#ron block

Song Review: Alison Krauss & Union Station - “Granite Mills”

New fella Russell Moore wasted no time establishing himself as an essential member of Alison Krauss & Union Station, taking lead vocals on “Granite Mills.”

The second single from the forthcoming (March 28) Arcadia finds the IIIrd Tyme Out frontman (he replaces Dan Tyminski) serving as the AKUS frontman and witness to the gruesome factory fire that inspired the old-time song.

The next scene was a hard one/as she passed before my eyes/she was leaping out a window/thrown from the roof so high/with a crack, she fell down on the ground/she was bruised and burned and killed/three hundred people lost their lives in the flames of the burning mill, Moore sings as Jerry Douglas’ Dobro and Krauss’ fiddle add a haunting soundscape.

This is an altogether different Union Station, moodier and grittier than in the past, and “Granite Mills” is a stark contrast to the preceding “Looks Like the End of the Road.” But stark differences are often pleasing and so it goes with “Granite Mills.”

Grade card: Alison Krauss & Union Station - “Granite Mills” - B+

Dan Tyminski and Jerry Douglas performing "The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn". ________________________________ The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn Songwriters: Patrick Brayer, Jerry Douglas, Barry Bales, Dan Tyminski, Ron Block and Alison Krauss

Song Review: Molly Tuttle - “She’ll Change”

Just when you think you know her, she’ll change.

So sings Molly Tuttle on “She’ll Change,” her new bluegrass track co-written with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, featuring Union Station’s Ron Block (banjo) and Jerry Douglas (Dobro) and announcing Tuttle’s Nonsuch Records debut, which thus far has no title or release date.

The track is high-test and compact at less than three minutes. It’s modern yet looks over its shoulder at the artists who built the genre.

“I wanted to write my own bluegrass song about a badass woman who lives by her own rules,” Tuttle said in a statement. “‘She’ll Change’ is my homage to the strong musical women who helped me find my own voice.”

An appropriate sentiment given the forthcoming LP will follow Tuttle’s 2020 covers LP … but i’d rather be with you.

Grade card: Molly Tuttle - “She’ll Change” - B

Album Review: Alison Krauss - Windy City

Taking a page from Rosanne Cash’s The List, Alison Krauss covers classic songs from her parents’ generation on Windy City, the fiddler and Union Station frontwoman’s first solo album since 1999.

But while Cash’s 2009 album was light and breezy, Krauss’ 2017 release is dark and still - a low-key collection of languid ballads awash in lush strings, piano, swirling pedal-steel guitar and arrangements that harken back to the Nashville Sound of the mid-20th century. The Osborne Brothers’ title track and “It’s So Long and Goodbye to You” give the maudlin Windy City a few, much-needed bursts of sunshine, but it’s mostly bleak and dreary on this one.

Even with songs from the likes of Willie Nelson (“I Never Cared for You”) and John Hartford (“Gentle on My Mind”) and guest appearances from Union Station bandmates Dan Tyminski, Ron Block and Barry Bales and friends Hank Williams Jr., Jamey Johnson, Jim Horn and others, Windy City, out Feb. 17 and now streaming on NPR’s First Listen, lacks the spark these artists would seem to bring by their mere presence alone.

Ultimately, it’s Krauss’ irresistible voice that saves the album from being a complete dud. But even that angelic instrument is not enough to make the listless Windy City’s 34-minute runtime easy to pass in a single listen.

Grade card: Alison Krauss - Windy City - C-

Hear it here: http://www.npr.org/2017/02/09/514096051/first-listen-alison-krauss-windy-city

Song Review: Alison Krauss - “Losing You”

Bruce Springsteen AND the E Street Band.

Booker T. AND the MG’s.

Commander Cody AND His Lost Planet Airmen.

Alison Krauss AND Union Station.

Although these artists are as different as different can be, they have one thing in common - the namesake leader almost always does his or her best work when accompanied by the band that follows the “AND.”

This holds true on “Losing You,” the first single from the first Alison Krauss solo album since 1999 and her first studio recording since 2011’s Paper Airplane with Union Station.

Windy City is due Feb. 17 and features a who’s-who of supporting musicians including Buddy Cannon, Jamey Johnson, Hank Williams Jr. and Union Station denizens Dan Tyminski, Barry Bales and Ron Block among others.

A torch song of the highest order, “Losing You” has no fiddle, but lots of violin. Its lush strings and orchestral arrangement find Krauss sounding more like Linda Ronstadt in her Nelson Riddle phase of the 1980s than anything we’ve heard from Krauss since, well, ever.

Krauss’ angelic voice is as gorgeous and appealing as ever, even if it sounds out of place in this bland musical setting.

Grade card: Alison Krauss - “Losing You” - C+

As Damien said as he opened the evening “when you mention two banjos everyone thinks of dualling banjos, but tonight, we are collaborative banjos.” Continue reading Live Review: ‘collaborative banjos’ make for a meditative atmosphere at NCEM

Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas at Mershon Auditorium; Columbus, Ohio; April 19, 2025

Alison Krauss & Union Station built their encore like an opening sequence, gathering around a single mic and expanding from trio to quartet to quintet to sextet for a spiritual - in the literal and figurative senses - six-song sequence of “When You Say Nothing at All,” “Whiskey Lullaby,” “Down to the River to Pray,” “A Living Prayer,” “When He Reached Down his Hand for Me” and “There is a Reason.”

Thus ended the third show of AKUS’ first tour in a decade. And save for some monitor issues and a pedal problem that tried - and failed - to trip up Ohio native Jerry Douglas during his solo portion, an enthralling, instrumental combo of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” and Return to Forever’s “Spain,” early-tour hiccups were nonexistent.

“We’ve been doing a lot of practicing but it’s still scary,” Krauss said after the band ripped through the instrumental “Choctaw Hayride,” early in its 33-song, 110-minute performance.

This was a different Union Station. While Krauss, Dobroist Douglas, Ron Block (guitar and banjo) and bassist Barry Bales remain; Dan Tyminski is out, ably replaced by Russell Moore on guitar, mandolin and second lead vocals. And, for the tour, the group expanded to a six piece with the addition of Stuart Duncan. Though he was placed on the back line next to Bales, Duncan was essential on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and background vocals, his solos often eliciting the loudest bursts of applause from the sold-out crowd that gathered April 19 inside Columbus, Ohio’s, Mershon Auditorium for an Easter eve bluegrass revival.

The group came on with no announcement at 7:35 and took their places on a subtle but visually appealing stage set that nodded to the titular Arcadia with a 3-D marquee, ticket booth and street lamp situated before a screen that carried various outdoor scenes to illustrate individual songs.

And Union Station played most of them - some truncated to accommodate their abundance - in a career-spanning offering that included “Ghost in this House,” “Baby, Now that I’ve Found You,” “Let Me Touch You for a While” and others. Moore got to shine on his four Arcadia spotlights, the sauntering “North Side Gal” and the gloomy “Hangman” the highlights, and channeled Tyminski brilliantly on “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn.” The biggest setlist surprise came in the form of “Angel Flying too Close to the Ground,” which began with Douglass and Krauss alone before the band melted in - a glorious arrangement that nodded to the new era of Union Station.

Nodding to the old, Krauss remains angelic of singing voice and hilarious of speaking voice, whether good-naturedly ribbing Block for his formerly vegetarian ways or teasing Bales, an avid hunter, for dressing in “secret clothes” and “murdering god’s creatures.”

With more than 70 shows scheduled through September, the latest iteration of AKUS is guaranteed only to get nimbler and more precise. This is an almost-unfathomable premise as the just-out-of-the-gate band is already nearly perfect with the six singers and players dialed in to their lead and support roles and working together for the greater good.

Grade card: Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas at Mershon Auditorium - 4/19/25 - A

Album Review: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia

A lot has changed in the 14 years since Alison Krauss & Union Station released Paper Airplane.

Dan Tyminski is out, though he contributes acoustic guitar and/or mandolin to all 10 tracks as a session player on Arcadia. In his place is IIIrd Tyme Out’s Russell Moore, who doesn’t play on the album, but sings lead on four tracks to Krauss’ six, making for a more-balanced female-to-male ratio on the mic.

And Moore, who sounds an awful lot like Tyminski, shines, adding urgency to the workplace-disaster narrative that is “Granite Mills” and feigning swagger on the rollicking “North Side Gal,” a song of failed woo.

Well, she gets colder/every time I try to hold her, Moore sings with help from the boys in the band.

So what hasn’t changed? Krauss infusing Union Station’s ballads like the Civil War lament “Richmond on the James” and “There’s a Light up Ahead,” a hopeful prayer, with her angelic vocal performances for one. Jerry Douglas’ Dobro, Ron Block’s banjo and Barry Bales’ bass for two, three and four.

It’s nonetheless a different band. And, AKUS is now, more than ever, truly a band.

Grade card: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia - B