Alison Krauss
O SISTER! Bluegrass Star Alison Krauss's New Favorite: Hers and Ours
Alison Krauss is on some kind of roll. Her 1999 solo album, Forget About It, was nothing short of a masterpiece, a haunting set of intimate stories. She's followed it up with New Favorite, recorded with her longtime band Union Station. It's a masterful blend of Forget About It's bright pop sensibility and the rootsiness that made a phenomenon of the O Brother, Where Are Thou? soundtrack, which prominently features Krauss and band -- particularly guitarist Dan Tyminski, who sang for George Clooney in the Soggy Bottom Boys. In between those two projects, Krauss (who is quietly becoming one of the best producers around) was behind the board on Nickel Creek's smash debut album. With much to discuss, Krauss took time out from caring for her precocious two-year-old son to talk with Barnes & Noble.com's David McGee.
Barnes & Noble.com: Your work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack seems to have set up this album nicely. But why is it that the most photogenic person in the group doesn't even get a cameo in that movie? Meaning you.
Alison Krauss: Oh, me! Oh, boy, I was nine months pregnant when they were filming, and they asked if I wanted to do it and be pregnant in it, and I said, "You know, I don't think I do. I'll pass."
B&N.com: You recently produced the debut from Nickel Creek, who are on their way to big things.
AK: The reaction to that band is cuckoo. And let me tell you, we've been getting ready to work on a new record for them. It's going to be fantastic. They've just begun writing, and the songs are even better than the ones on the first album. We're going to start in September.
B&N.com: How did you come to produce their album?
AK: I met them when Sara [Watkins] and Chris [Thiele] were, I think, seven, and Sean [Watkins] was ten, 11, or something. Chris was amazing at seven -- I kept thinking, "What in the world is going on with that guy?" It was crazy. But I'd see them every now and then, and I knew that they had a band and had recorded. I got a tape from them when they were like ten or something. They were opening for Tony Rice at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and I hadn't seen them play. And I was watching them and going, I'm coming out of my chair here, people! When they got their deal, the label called me about producing the album. I thought, Whoa. Okay.
B&N.com: Let's talk about New Favorite. Do you hear a difference between your solo albums and the band albums?
AK: Oh, sure. One thing that is so obvious is the instrumentation: We always add more people -- drums, piano, whatever -- on the solo albums. It's a different thing; you have to have different songs for a band record because you've got so many lead singers and they have to fit together. There are some songs that I find are just too personal -- I hate to say "intimate" or whatever -- to be within a group record. I may be a kook, but that's how it hits me. It's definitely a tougher process to pick the material for the group records.
B&N.com: Would it be fair to say that on your solo albums you have a deeper involvement with every song in the sense that it's more of a personal statement than a band record is?
AK: No, not at all. I often say, our heart is really in those band records. That's what we tour with; that's what we live together with; that's the real stuff. The solo records are fun for everybody because they're a little bit different than what we do in the band. But the band stuff -- that is where I really feel like we're creating something very special, because it's the same five of us and just those instruments.
B&N.com: How do you achieve and sustain a mood over the course of an entire album?
AK: You have to think of an album as a whole -- not as a bunch of different songs. Forget About It started with "It Don't Matter Now." I thought, "Here it is; here's the song." And I picked everything else around that. When you have that kind of focus, then you know everything else has to work with this particular song. Instead of, "Oh, I like this, I like this," and filling it in. I mean, that whole record has kind of a theme: It's "love loss with regret" -- except for the last song, "Dreaming My Dreams with You," which is "love loss with regret, but I'm not going to let it get me down forever." But they all have similar themes within the songs. For me that's how a mood is created on our records. Since we really don't worry about singles, that helps us get that mood. Of course it doesn't help for radio [laughs], but it helps to create a nice mood.
B&N.com: Why do you want to do an album about love loss and regret?
AK: Well, I didn't pick the theme. I just picked the song that I liked, and it happened to have that theme. It wasn't like I went in and thought I had to have love loss and regret on every song. At the end, when the record was finished, I thought, "Wow, all the songs have the same story told in different ways." But it was more something I noticed afterwards. No wonder there was a mood.
B&N.com: Do you think the type of music you do -- rooted in bluegrass, but with other styles woven in -- lends itself to these kinds of personal, intimate songs?
AK: I grew up listening to bluegrass, and those tunes are so timeless. The subjects are so timeless, and the way the stories are told is timeless in an abstract way to where they fit many different scenarios. Growing up on that kind of tune, that's what I look for now, even though they're not straight-ahead bluegrass tunes. But I always look for tunes that I can relate to, and I always say if they make you feel like crap, you oughta do 'em. That's pretty much the approach.
August 14, 2001
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