and the most subtle of instrumental arrangements. Band member Jerry Douglas wrote the next bouncing instrumental track Unionhouse Branch, that comes complete with Krauss giving it plenty on fiddle, while Ron Block’s banjo scurries along like a scalded cat. Superb. The final song I’ll mention is the mesmerising Crazy As Me, one of several superb album tracks written by country great R.I. Castleman. The song comes with a killer melody, brilliant choruses, and one of Krauss’s best vocal performances here.

This is a wonderful album with all fifteen tracks leaving their mark, and from a musical partnership made in country heaven. It’s also a nicely diverse album with welcome changes in pace and mood, and a smattering of some of the best Bluegrass compositions I’ve heard in some time. If gentle mainstream country and Bluegrass is your glass of JD, then this is one album you simply must own.

5/5