Live

by

Alison Krauss & Union Station

Edit

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live is a marvelous live album with some of the production values I have ever heard. Each track has a terrific warmth and richness.

The two-CD set combines the soft floating voice of Alison with the hard-driving bluegrass of a talented collection of musicians to provide a high level of entertainment, especially as morning or evening drive time listening in the car.

Ms. Krauss' voice is used to wonderful advantage in such tracks as "Let Me Touch You for Awhile," "The Lucky One," "Forget About It," "There is a Reason," and many others. One of my favorites is the plaintive "Ghost in this House." By the same token, the bluegrass instrumentals such as "Choctaw Hayride" and "Cluck Old Hen" can best be described as quintessential country-car-chase tunes.

For those who have never had the pleasure of listening either to Ms. Krauss or to bluegrass, this album is an excellent introduction to both and is an essential recording in every respect.

I am a diehard fan of Alison Krauss and Union Station. That said, this is a live album with all that implies. The band's performance is of course flawless -- and I echo the "What did you expect" reviewer who preceded me.

But in my unprofessional and unsolicited opinion, the "crowd noise" is mixed WAY too loudly into thie album. Usually, one hears the applause as a crowd recognizes the tune being started by the band -- and then the applause at the end, the whistles, the cheers, etc, are brought back into audibility as the song is finished.

Not so with this album. I had no idea people in Kentucky had such a poor sense of rhythm. The annoying clapping along with the music persists through some of the songs, severely detracting from the enjoyment of them.

This is annoying enough when one has paid to hear a performance by professional musicians and is hindered in doing so by an inconsiderate and discourteous audience. But if you want to hear the powerful and magical performance that is "Live", you have to listen to the dysrhythmic noises of the audience. At least no loud drunk yelled "Rock And Roll!" or "Free Bird!"

Much as I hate to do so, I am selling this album used. Someone with a tin ear is going to get a heck of a deal.