Last night in Cary, NC, Alison Krauss & Union Station performed their sixth show out of 78 on a six-month tour in support of their new album, Arcadia. Bluegrass fans have been waiting 14 years for an album, and 10 years for a tour. The wait is finally over!
With 27 Grammys, Krauss among the most awarded female artist by the Recording Academy, and her almost two-hour show was a smooth, continuous flow of the highest quality music, representing the new album, award-winning tunes from her past recordings, and numbers highlighting the prowess of her band.
With no formal introduction, no words from anyone, AKUS took center stage and embarked on an evening of musical magic, beginning with the title cut from Arcadia. Standing under a v-shaped movie theater marquee displaying the same name, a wooden ticket booth, and a globe street lamp on stage, the group performed the most seamless, well-orchestrated production of music that seems humanly possible. Techs stood ready at the close of each song to hand off the next instrument to the various players, tuned and capoed in the correct key. Ron Block switched between multiple banjos and guitars. Russell Moore swapped between guitars and mandolin. Stuart Duncan bounced back and forth from fiddle, mandolin, and guitar with absolutely no time lapse. It was smooth. It was slick. It was polished. It was professional to a whole new level for a bluegrass act.
Krauss addressed the 7,000 attendees. “Thank you very much! We’re so glad to be here. This is one of our favorite places to play anywhere in the world. It’s North Carolina first of all, the best state, and then here at Cary, we’ve always had the greatest time. Thanks for coming out and being with us. We’re going to play some bluegrass!”
Then she and Duncan launched into a rousing twin fiddle version of Sawing on the Strings. The evening passed quickly as Alison performed new music, medleys of her past hits, and showcased each musician individually. Block picked a rousing version of Cluck Old Hen. Duncan sawed away on Lee Highway Blues, and Russell Moore crooned Rain Please Go Away. Resophonic guitarist, Jerry Douglas, even played a beautiful medley with only himself on the stage, dedicating the song to, and praising Barry Poss who ran Durham’s Sugar Hill Records for many years.
Their encore featured a powerful medley of Alison singing When You Say Nothing At All, Whiskey Lullaby, Down to the River to Pray, and Living Prayer one a single microphone with just Russell and Ron on guitars. Then Moore lead the guys in the band with IIIrd Tyme Out’s quartet version of When He Reached Down His Hand For Me. The show concluded with There Is A Reason. As the audience took to their feet with more thunderous applause, each band member stepped to the center of the stage, bowed and waved in thankfulness for the appreciative crowd. A perfect ending of a perfect night.
Following their performance, newcomer to the band, Russell Moore, shared…
“It’s very busy and very relaxing at the same time. All I have to do is wear one hat, and that means going on stage and doing the performance. Pretty much everything else in my life is taken care of right now.”
[We had] weeks of rehearsal. Not just for the band and stage hands, but there were even vocal sessions. Ron and I got together several times, just working on guitar stuff. Then we started full band rehearsals that lasted about two weeks before we played our first show. That’s why it is so seamless. It’s not flawless, but it’s getting better every time we hit the stage.
We are two weeks in, and have most of it left to go. We run through the end of September.”
Ron Block spoke of his joy in returning to the stage with AKUS.
“I love being on tour. I love tour life. I love bus life. I love playing this music. I love having a lot of time to practice during the day because you get to the venue and you’re there all day. It’s good.
We’re traveling mostly by tour bus. We’re on several buses and the band is on one bus. It’s hilarious. We get on the bus at night and just laugh, then go to bed an hour and a half later ,or two hours, three hours. It’s lots of fun.
I love the new music, and I love Russell’s singing. Oh my gosh, it’s incredible. Of course I love playing with Alison, Barry, and Jerry, that’s just a given, but to add Russell and then add Stuart Duncan… it’s a whole other layer. It’s something else. Stuart and Russell add so much to it. It’s really beautiful.
We worked on all that stuff. We rehearsed the parts of the music: first me and Russell, then me, Russell, and Stuart, instrument and vocal, all these different parts you rehearse. Then rehearse the full band, and then you start doing the tech rehearsals where you have the guitar techs bringing you stuff. I practiced plugging in my guitar. I was having trouble finding the plug to plug in right quickly so I just plugged it in, unplugged it, plugged in it. Your brain basically makes a new neuro pathway when you repeat an activity. If you keep repeating the activity, it puts a myelin coating around that neuo pathway. It’s making it thicker and thicker so the action becomes automated. You don’t have to think about it. That’s what I did with plugging in and unplugging the guitar, so now when I have to plug it in, it’s just immediate. I don’t have to search for it.
It’s the same with handing things off and switching, and how we hand them. Even how he hands me the guitar and which hand I take it with and how I do the strap. It’s the same every time. You just have to think through all those elements.
Stuart Duncan is on board for his first stint as part of Union Station, though he had previously toured with Krauss and Robert Plant. In AKUS, he joined late in the planning stage, playing fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. “It was obviously an unexpected great thing to have happen this year for me. It was a last minute, ‘hey, you want to come out with us?’ Well, gee, what am I going to say, no?”
Duncan says he is enjoying his new gig. “My favorite song that she is doing right now is Gravity. I think it is a great song.”
Following the tour, Moore is looking forward to returning to his own band, IIIrd Tyme Out.
“We haven’t given that up at all. The guys are gracious enough to wait on me to get through with this tour, and they’re ready to start back with IIIrd Tyme Out music, and I will be, too, at the end of this tour.”
When asked who would take IIIrd Tyme Out’s bassist Colton Baker’s place in the band, as he has departed to Authentic Unlimited, Moore responded…
“We don’t have a replacement set in place right now. We have a few prospects. When I have time, I hope to get with Wayne [Benson], Keith [McKinnon], and Nathan [Aldridge] and maybe try out a couple/three guys in that period of time. Then we will try to get ready to hit the stage as IIIrd Tyme Out in the first weekend in October, about four days after our last show as Union Station. It’s going to be a quick turn around. We will hit the ground running.”
What a year for Russell and Stuart, and what a show from Alison Krauss & Union Station!
