I have to thank a couple of my kids for exposing me to Alison Krauss. When I first heard her, it hit me like a ton of bricks. What a beautiful, unique voice! She's been a tremendously prolific musician with 14 albums to her credit from a career that started with "Too Late to Cry" recorded in 1987 when she was only 16 up to her latest "Paper Airplane" released this week. The purchase of "Paper Airplane" this past Wednesday brings my total to 12 so I guess you could say I'm a fan! The albums I passed on were "Raising Sand" with Robert Plant and "A Hundred Miles Or More: A Collection", the former because it was a little too weird for me and the latter because it duplicated most of its stuff from albums I already owned. I did purchase the song "Gone, Gone, Gone" from the former album, so it wasn't a total bust. I chose to buy the Target version of "Paper Airplane" because it has 6 more tracks than the standard version. I was somewhat disappointed to learn 3 of the tracks were duplicates from the "Live" album I already own. Buyer beware! I'd been planning to get it after learning of its imminent release by the Alison Krauss and Union Station mailing list. What really pushed me over the edge was being informed by Lori McKenna on Facebook that she'd co-written one of the tracks on the album. That really got my attention. Hard to imagine Alison singing one of Lori's songs. After hearing it (track #5 "My Love Follows You Where You Go"), I'm still finding it hard to imagine! It sounds nothing like anything I've heard from Lori. Probably due to the Bluegrass sound. Also it's a co-write with 2 other people, so maybe Lori's contribution gets diluted. Anyway, it's a great song and delivered impeccably. It sonically reminds me a bit of "Let Me Touch You For Awhile". "Paper Airplane" reminds me a lot of Alison's last AKUS album "Lonely Runs Both Ways", except it's a more relaxed, languid collection. Maybe you'd think of it as the lazy brother of the other. "Lonely Runs Both Ways" had tracks like "Restless" and "A Living Prayer" that really made you sit up and take notice. I just read an article about "Paper Airplane" in our local newspaper and was surprised to learn its been a long work in progress largely due to getting all the band members to agree to the included songs. Maybe the committee approach diluted the set list, because in my opinion its not as compelling a work as "Lonely Runs Both Ways". This is starting to sound like I don't like it. That's not true. I really do like it a lot, but if it were a choice between "Paper Airplane" and "Lonely Runs Both Ways", I'd say buy "Lonely Runs Both Ways" first. Favorite tracks from "Paper Airplane" besides the aforementioned "My Love Follows You Where You Go" are: the title track, "Lay My Burden Down", "Sinking Stone", "My Opening Farewell" and "These Days". The Aoife O'Donovan penned "Lay My Burden Down" deserves special mention as a darkly beautiful song, my favorite of the whole album. In my world, there's not a better band in any genre than AKUS. Their musicianship is truly as good as it gets, so this album is a worthy addition to my collection. Alison and company are a multi-platinum, Grammy winning combo, more popular than you'd expect to see reviewed on a blog dedicated to the obscure, but the thing is, they're not typical of pop music by any stretch and they've earned their popularity the old fashioned way - hard work with minimal media support. So call Alison Krauss and Union Station popular, but they're still unique enough for this old boy!
