Alison Krauss opinions sought

[ralph@artisan]

I'm still seeking the magic in country and bluegrass whist recovering from a Commander Cody bad experience.

I've read conflicting comments on the quality of some of her albums on vinyl, especially the Union Station live set from 2002. What are your views and recommendations?

Thanks

Ralph

[palasr]

Persoanlly, I can't stand the Alison Krauss/Union Station Live Mo-Fi set. It is a digital recording, and while the tunes and performance are wonderful, I can't quite abide the recording itself. Having seen Ms. Krauss live several times, I can testify to the excellence of her performances. Sadly, this recording does no justice to both her and her excellent band. I know a lot of folks seem to think the LP is something special, and maybe it is, but in a purely hi-fi demonstration kind of way. It simply suffers from extreme digititis - I can only listen to a side before having to remove it from the table. You may as well buy the CD; better yet, go see her live.

Bluegrass is a tough genre to hone in on - like most musical forms, there is enough variation to make a starting point difficult. If I were to recommend one LP that simply embodies a little bit of everything that bluegrass/American traditional music is all about it would be The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken (3LP set on United Artists). Killer recording, tremendous tunes, and a compedium of bluegrass excellence that included all the big names at the time (which was the early 70's). It will provide a fine starting point, encompassing many aspects of the genre and will hopefully allow you to determine whether you like the genre in and of itself.

For something a little more contemporary (though very sadly not on LP), I would heartily recommend Dolly Parton's recent bluegrass forays: both Little Sparrow and The Grass is Blue. Happy listening,

-Richard

[ralph@artisan]

Thanks Richard, you have addressed the doubts I had about the Alison Krauss/Union Station Live set.

Thanks for your suggestion of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album. I'll go looking for it. I did hear a Dolly Parton bluegrass album on an in-flight channel earlier this year - an amazing version of "Stairway to Heaven."

Ralph

[galibier_numero_un]

Then of course, there's anything by Ralph Stanley and the Cinch Mountain Boys, and who can forget Bill Monroe.

On the modern side, there's Peter Rowan, although the quality of many of his records on Rounder is more in the o.k. realm. Peter Rowan does something for me that I can't explain ... even if it's on MP3. I'll look up a couple of album titles for you and edit this post later today or tomorrow.

Richard ... what's the Doc Watson album on Vanguard with "Tennesee Stud"? That's a great one too!

This brings up an interesting topic - the connectedness of folk music across continents. My wife recently got hip to some Scandinavian bands:

http://www.noside.com/artists.html - anything by Väsen, but that just scratches the surface. O.K. it's digital, but you ain't gonna find this on vinyl. Then, there's Garmarna which reminds me of early Jefferson Airplane.

Cheers,
Thom

[palasr]

I've got about a half dozen Doc Watson albums, and nearly all of them contain a version of "Tennesee Stud" - he also performs the tune on my recommended Nitty Gritty Dirt Band LP.

Speaking of Rounder records, I might also add that just about anything on Flying Fish Records is going to deliver the goods, both musically and sonically; the label is certainly more in the pure bluegrass vein than Rounder. Thom, I know you're a big fan of the Red Knuckles album (which, BTW, is one of the finest recommendations to come my way in quite some time...that thing is simply brilliant from start to finish), however that's only a pseudonym for Hot Rize, which is a killer bluegrass band that I've been listening to a lot of lately. They've got about four or five LPs from the 80's on Flying Fish that are superb. Alas, there's only two Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers albums...

Another quite accessable modern bluegrass album is the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou - an amusing Coen Brothers film with a really nice soundtrack, which includes a decent mix of contemporary bluegrass artists including Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Norman Blake, Alison Krauss and of course, Ralph Stanley...

-Richard

[ckniker]

I happen to like the Alison Krauss/Union Station Live album. At the moment, it's probably my most heavily played record.

Frankly, I don't care if it's a Digital recording. On my system it sounds better than MOST of my records. I only wish the remainder sounded as good.

This was my first foray into this genre. I had never knowingly heard Alison Krauss before buying it so I was delighted that I liked it so much.


To Richard: Since you detest the album so much I'd be happy to take it off your hands and won't charge you for it either. As a matter of fact, I'll even pick up the shipping .

Chris

[palasr]

Don't get me wrong - I actually like the tunes and the performance, I simply can't really get through a side without some degree of wincing...it is, IMHO, painfully digital. I know, I know - I should stop being such a baby about it. Maybe I'm just overly-sensitive to this, particularly when it's on vinyl. I'd guess the CD wouldn't offend me nearly as much. I think this is one of those contextual problems - the proverbial bull in a china shop. Digital recording and vinyl reproduction simply don't get on well together (at least to my ears). Digitial belongs in its native habitat.

-Richard

[galibier_numero_un]

I'd guess the CD wouldn't offend me nearly as much. I think this is one of those contextual problems - the proverbial bull in a china shop. Digital recording and vinyl reproduction simply don't get on well together (at least to my ears). Digitial belongs in its native habitat.

You raise an excellent point about expectations. Yes, I can happily listen to a CD in my car.

Here's a sidebar question:

Does anyone have recommendations for Windows XP software for burning FLAC to CD? I found a couple of good candidates, but user experience would be helpful. I need to download the Phil and Friends concert from the Fillmore this September.

Cheers,
Thom (who now remembers that he too, has at least 4 versions of Tennesee Stud in his Doc Watson record collection)

[Salectric]

My knowledge of bluegrass is pretty limited, but several mentions in this thread caught my attention.

First, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album is phenomenal by any standard. I first heard it on CD and thought it sounded great in addition to introducing me to some really good music. But as good as it sounds on CD, it is even better on vinyl (no surprise). It was a 3-LP set and they are not too hard to find in the used record stores. I bought two copies for less than $10 total.

Second, Richard mentioned Gillian Welch who is one of my very favorite artists. In fact, I brought one of her CDs (Revival) with me to RMAF. I played it in the Emotive/Symposium room where several people became Gillian Welch converts on the spot. Time (The Revelator) and Hell Among the Yearlings are also great music. I'm not sure what label to apply to her music, but if that's bluegrass, I guess I am a bluegrass fan.

Third, the mention of the Rounder label reminded me that just yesterday I played my one Rounder CD "When October Goes" which is a compilation recording. Each track has a different artist from the Rounder label and the songs all deal with autumnal themes. The music is mostly of the "singer/songwriter" genre and is uniformly great. So is the sound quality. I had such a blast listening to it yesterday that I played the whole thing again.

Dave

[Dan_ed]

Some great suggestions. This is such a wide-open category. Here are a few more suggestions that may help ease into country and bluegrass. Some you will find easier to acquire on ceedee.

Any of the Gerry Garcia, David Grisman collaborations. A.K.A, Grateful Dawg music.

Old an In the Way Garcia, Grisman, Vassar Clements, etc.

Flatt and Scruggs, yeah there is much more here than the theme to the Beverly Hillbillys but even that tune is a great example of their music.

Ricky Skaggs early stuff and his more recent stuff with his band Kentucky Thunder.

Another sub-genre that I enjoy from time to time is Texas swing. This, of course, means Bob Wills. I think a more palatable form of this music for the adventurous is the band Asleep At the Wheel.

If you're interested in country rock, I'd start with bands like The Byrds, the afore mentioned Burrito Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels Band, early Poco, Pure Prairie League.

And it just goes on and on. We haven't really gotten into the hard-core country stuff, but that's a place where I tread lightly.

[dmailer]

As far as Alison Krauss I have the New Favorite, Forget about it and both MOFI albums So Long So wrong and the live album. By far the best souding is the MOFI So long So Wrong. Great mixture of bluegrass and songs with Alison singing with very good sound quality. The next best of these is Forget About It. This one is not really bluegrass but all songs with Alison singing vocals. The New Favorite and Live albums do not seem to be of the quality of the other two. I like certain cuts off of the live album but it seems to have a little glare to it which bothers me.

[ralph@artisan]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I now have a great question to throw in when conversation lulls!

"Will the Circle Be Unbroken" is pretty hard to locate in used record shops over here, so I picked one up on ebay for $7 plus $16 international shipping. Still, 11 quid is pretty decent for a triple album.

I'll let you know what I think after I have given it a few plays.