Review – Alison Krauss “Forget About It”
album on Rounder Records through Shock!
Alison Krauss grew up in a musical family and initially came to acclaim
due to her amazing vocal abilities. As her career progressed from being signed
to Rounder Records at age 14, she has developed her skills as a producer and
arranger, and is known for her knack for finding great songs. She has released
7 albums prior to “Forget About It”, her newest release, but has
produced three albums for the Cox Family and
remains in demand for studio work. She has sung and played on recordings by Bad Company,
Vince
Gill, Emmylou Harris,
Alan
Jackson, Michael
McDonald, Dolly Parton,
and Phish and teamed up with Michael
on a couple of the tracks on this album.
“Forget About It” on Rounder Records through
Shock! is
a truly ‘nice’ album: traditional country instrumentation with the acoustic
bass, dobro, mandolin, fiddle (of course!) and those fantastic millimetre-apart
two-part harmonies so famous in Nashville. This album is a collection of songs
both written and selected especially, with the added strength of a couple of
favours returned from Lyle Lovett
and Dolly Parton in the Alan Reynolds standard Dreaming
My Dreams with You closing track.
Standout tracks on this album include Maybe and the Janice Ianesque Empty Hearts. Given the quality of this release, there are many more albums to come for Alison and her band Union Station. One might even seek out some of the earlier releases to listen to the growth of such an artist. While some self-penned songs might show another side of the artist, sticking to one’s guns is obviously just as successful!