Artist: Alison Krauss

FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Alison Krauss"

A
l
Born:
Jul 23, 1971 in Decatur, Illinois
Representative Songs:
"Every Time You Say Goodbye," "When You Say Nothing at All," "So Long, So Wrong"
Representative Albums:
Now That I've Found You: A Collection, I've Got That Old Feeling, Two Highways
Similar Artists:
Mindy Smith, Bluegrass All-Stars, Steep Canyon Rangers, April Verch, The Forbes
Family, Jeff White, Tim Stafford, Béla Fleck, Kathy Chiavola, Claire Lynch, Front
Range, Joan Baez, Kathy Mattea, Laurie Lewis, Alison Brown, Nancy Blake, Austin
Lounge Lizards
Relationship with:
Viktor Krauss
Performed Songs By:
John Pennell, Sidney Cox, Ron Block, Don Schlitz, Paul Overstreet
Worked With:
Dan Tyminski, Adam Steffey, Gary Paczosa, Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Stuart Duncan,
Barry Bales, Matt Rollings, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas
Followers:
Jesse Sheely, Tresa Jordan, Donna Hughes, Kortney Kayle, Melonie Cannon

• Genre: Country

• Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s

• Instruments: Vocals, Fiddle

Biography
Alison Krauss helped bring bluegrass to a new audience in the '90s. Blending bluegrass
with folk, Krauss was instantly acclaimed from the start of her career, but it wasn't until
her platinum-selling 1995 compilation Now That I've Found You that she became a
mainstream star. Between her 1987 debut Too Late to Cry and Now That I've Found You,
she matured from a child prodigy to a versatile, ambitious, and diverse musician and, in
the process, made some of the freshest bluegrass of the late '80s and early '90s.

When she was five years old, Krauss began playing the violin, taking classical lessons.
She soon tired of the regiments of classical playing and began performing country and
bluegrass licks. At the age of eight, she began entering talent contests in and around her
native Champaign, IL. Two years later, she had her own band. In 1983, when she was 12
years old, she won the Illinois State Fiddle Championship and the Society for the
Preservation of Bluegrass in America named her the Most Promising Fiddler in the
Midwest. In 1985, Krauss made her recording debut on an album, playing on a record
made by her brother Viktor, Jim Hoiles, and Bruce Weiss. The album was called
Different Strokes and appeared on the independent Fiddle Tunes label. Later that year,
she signed to Rounder Records. She was 14 years old at the time.

Too Late to Cry, Krauss' debut album, appeared in 1987 to very positive reviews. The
album was recorded with Krauss' backup band, the Union Station, which featured
guitarist Jeff White, banjoist Alison Brown, and bassist Viktor Krauss; the following
year, the group won the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America's National
Band Championship contest. In 1989, Krauss and Union Station released Two Highways,
which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Recording. Although
the album didn't win the award, her next album, 1990's I've Got That Old Feeling, did.
The success of I've Got That Old Feeling was unprecedented for bluegrass acts in the '80s
and it laid the groundwork for Krauss' breakthrough in the '90s. By this time, Union
Station's lineup had more or less settled. It now featured mandolinist Adam Steffey,
banjoist/guitarist Ron Block, bassist Barry Bales, and guitarist Tim Stafford; Stafford
later left the group and was replaced by Dan Tyminski.

In 1992, Alison Krauss & Union Station released Every Time You Say Goodbye, which
featured a typically eclectic array of material. The album appeared in the country charts
and Krauss' videos were shown on Country Music Television. I Know Who Holds
Tomorrow was released in 1994 and was even more successful. But it was the 1995
compilation Now That I've Found You: A Collection that made Krauss a star. The album
reached number two on the country charts and -- even more remarkably -- went into the
pop Top Ten and sold over a million copies. Its success confirmed her status as bluegrass'
leading light in the '90s.

Krauss & Union Station followed the unexpected success of Now That I've Found You
with So Long, So Wrong in spring 1997. Forget About It followed in mid-1999. A year
later, Krauss & Union Station joined the likes of John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, and others
for the multi-million-selling soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? A North American
tour showcasing some of the album's stellar musicians followed in summer 2002,
allowing Krauss and her band's popularity to soar. New Favorite appeared in November
and went gold within four months. A live album followed soon after, and in 2004 Krauss
released Lonely Runs Both Ways. A Hundred Miles or More, a collection drawn from
Krauss' Rounder albums, along with sides recorded for various soundtrack projects and
five previously unreleased tracks, appeared in 2007. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide