Music Review - Alison Krauss

I love music of all kinds (ok, most kinds), but country is one genre I just don't know much about and haven't had that much exposure to. There are certainly some country acts that I know and like, although they tend to be more the country/pop crossovers like Shania Twain, Faith Hill and the Dixie Chicks. Or more "old school", like Johnny Cash and some of the instrumentalists like Chet Atkins. As an aside, the whole family loves the Dixie Chicks, and a Chicks concert a couple of years ago at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia was one of the best concerts I have seen in years.

Having been exposed to a bit more country music recently, and liking just about everything I have heard, I made an impulse purchase at Target the other day of Alison Krauss's A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection (2007). I'm not 100% sure what made me buy this, but I was poking through the country music section while picking up some necessities, saw this CD, recognized the name from her collaboration with Robert Plant (2007's Raising Sand), and thought "what the heck".

I have had this CD in the car for the last several days, have listened to it all the way through a couple of times (two hours a day in the car 4 days a week gives you plenty of listening time), and have to admit that I'm not completely sure what to think. Krauss's voice is amazing; crystal clear and distinctive. It has an ethereal other-worldly quality that is hard to describe, but the best I can say is that if I were to think of angels singing, her voice is like that. The Amazon review of Raising Sand calls her "Nashville's most hypnotic song whisperer", and I think that hits the nail on the head. Hypnotic she is.

But that may also play a bit on the negative side, given my mood at any given moment. The songs on this disc tend to be laid back. Very laid back. If you are in a contemplative, introspective frame of mind, this will come across as a thoughtful relaxing listen. If you are not in that kind of mood, it may come off as so low-key as to be mind numbing and sleep-inducing. And honestly, in the two different run-throughs I have had, I experienced one of each.

The songs themselves tend to be of a spiritual leaning in many cases, and death is a recurring theme. Again, depending on frame of mind at a point in time, this can be a good or a bad thing. The third song on the disc, "Jacob's Dream", gives me chills each time I hear it, and I am not sure it's in a good way. For whatever reason, for me, this is a powerful song. As a father of two girls, the thought of two children wandering off in the woods and freezing to death is... chilling. But music done well should affect the listener, and this certainly does that.

Which brings me full circle. I think I like this CD. I think; I'm not sure. But I suspect that there will be days when I know I will not be in a mood to listen to it.