AKUS deliver once again after a 14-year hiatus.
And here you have it, gentle reader, “Arcadia”, the new, eagerly awaited, album by the most lauded and awarded group of bluegrass Americana artists all in one group (Alison Krauss and Union Station – AKUS), the most influential musicians in their field and possibly the best outlet for some outstanding songwriting. This album, the first by the group in 14 years and featuring their newest member, the brilliant Russell Moore (replacing Dan Tyminski on vocals and acoustic guitar), who was/is the lead vocalist for another outstanding, more traditional, bluegrass outfit, IIIrd Tyme Out. He is the most awarded male vocalist in bluegrass music and he gives the group a slightly different dimension.
As it has been 14 years since the last album, the multi-award-winning “Paper Airplane”, here’s a little background – Alison Krauss was the childhood fiddle and vocal prodigy who released her debut album in 1987 at the age of 15 and went on to win nearly 30 Grammy awards, including as a solo performer, a band member, as partner with Robert Plant and as a record producer. Her voice, a high soprano, has been described as angelic and having perfect pitch.
Jerry Douglas plays dobro, Weissenborn and lap steel guitar and is generally regarded as the best dobro player in the world. He has played on more than 1600 albums as well as releasing fourteen solo albums and producing dozens more for other artists, and is co-director of Transatlantic Sessions with Aly Bain. His instrumental contributions almost always add a new dimension to tracks that he graces.
Original members of the band are Barry Bales on bass, a highly in-demand bass player who has certainly not lacked for work during the AKUS hiatus. He is also a member of Jerry Douglas’ own band, The Earls of Leicester. Ron Block is an ace banjo and acoustic guitar player who has released five solo albums, as well as appeared on many other albums.
This is the stellar line up that awaits you on “Arcadia”, enhanced by some additional session musicians of almost equal stature. And right from the start you realise all is well in AKUS land.
The album kicks off with one of Krauss’ most exquisite vocals on a wonderfully sad Jeremy Lister song about loss and regret ‘Looks like the end of the road’, described by Krauss as the track from which the rest of the album follows – “Usually, I find something that’s a first song, and then things fall into place,” she says – “That song was ‘Looks Like The End Of The Road’”. The acoustic guitar interplay is just lovely and Douglas swoops and sways as only he can on dobro.
There’s a theme to the album – most songs describe events from the past, and they are nearly all sad. Krauss explains: “The stories of the past are told in this music….. Someone asked me, ‘How do you sing these tragic tunes?’ I have to. It’s a calling. I feel privileged to be a messenger of somebody else’s story. And I want to hear what happened”. To be honest, the really dark songs are mostly handled by Moore in his powerful baritone. He makes his first appearance on ‘The Hangman‘, with its dark depiction of the gallows tree, with ominous bass lines from the constantly brilliant Bales. Then again, on ‘Granite Mills‘, a true story of a fire in a mill in 1874 that killed 300 people, who might have been saved with more care in the mill. Krauss’ fiddle enhances the mood.
One of Krauss’ favourite writers is Robert Lee Castleman and ‘The Wrong Way‘ is a co-write with ex-AKUS member Dan Tyminski (who contributes throughout on acoustic guitar and mandolin), and yet another Krauss masterclass on a song about regrets in love in the past – “In my life I’ve learned a lot, not from things I’ve done / But from things that I have not / And sometimes giving ain’t giving up I’ll always remember the one that I forgot”. She really does have a remarkable ability to make sadness beautiful!
‘One Ray of Shine’ is a loping Sarah Siskind/Viktor Krauss co-write, with the hope for sunlight emerging for a loner living with perpetual grey skies. Douglas plays one of his sumptuous solos, with a slight hiccup in the middle, and the track, unusual these days, fades out after Douglas’ dobro /lap steel and Adam Steffey’s mandolin duel.
‘Richmond on the James’ has a livelier tempo but is a sad Civil War story about a soldier who dies on the battlefield. Bales and Block really drive this song along. ‘North Side Gal‘ is something of an outlier, a barnstorming ensemble bluegrass honky tonk with a slightly retro feel, where Moore takes the lead on this JD McPherson cover, and everybody gets in on the vocals, and includes the twin fiddles of Krauss and Stuart Duncan. ‘Forever‘ is another song by Castleman, whose lyricism is beautiful – “Not all who ask seek answers / Not all who need, need advice / It’s not too late for the chances I take / If it worked once, it should work twice” And then this chorus – “You knew I could never change a fool / Players reap what players sow / And I knew you could never face the truth / I can’t give in baby, I can’t hold on and I can’t let go!” Moore’s harmonies throughout are perfect, playing down the power of his voice. And his vocal lead on ‘Snow’ (something of a companion piece to ‘One Ray of Shine’) is possibly his best on the album, on a track driven by Block’s banjo, and enhanced by fiddle and acoustic guitar solos. And then there is the final track, by Jeremy Lister again, the softly sung (apart from a soaring third line in each verse )‘There’s a light up ahead’, bringing a ray of hope to end proceedings.
It’s a gorgeous album, and you can only hope that their mammoth 75-concert tour in the States to promote it will be followed by something similar over here. Now, you could wish for a longer record, you could ask for a little more risk-taking, more upbeat tunes, you could hope for a little stretching out instrumentally or some more prominent fiddle from Krauss herself, but you could not get anything more beautifully produced, no more masterful playing and singing from the very best in their field. At the end of the recording the only thing you want to do is play it all again and wonder at the intricacy of the instrumental arrangements, the subtlety of the voices and harmonies, and rejoice in the release of an album that has been gestating for fourteen years.
This is another Grammy worthy album!! Just incredible vocals on everybody’s part. You have to get this album. And definitely don’t miss them on tour!