Alison Krauss & Union Station - New Favorite (2001)

After her 1999 gold release, Forget About It, Alison Krauss has found additional success as part of the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?--an album that's done more to advance the cause of bluegrass since Bill Monroe first conjured the music out of the hills of western Kentucky. While Forget About It showcased the more contemporary part of Krauss's musical equation and the O Brother soundtrack spotlighted the more traditional, New Favorite combines the approaches in balancing the softer sounds with the rougher-edged material. Krauss particularly shines on the soulful title tune of love gone cold, her vocal--softer than a cloud and more intimate than a midnight kiss--threatening to steal your breath away. However, it's mostly the older sounds that you'll remember from this largely somber album, one that telegraphs uncertainty, doom, and the promise of bloodshed throughout much of the repertoire. On "Momma Cried," a song about a child-snatching that tore a family asunder, Dan Tyminski's tenor vocals rise above a wailing Dobro, a driving banjo, and a thumping, anchoring bass to convey unspeakable pain. Too many of the pop-minded songs fall flat in comparison, but although this may not be the group's best effort overall, no other crossover bluegrass band begins to meet their mark either musically or emotionally, as New Favorite so amply shows. -- Alanna Nash