Alison Krauss - A Hundred Miles or More A Collection (16 tracks) +Album Reviews +Used CD available for Swap

SCATTERED DIAMONDS

Alan Dorfman | DELRAY BEACH, FL United States | 04/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As far as I'm concerned Alison Krauss sings like an angel, fiddles like the devil and can do no wrong. If you don't agree you might as well stop reading now.

This is a collection of gems that Alison has provided to others as duet partners, for tribute albums and for movies plus 5 new or unreleased tracks. It includes Best Song Oscar Nominees "The Scarlet Tide" and "You Will Be My Ain True Love" both from Cold Mountain, the Grammy nominated duet with James Taylor "How's The World Treating You" from a Louvin Brothers tribute CD and the multiple 2004 CMA Award Winner (Best Song, Best Vocal Event and Best Video), her duet with Brad Paisely on the perfect "Whiskey Lullabye." Speaking of lullabies, there's also "Baby Mine" from a collection of Disney songs.

If that's not enough to satisfy you, there's more movie music her - the immensely touching "I Give You To His Heart" from The Prince Of Egypt and the sheer brilliance of the a capella "Down To The River To Pray" from O Brother! Where Art Thou. Other collaborators include the Chieftains and John Waite with whom she remakes his hit "Missing You" and reveals a more forceful, earthy power to her usually ethereal voice and they also duet on Don Williams' "Lay Down Beside Me" which is one of the previously unreleased songs on the CD.

But it is the other 4 we've not heard before that start off the CD and are the true treasures here. "You're Just A Country Boy" warns a guy about the dangers of going after a higher class woman, "Simple Love" describes exactly that and the singer's desire for one, "Jacob's Dream" is the stunning narrative of two little boys who go missing and the heartbreaking "Away Down The River" in which a dying woman comforts the one she leaves behind. All 4 could not possibly be any better and "Jacob's Dream" sound like it could become Alison's signature

song.

The unimpeachable quality of these four new songs makes me glad that Alison chose not to wait for 6 or 7 more for a completely new album to release them, which could have taken years. To get all those other scattered diamonds gathered back into one place is just the icing on a delicious cake.

"

A "filler'' album

Dave Goldberg | 40 miles north of NYC | 04/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I get the sense that this album is a filler: something to put out there until Alison and Union Station come out with their next, hopefully soon.

It's still good _ more a pop album than country or bluegrass (other than "Sawing On the Strings'' and its all-star cast that includes Tony Rice, Sam Bush and Stuart Duncan as well as Union Station.) Nothing wrong with that _ Alison would be a pop diva (I actually hate that term) if she wanted to be. But it's still doesn't have the sequenced feel of most of her albums. More like One from Column A, another from column B, a third from Column C.

Again, a lot of it is really good. "Jacob's Dream'' is a striking folk tale _ I thought of a different version of the much-recorded "Long Black Veil.'' I'm sure I've heard "Country Boy,'' _ it sounds like something from a Broadway musical. What surprised me is that one of the writers is Fred Hellerman, who has to be the same Fred Hellerman who teamed with Pete Seeger and others with the Weavers, a huge folk act in the early '50s until they were blacklisted.

In any case, a nice collection while we wait for more.

"

Alison Krauss Better With Union Station

ifromtennessee | 04/09/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD, which does not pretend to be bluegrass music, suffers from the absence of the Union Station musicians and the lack of upbeat songs. The best song, "Jacob's Dream," is about the death of two pioneer children. Alison Krauss has beautiful vocals, but I was not entertained by the material. The last CD by Alison Krauss and Union Station, "Lonely Runs Both Ways." is terrific."

Pure crystal vocals. Excellent !

Esthero | 04/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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 Rive"r 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."

Alison's new collection - good, not great

William Merrill | San Antonio, TX United States | 04/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Alison Krauss' sweet singing style is something I love to listen to, really even more than her bluegrass work. As such, this is mostly a welcome collection, especially as it gathers together songs from a variety of sources such as soundtracks and tribute albums. I had heard many of them before, but a few were new to me, such as "The Scarlet Tide" from the Cold Mountain soundtrack (a real gem). There are many duets, some of which - with James Taylor on "How's The World Treating You" - work better than others (Brad Paisley). Then there are the five new songs... The CD starts right out with four of them, and they are pretty, but also fairly uniform in terms of being slow, weepy tunes. I guess that's handy for hardcore fans who already have the other songs on the CD, but I think the producers made an error in starting the disc out that way. It kind of gets the proceedings off to a sluggish start. I'm thinking that Alison would not do four brand new songs in a row in a concert setting - she wouldn't want to destroy the momentum. So why do it on a collection of some of her best other work? So the new songs should have been spread throughout the album. Still, the volume and diversity of the material on Hundred Miles makes it a CD that more than justifies its existence. (My final musing (rant?) ... The overwhelming dominance of 5-star customer reviews for EVERYTHING new that comes out on this site makes me wonder what it would take for some of those reviewers to EVER rate something less than five stars... It must be nice to live in a world where everything is perfect!)"

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