Neil Morton
FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK
Looks Like The End Of The Road: Alison Krauss & Union Station
The deliciously dark Looks Like The End Of The Road looks like a new beginning for Alison Krauss & Union Station. The single, our Song Of The Week at herecomesthesong.com, will be the opening track of their forthcoming album, Arcadia, their first recorded work in 14 years.
Remember Paper Airplane? Was it really that long ago? That bewitching crystalline voice is back in harness with the dazzling dobro of Jerry Douglas on a song written by fellow Nashville resident Jeremy Lister that immediately struck a chord with the Illinois-born fiddle-playing singer.
Krauss says: ‘Usually, I find something that’s a first song, and then things fall into place. That song was Looks Like the End of the Road. It just felt so alive – and as always, I could hear the guys already playing it.’
The other guys in the bluegrass band are Ron Block (banjo and guitars), bassist Barry Bales and stellar new recruit Russell Moore on vocals, guitar and mandolin. Moore, frontman for IIIrd Tyme Out, is the International Bluegrass Music Association’s most decorated male vocalist of all time.
After releasing their last album Krauss and her Union Station cohorts took time out to build their solo careers and collaborate with other artists. Collectively, the group have more than 70 Grammy awards to their name. Looks Like The End Of The Road was the powerful song that brought them back together. Krauss’ shimmering, seemingly effortless vocal reflects on life’s joy and the losses that have scarred it.
It’s the end of the circus
And I’m feeling sad like a clown
My makeup is drowning in
Blood, sweat and tears
From my heart and I fear that
When I look around
I lost what I found
When I started off
Never thought I’d cross
The lines that were drawn
A long time ago
Are buried and gone
In lies and ego
And I drank it down
But can’t cover up
The lives that I’ve lost
I’ve run out of luck
Goodbye to the world that I know
Looks like the end of the road
Arcadia is described as a collection of ‘contemporary reflections of history’, 10 tracks that ‘transcend time, reveal beautiful and tragic truths, and reaffirm why the group remains one of the most influential, widely celebrated acts of the past four decades’.
Krauss adds: ‘The stories of the past are told in this music. It’s that whole idea of in the good old days when times were bad. There’s so much bravery and valour and loyalty and dreaming, of family and themes of human existence that were told in a certain way when our grandparents were alive. 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.’
The self-produced album, its writers including Robert Lee Castleman, Alison’s brother Viktor Krauss, Bob Lucas, JD McPherson and Sarah Siskind, arrives on March 28 before a 75-date US tour kicks off in Kentucky in April. There is a lone Alison Krauss composition, Richmond On The James, a co-write with GT Burgess. Another Lister offering, There’s A Light Up Ahead, closes the record.
Moore, who replaced Dan Tyminski, is showcased on the traditional-sounding second single, Granite Mills. Krauss says: ‘We all met when Dan left the band, and Jerry asked me, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Russell Moore’, and they all said, ‘Absolutely!’ I couldn’t believe it when we went into the studio and his voice came through the speakers. He just stands there and sings with his hands in his pockets, and he kills it. The first song he did was Granite Mills and about 10 minutes in, Ron was covering his mouth because he started giggling. Russell came in and inspired us all.’
Bleak tales always sound beautiful in the care of Krauss and company. Welcome back.