Alison Krauss 4/11/11

With Alison Krauss and Union Station you always get an astonishing level of musicianship. Alison's voice often gets the attention but her fiddle playing is exemplary and with Jerry Douglas, Ron Block and Dan Tyminski in the band as well there is always incredible musical skill on show. Ron Block spent the half hour before the show started fine tuning his instruments and his trademark precision is unerring. My particular favourite is Jerry Douglas, partly because I love the Dobro and he is the other end of the scale from Ron, assured and relaxed at all times.
There was no support and the band just launched into 'Paper Airplane' followed by 'Dust Bowl Children' which are the opening tracks on their new album. Immediately her voice is captivating, never strained but always powerful and emotional. The gig included quite a few tracks of the new album but a great range of old favourites as well. 'Ghost in this House' for example early on had the hairs on the back of the neck standing up - the power of her voice on that song is astonishing. This gig also had a good compliment of older bluegrass favourites and Alison's fiddle playing was noticeably more prominent than in previous gigs. Jerry had a session as usual to show off his dobro playing where he elides several tunes and where his hands end up pretty much as a blur across the strings. I also particularly enjoyed Ron's banjo playing and had the impression he was spending more time than usual on the banjo. His style is distinctive and he is my favourite banjo player.
Despite the great track selection and the sheer joy of listening to such talented musicians there was something missing. I think it is the feeling that it would be great if they were let off the leash and improvised a tune or two. Jerry Douglas comes closest to it when he does his solo piece but at the other extreme the encore tracks were almost a medley with shortened versions of 'Oh Atlanta', 'You say it best...', 'Down to the river to pray' and a mere fragment of 'Whisky Lullaby'. I want to her this band get drunk and go mad but I don't think it is going to happen.