A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection
CDN$ 14.10
- You re Just a Country Boy (previously unreleased)
- Simple Love (previously unreleased)
- Jacob s Dream (previously unreleased)
- Away Down the River (previously unreleased)
- Sawing on the Strings (from the 2004 CMT Flame Worthy Awards show)
- Down to the River to Pray (from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack)
- Baby Mine (from The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney)
- Molly Ban (from The Chieftain Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions)
- How s the World Treating You (duet with James Taylor - from Livin , Lovin , Losin : Songs of The Louvin Brothers)
- The Scarlet Tide (from the Cold Mountain soundtrack)
- Whiskey Lullaby (duet with Brad Paisley from his Mud on the Tires album)
- You Will Be My Ain True Love (featuring Sting -- from the Cold Mountain soundtrack)
- I Give You to His Heart (from The Prince of Egypt soundtrack)
- Get Me Through December (from Natalie MacMaster s album In My Hands)
- Missing You (duet with John Waite - from his Downtown....Journey of a Heart album )
- Lay Down Beside Me (duet with John Waite -- previously unreleased)
A great, moving and graceful retrospective with a...wilfully commercial air. - At the age of 35, she has achieved more career milestones than most people do in their lifetime. Her first album was released when she was 16. She has released a total of eleven albums, all on Rounder Records, with her long time band of highly acclaimed musicians, Union Station. To date, she has earned 20 Grammy Awards - more than any other female in the history of the awards - and multiple Country Music Association Awards, International Bluegrass Music Awards and countless others. On this CD there seems to be one track, at least, from each of her previous dozen albums over the past decade which saw her move from virtually unknown on the country scene, to become one of its leading acts. This is a collection of tracks, which in their way are a retrospective look as Alison Krauss career. And what a collection this 16-tracker is, with fans favourite collaborations (she is known for her penchant for collaborations) and guest duets ( Whiskey Lullaby with Brad Paisley and How s the World Treating You with James Taylor ), songs that have appeared in film soundtracks (Baby Mine, Down to the River to Pray ), side projects and five brand new tracks in the mix - You re Just a Country Boy, Jacob s Dream, Simple Love, Lay Down Beside Me, and Away Down the River, which are also all produced by Krauss. None of these songs has ever appeared elsewhere on another Alison Krauss album, though its collection of non-traditional tracks holds together extremely well, given its disparate appearance. My favourite is the accapella Down to the River to Pray (you ll know it from the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?), showing off to full effect the raw power of Krauss s vocals. Beautiful. Her voice is pure, matchless and seductive. It has an ethereal quality that just floats in the space. Alison unleashes that marvelous instrument and touches your heart. As USA Today wrote of her, Krauss influence extends far beyond bluegrass and far beyond her own albums. From Billboard: ...Alison Krauss adds a newfound tenderness to the ironic lyric I ain t missing you at all/No matter what I say. Her vulnerable vocals, as ever, add ache to the familiar track... The bluegrass singer s longtime and normally omnipresent backing band Union State is absent, but none the worse for it. The Scarlet Tide and You Will Be My Ain True Love, from the film Cold Mountain, are as moving and quietly beautiful now as ever. Brimming with timeless slices of beauty, this collection serves as an excellent introduction for anyone looking to explore Alison s work for the first time, while the very thought of a few fresh cuts is sure to satisfy fans thirst for new material until her next studio album arrives. Enjoy this great collection on a a lazy Sunday with the one you love.
Pure crystal vocals. Excellent ! - Not exactly a best of rather more a gathering of tracks that might be less familiar with the work she s done outside of bluegrass and her albums with Union Station. It s an interestingly eclectic compilation that embraces both her film soundtrack contributions and collaborations. Both in the case of the traditional folk tune You Will Be My Ain True Love which was an Oscar nominated duet with Sting from Cold Mountain. Other film music is represented here with The Scarlet Tide, again Oscar nominated from Cold Mountain, I Give You To His Heart from the animation The Prince of Egypt and, perhaps best known, the unaccompanied own To The River To Pray from O Brother, Where Art Thou? Not strictly a soundtrack recording, the bluegrass fiddling Sawing On The Strings stems from the 2004 CMT Flame Worthy Awards show while Baby Mine is trawled from a Disney tribute album. It s another tribute collection, this time to the Louvins, that provides How s The World Treating You, a haunting old school country duet with James Taylor. Elsewhere on the collaborations front there s mainstream country suicide ditty Whisky Lullaby from Brad Paisley s Mud On The Tires while Get me Through December and Molly Ban respectively hail from albums by Natalie MacMaster and The Chieftains. Perhaps the most surprising pairing though is with rocker John Waite whom she shares duties with on his biggest hit, Missing You. A second duet with Waite, the moody yearning country ballad Lay Down Beside Me, is one of five previously unreleased recordings (all produced by Krauss) that make this all the more essential for Krauss completists. The remaining four new cuts all come at the start of the album, running down from mountain air piano ballad You re Just A Country Boy through the rippling Appalachian tinkles of Simple Love and the bluesy folk Jacob s Dream to slow swaying, banjo flecked lullaby Away Down The River that shows off Krauss s pure crystal stream vocals to excellent effect. A new album should be along later this year or early next, but for now this will tide fans over quite nicely.