Alison Krauss & Union Station ~New Favorite

New Favorite is the first album released by Alison Krauss and Union Station since their role in the megahit 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 their previous full album, 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' soft and intimate vocals particularly shine on the soulful title tune of love gone cold. However, it's mostly the older sounds that you'll remember from this largely sombre 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. -

1 Let Me Touch You For Awhile

2 The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn

3 The Lucky One

4 Choctaw Hayride

5 Crazy Faith

6 Momma Cried

7 I'm Gone

8 Daylight

9 Bright Sunny South

10 Stars

11 It All Comes Down To You

12 Take Me For Longing

13 New Favorite