Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss is the kind of late starter that could put this current generation of pop stars to shame. Picking up the violin at the age of five, she started studying the classical side of the instrument first before turning to bluegrass soon afterwards. Three years after she picked up the instrument she was already entering and winning talent contests and by the age of ten she was performing with her own band. She spent her early teenage years winning vast amounts of praise for her musicianship, with Vanity Fair calling her a Virtuoso and the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America naming her the "Most Promising Fiddler in the Midwest”.

However, Krauss’ career would soon take her far beyond anything regional. When she was twelve she joined the band of bassist and songwriter John Pennell, an outfit called Silver Rail. However, after another band was discovered of the same name, their moniker was changed to Union Station. In 1985 she released her first solo record, a collection of classic fiddle tunes that didn’t really go anywhere. However, it did land her a record deal with Rounder Records, and with Union Station backing her, and Pennell writing the songs, together they created Krauss’ second album “Too Late To Cry” in 1987.

It was at this point that Krauss and Union Station started to get some mainstream attention, quickly following up “Too Late To Cry” with extensive touring and then 1989’s “Two Highways”. This was Krauss’ first album to be credited to her and Union Station, but Rounder wanted her to alternate between solo records and then records with the band, so the first time that Krauss achieved mainstream success was under her own name with 1990’s “I’ve Got That Old Feeling”. The record was a reasonable commercial success but it was also the first record to net her a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Recording.

The 90’s proved to be very kind to Krauss, as her and Union Station took their brand of rootsy bluegrass into the mainstream charts. 1994 saw the release of her first top ten country hit in the form of “Somewhere In The Vicinity Of The Heart”. 1995’s compilation album “Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection” saw her embark into the top twenty of the Billboard 200 for the first time, peaking at number 13. The collection of older releases and covers from her career, one that was already a decade long at this point, would also go double platinum, selling two million copies before the year was out.

Since then, Krauss has gone from strength to strength. She’s won a veritable mountain of Grammy Awards (27 in total), had a further five more of her albums certified Gold, become an omissible live act with Union Station and generally become one of the biggest Bluegrass artists in the world. Not to mention recording and releasing a critically acclaimed and commercially successful album with the one and only Robert Plant as well. She’s something of a legend, and for that, she comes highly recommended.