Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas

“Many people in bluegrass music talk about being born in the wrong decade,” says Alison Krauss, “and whenever I sing, the pictures I see in my head take place in a particular time. That's what happened with these tunes, maybe even more so than in the past.”

For nearly four decades, Alison Krauss & Union Station have been celebrated as one of the most influential acts in bluegrass and roots music. Known for an immaculately crafted but endlessly surprising sound, the group has returned with "Arcadia," their first album since the 2011 masterpiece "Paper Airplane," a multiple Grammy Award-winning LP that debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country, Bluegrass, and Folk Album charts.

They may not have released an album in 14 years, but Krauss never stopped thinking about the next Union Station project or gathering songs that might fit. “Over the years, you'll hear something, but it's not time for it,” she says. “You say to yourself, ‘Oh, this is beautiful, I'm going to set it aside and wait. I have a place behind my desk with songs that I collect, including CDs and cassettes of songs I've kept for 30, 40 years.”

Still, she needed the one song that would bring things into focus, that felt like a starting point, before she would pick up the phone and start mobilizing the band. “Usually, I find something that's a first song - ‘Here's the beginning’ - and then things fall into place. That song was "Looks Like the End of the Road." Jeremy Lister wrote it, and he’s one of my favorites. It just felt so alive, and as always, I could hear the guys already playing it. We’ve always been very grateful as a band to have come across such beautiful songs through the years and to be like-minded enough to create this life together.”

The members of Union Station are a team of virtuosos, all with thriving solo careers. Krauss (fiddle, lead vocal) signed to Rounder Records at age 14 and has gone on to sell over 12 million albums, earning 27 wins and 44 nominations from the Grammy Awards. Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals), and Barry Bales (bass, vocals) are all award-winning players, songwriters, and producers who have worked with and are considered some of the greatest musicians in the world.

For Krauss, returning to a more traditional approach after spending so much time recording and touring with Robert Plant (including 2021’s acclaimed "Raise the Roof," the follow-up to 2007’s "Raising Sand," which won the Grammy for Album of the Year) put her back on familiar and hospitable ground. “This is where I live and come from, and now I get to bring my experiences with Robert back to Union Station, just like all of the guys do with recording, producing and performing outside of the band” she says.

As Alison Krauss & Union Station gear up for their first tour together in ten years, Krauss is excited about the musical challenges and rewards of working with her magnificent bandmates, and about the new directions they explore on Arcadia. But she’s also aware of the importance, even the responsibility, of being a standard-bearer for roots music and keeping these songs alive.

“Someone asked me, how do you sing these tragic tunes?,” she says. “I have to. It’s a calling. I feel privileged to be a messenger of somebody else's story. And I want to hear what happened.”

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