Lonely Runs Both Ways

Alison Krauss and Union Station

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 23, 2004)
• Original Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rounder Records Corp.
• ASIN: B000645UPA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,297 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nobody makes somber sound more exquisite than Alison Krauss. She's come an awfully long way from her days as a teenage fiddle prodigy, as her glamour gown on this CD's cover suggests and the bittersweet maturity of the music confirms. Krauss exchanges her bluegrass fiddle for the chamber strains of viola on much of the material, including four songs by Robert Lee Castleman (whose "The Lucky One," "Let Me Touch You for Awhile," and "Forget About It" were previously popularized by Krauss). Castleman's compositions showcase the emotional intimacy and interpretive subtlety of her breathy trill. The yearning harmonies on "Wouldn't Be So Bad" (written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings) and "Borderline" (written by Sidney and Suzanne Cox) reinforce the album's restless spirit of quiet desperation. Change-of-pace contributions by Krauss's bandmates are more deeply rooted in the bluegrass/folk tradition, with Dan Tyminski renewing Del McCoury's "Rain Please Go Away" and Woody Guthrie's populist anthem "Pastures of Plenty"; Dobro master Jerry Douglas leads the charge on his instrumental "Unionhouse Branch." Few bands in bluegrass can match the virtuosity of Union Station's interplay, but the artistry of Alison Krauss transcends genre. --Don McLeese

Recommended Alison Krauss & Union Station Discography

Now That I've Found You: A Collection	Two Highways	I've Got That Old Feeling
Live	Forget About It	So Long So Wrong

Product Description

GRAMMY WINNER FOR BEST COUNTRY ALBUM, BEST COUNTRY PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP, AND BEST COUNTRY INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE.

Lonely Runs Both Ways is the highly anticipated new studio album from the world’s finest purveyors of Bluegrass, Alison Krauss and Union Station. Featuring instant classics such as "Wouldn’t Be So Bad," "Goodbye Is All We Have," and the lead single, "Restless," Lonely Runs Both Ways is another unforgettable collection of songs from this multiple Grammy-winning act.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this for "A Living Prayer", February 4, 2005

By	Rick Cornell "RC" (Reno, Nv USA) - See all my reviews

Greetings, bluegrass fans. I'm not among you. This is my 84th review for Ammy, and the first of a bluegrass, folk or country album. I review albums of singers, and generally, that's jazz singers. In fact, of the prior 83, 80 are of jazz singers, while three are of pop singers (Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate Bush).

My attention to this album was drawn by "Down Beat", the Bible of jazz. They gave a good rating to this, and one critic there gave it 5 stars. "Down Beat" rarely gives 5 stars to singers, so I knew I had to check it out.

I'm glad I did. Alison Krauss has a beautiful, pure voice. Her voice reminds me of Sinead O'Connor (pop) or Luciana Souza or Tierney Sutton (jazz)--one of those strong voices that doesn't strain, crack or pop no matter where she is in either of her second soprano ranges. The Union Station gives her solid backup support throughout.

Through the first 14 cuts, I was on the fence as to whether to give this 4 or 5 stars, which was tempered by the fact that my knowledge of bluegrass isn't anywhere near as complete as it is of jazz. Then I got to the last cut, "A Living Prayer", done by Ms. Krauss alone on guitar. Wow! This is one of the most spiritual songs done in recent years in any genre. It is a "pull your car over to the side of the road and listen to this now!" type of song. To say the least, it is worth the price of the album, and makes it one highly recommended. RC

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great effort from Alison and the Station, February 3, 2005

By	James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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At age 33, Alison Krauss has more Grammies - 17 - than any other woman performer (even Aretha Franklin), while her previous studio CD, 2001's New Favorite, is approaching platinum sales levels. These are especially impressive feats considering how true bluegrass lingers far from mainstream country and pop, and how steadfast Krauss's dedication to bluegrass has been.


With her ace band Union Station, Krauss's forte has been a surprising but effective combination of crackling neotrad country and quiet pop. On Lonely Runs Both Ways, she again turns repeatedly to Robert Lee Castleman's intelligent writing along with a Gillian Welch/David Rawlings composition they themselves haven't recorded ("Wouldn't Be So Bad").

Woody Guthrie's "Pastures Of Plenty" gets a brooding interpretation from Union Station's deep-voiced guitarist Dan Tyminski (who sang George Clooney's numbers in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Tyminski and hard-driving banjoist Ron Block's occasional lead vocals give the CD balance and weight, bringing it back down to earth after Krauss's cerebral singing.

Krauss, who began her recording career as a teen-aged fiddle prodigy, here gives her bowing dark, primeval tones in contrast to her light-as-a-feather vocals. Jerry Douglas plays dobro as imaginatively as ever as Krauss and Union Station transport serious bluegrass into the present without removing it from its past.

147 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good album, but ..., November 24, 2004

By	Dave Goldberg (40 miles north of NYC) - See all my reviews

A very good album because everything Alison and Union Station does is very good. The but ... is because it's a star's album: nothing really new, nothing adventurous, nothing daring at all.

Sad, because that's how Alison in particular became a star. Her breakthrough album, a decade ago, featured Lennon and McCartney mixed with gospel, bluegrass, and old rock stuff plus two classics: "Now that I found You,'' an old R&B tune and "When you say Nothing at all.''

This album is formulaic. Four Robert Lee Castlemans, a Welch/Rawlings; some bluegrass stuff by Dan and the obligatory Ron Block religious closing. All well done, some of it interesting, but nothing really new _ the farthest out number is Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty.'' I grew up with it, so I'm a little tired of it, but I liked the way it was done.

Two thoughts on what this might have been.

1. Shortly after I watched the concert DVD with Alison's explanation (very funny - she could be a standup comic) of her yearning for sad "lost love'' songs, I heard The Band's "It Makes No Difference.'' It's long been one of my favorites and my first thought was that it would make a perfect Alison Kraus number. Lost love from one of the great groups of all time _ as much country, by the way, as they were rock.

2. Recently, my Tivo brought me a Shania Twain concert with AKUS as the backing band. It was wonderful. Not for Twain, who doesn't have half of Alison's talent. But for what AKUS sounded like _ Jerry's dobro like an electric guitar; Ron's acoustic guitar like Keith Richards; Larry's drums like ... well, you get the idea. Alison's vocal and fiddle fills were wonderful, far better than Twain's leads. And the last snippet was a classicly funny one-liner she just threw out there.

Wouldn't it have been nice to have broken formula with that kind of instrumental _ not electric, just new? A couple of things on the live album/DVD _ Ron's "Faraway Land'' comes to mind _ are pretty far out instrumentally, certainly in no country/bluegrass mode that I know. Something like that on this album would have made it a little more spontaneous.

I guess what I hoped for was a reach out. To The Band; even to the Grateful Dead's "Workingman's Dead'' or "American Beauty" albums, both mostly acoustic. I'd love to hear AKUS do "Ripple'' or "Brokedown Palace.'' It might be tough, especially "Ripple,'' although Jimmy Dale Gilmour did a pretty interesting version.

Maybe it was too much to hope for. This is good stuff. It's just stuff produced by stars who now seem very much in the mainstream. Yes, what they've done in the past has brought the mainstream closer to them _ they've changed American country music a bit. But being stars, they would seem to have the cachet to do what they want _ as I write this, the album has been out one day and is No. 4 on Amazon's sales list. Maybe innovation would make it No. 1.