ALSION KRAUSS & UNION STATION – PAPER AIRPLANE

It has been seven long years since Union Station last gathered together to record along with Alison Krauss. In the meantime the stellar cast have been far from idle, Krauss having been the most prominent with her hugely successful teaming with Robert Plant, Raising Sand. Still, we have so missed what they can do together. One of the greatest strengths of Ppaper Airplane is how they have chosen to structure the album. Whilst Krausss is reported saying it was the hardest album to record, it comes across as the most cohesive of projects. Not only is it the usual, and impeccable, inter-weaving of the gentler Krauss-led tracks with the more traditional bluegrass tunes sung by Dan Tyminski, but it is the working in of two covers in particular that glue the album together. The Richard Thompson penned Dimming of the Day sits mid-album, and a lonesome, yearning vocal from Krauss is one of her finest performances to date; while the album closes with Jackson Browne’s My Opening Farewell, with Krauss once again displaying the sweetest restraint. In between the albums title track and the Tyminski sung On the Outside Looking In are standouts.Timeless.

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