Alison Krauss and Union Station

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

So Long So Wrong

• Rounder

Krauss rose to superstar status in 1995 when her collection, Now That I've Found You, became the first non-novelty bluegrass CD to sell a zillion copies. Her first release since showcases her as an aesthetic superstar to boot. Krauss's delicate, birdlike voice is the centerpiece, but this is one singer/fiddler who holds the spotlight by sharing it. Union Station is the best outfit in bluegrass right now, in no small part because Krauss is one of music's best bandleaders. She knows how to draw out players through their own material and how interplay vivifies a static genre. Krauss may be the best country singer going, but you come away from songs like these thinking not “What a singer” but “What an ensemble!” Krauss has plenty to teach everybody, not just the Nashville hacks who don't make her songwriting cut, but all of the radio and video slugs who passed on her first four titles. She's still on Rounder and, even though they have a right to, nobody's thinking they're too big for their britches.