Alison Krauss

At 53 years old, Alison Krauss has this physical status:

Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and performer.

She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local competitions by the age of ten and recording for the first time at 14.

She joined Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987.

Alison Krauss and Union Station, which she also plays in, released her first album with the band in 1989, resurrecting her interest in bluegrass music in the United States.

Her soundtrack performances have boosted her fame, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, an album that has also raised American interest in bluegrass, and the Cold Mountain soundtrack, which culminated in her appearance at the 2004 Academy Awards. She has received 27 Grammy Awards from 42 nominations in 2019, placing her third behind Quincy Jones and classical conductor Georg Solti for most Grammy Award winners.

She is both the most coveted female artist and the most coveted female artist in Grammy history.

She was the second-youngest winner at the 1991 Grammy Awards (currently tied for the ninth-youngest). President Donald Trump gave her the National Medal of Arts on November 21, 2019.

Early life

Alison Maria Krauss was born in Decatur, Illinois, to Fred and Louise Krauss. Her father, a German immigrant who immigrated to the United States in 1952, learned his native language while he earned a doctorate in psychology. He later ventured into real estate. Her mother, a German and Italian immigrant, is the daughter of artists and illustrator of magazines and textbooks. Fred and Louise met at the University of Illinois in Urbana–Champaign while studying. The family migrated to Champaign, where Krauss and her older brother, Viktor, were raised.

Krauss' mother played banjo and acoustic guitar, so she was exposed to folk music at home, and she heard rock and pop music on the radio: she loved Gary Numan's synth-pop album "Cars" and rock bands such as Foreigner, Bad Company, and Electric Light Orchestra. Viktor's brother played piano and double bass in high school before embarking on a career as a jazz and rock multi-instrumentalist. Krauss began studying classical violin at the age of five at her mother's request. Krauss was hesitant to spend time learning, but classical lessons continued until she was eleven. Krauss said that her mother "wanted to find exciting things for me" and that "instead of art and sports," she wanted to get me involved in music. Krauss was also very keen on roller skating, and in her teens she opted for a career in music rather than roller derby.

Krauss' mother was alerted of a forthcoming fiddle competition at the Champaign County Fair in mid-1979, so she bought a bluegrass instructional book and 1977 bluegrass album Duets by violinist Richard Greene. Krauss learned by ear to perform many songs from the album, including "Tennessee Waltz," which she performed on violin with her mother accompanying on guitar. At the age of eight, Krauss competed in the novice category, placing fourth. (Here is how she first met Andrea Zonn, who won the junior division at age 10.) Krauss delves into the bluegrass genre more deeply after this, and she developed a knack for picking intricate riffs by ear, quickly adapting them into her own version. Krauss performed with Marvin Lee Flessner's country dance band, a group in 1981-1982, where she fiddled and sang. Her parents bought her a custom violin made by hand in Missouri in September 1983, her first adult-sized instrument. She won the Walnut Valley Fiddle Championship at 13, and the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America named her "Most Promising Fiddler in the Midwest" at 13. Vanity Fair magazine also described her as "virtuoso."

Krauss first met Dan Tyminski in 1984 at a Society sponsored festival. Any current member of her band, Union Station, first attended these festivals.

Personal life

Krauss worked with musician Pat Bergeson from 1997 to 2001. They had one child, who was born in 1999.

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Career

Krauss made her debut on her debut in 1986 on the independent record Different Strokes, a project with Swamp Weiss and Jim Hoiles based in collaboration with Swamp Weiss and Jim Hoiles and starring her brother Viktor Krauss. She appeared in "Silver Rail" as a young girl, as well as songwriter John Pennell, who later performed with bassist and songwriter John Pennell. Andrea Zonn was a member of the San Diego Dragons. After another band was found with the name Silver Rail, Pennell changed the band's name to Union Station.

Later that year, she signed to Rounder Records, and in 1987, she formed Too Late to Cry with Union Station as her backup band.

Krauss' debut solo album was quickly followed by her first solo album, Two Highways, in 1989. The collection includes the traditional tunes "Wild Bill Jones" and "Beaumont Rag," as well as a bluegrass interpretation of the Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider."

Krauss' deal with Rounder required her to choose between a solo album and an album with Union Station, and her solo album I've Got That Old Feeling was released in 1990. It was her first album to debut on the Billboard charts, peaking in the top seventy-five on the country chart. The album was also a pivotal moment in her career, when she earned her first Grammy Award, the single "Steel Rails," was her first single tracked by Billboard, and the first song for which she performed a music video.

Every Time You Say Goodbye was released in 1992, and she went on to win her second Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album of the Year. She joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1993 at the age of 21. She was the first female artist to join the Opry in 29 years and the youngest cast member at the time. She also worked on a 1994 Bluegrass album titled I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, a Cox family project. Tim Stafford was first replaced by mandolin and guitar player Dan Tyminski in 1994 at Union Station. Krauss performed with Shenandoah on its single "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart," which took her to the country music Top Ten for the first time and received the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the first time this year. Krauss collaborated with Suzy Bogea, Kathy Mattea, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash in 1994 to contribute "The Education of Your Children" to the Red Hot Country AIDS relief collection. On Tommy Shaw's 7 Deadly Zens album, she recorded vocals and violin for "Half a Mind."

Now That I've Found You: A Collection, a collection of older launches and some covers of her favorite artists' work was published in 1995. Among these covers include Bad Company's "Oh Atlanta," the Foundations' "Now That I've Found You," which was used in the Australian hit comedy film The Castle, and Beatles' "I Will" with Tony Furtado. On the Billboard 200 chart, a preview of Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All" debuted at number three; the album debuted on the top fifteen; and Krauss' first double-platinum album debuted at number three; Krauss was also nominated for four Country Music Association Awards and received them all.

So Long So Wrong, another Union Station album, was released in 1997 and received the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. According to one, the instrument was "rather traditional" and that "likely [to] change a few [to] change quite a few [to] change very few... minds about bluegrass." The song "It Doesn't Matter" was included on the album and was included on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's second-season premiere episode and was included on the Buffy soundtrack in 1999.

Forget About It, her next solo release in 1999, Forget About It, included one of her two songs on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, "Stay." The album was certified gold and charted within the top seventies of the Billboard 200 and in the top five of the country chart. In addition, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "That Kind of Love" was included in another episode.

Adam Steffey left Union Station in 1998 and was replaced by Jerry Douglas, a well-known dobro player. Douglas had provided studio support to Krauss' records since 1987's Too Late to Cry. On August 14, 2001, the band's new album, New Favorite, was released. The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, with "The Lucky One" winning a Grammy as well. The double platinum double album Live in 2002 was followed by a DVD of the same live performance in 2003. Both the album and DVD were recorded during a performance at The Louisville Palace, and both the album and DVD have been certified double Platinum. She appeared in 2002 as one of the characters in Eight Crazy Nights' animated comedy film.

Lonely Runs Both Ways was released in 2004, and it became a second Alison Krauss & Union Station gold-certified album. Both Ways was Ron Block's description of Lonely Runs Both Ways as "much like what we've always done" in terms of song pick and style, which was in the sense in which those songs were recorded. Krauss claims that the band was "probably the most unprepared we've ever been" for the album and that songs were chosen as needed rather than planned ahead. In the album "Whiskey Lullaby," she also performed a duet with Brad Paisley on his album Mud on the Tires. The single debuted in the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 and the top five of the year's Top Country Songs, and received the Country Music Association Awards for "Best Musical Event" and "Best Music Video" of the year.

The collaborative album titled Raising Sand was released by Krauss and Robert Plant in 2007. The album was nominated for and received 5 Grammy Awards at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album, and Year in a Yr (Please Read the Letter). In October 2007, Krauss and Plant's first special on the Country Music Television network premiered on February 12, 2008.

On April 12, 2011, Krauss' successor to Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004), he was back in Union Station, Krauss, releasing Paper Airplane. The album's recording and mixing engineer Mike Shipley said the album took a long time due to Krauss' non-stop migraines. Despite this, Paper Airplane became Krauss' highest-charting album in the United States, debuting at number three on both the country and bluegrass charts.

Willie Nelson and her Family, as special guests Kacey Musgraves, and the Devil Makes Three toured together in 2014, Krauss and her band Union Station.

On February 17, 2017, Capitol Records released Windy City, an album of country and bluegrass legends produced by Buddy Cannon and her first solo release in 17 years. Krauss received two awards at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Country Solo Achievement and Best American Roots Achievement.

Krauss revealed in August 2021 that she and Robert Plant would release Raise the Roof, a sequel album to Raising Sand. Krauss and Plant are planning a 2022 tour in addition to the album.

Krauss has appeared on other recordings on lead vocals, harmony vocals, and fiddle. She appeared on the album The Western Illinois Rag by American musician Chris Vallillo in 1987, at the age of 15. In Los Angeles, she sang of "If I Could" on Phish's "If I Could" in 1993. On the album Runaway Sunday by Ireland's traditional band Altan, she sang harmony vocals in both English and Irish. In 1998, she appeared and appeared on Ledward Kaapana's album, Waltz of the Wind, on the Hawaiian slack-key artist Ledward Kaapana's album, Waltz of the Wind.

Krauss had her first hit in 2000, earning vocal praise for her song "Buy Me a Rose." She has appeared on numerous motion picture soundtracks, most notably O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). "I'll Fly Away" (with Gillian Welch), "Down to Pray," and "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" were two of Dan Tyminski's songs. For George Clooney's character, Tyminski's vocals on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" were used in the film. In 2002, the soundtrack received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Both Krauss and the remarkably popular album were credited with resurgent interest in bluegrass. She has argued, however, that Americans already loved bluegrass and other less popular musical genres, and that the film gave them ample exposure to the music. She did not appear in the film at her own request because she was pregnant at the time of filming.

In 2007, Krauss released A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, an album of new songs, soundtrack recordings, and duets with artists including John Waite, James Taylor, Brad Paisley, and Natalie MacMaster. The album was a hit on commercially, but critics treated it with skepticism. "Missing You," a duet with Waite (and a retrospective of his hit single from 1984), was released as a single. Alison Krauss: A Hundred Miles or More – A One-hour Special on August 11, television network Great American Country broadcast a one-hour special based on the album.

Krauss appeared on Heart's March 2010 concert DVD Night at Sky Church, providing the lead vocals for the song "These Dreams."

Twister, The Prince of Egypt, Eight Crazy Nights, Mona Lisa Smile, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Alias, Bambi II, and Cold Mountain are among Krauss' songs. She was a "Jubilee" on the 2004 documentary Paper Clips. "The Scarlet Tide" with T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello, and "You Will Be My Ain True Love" with Sting were all nominated for an Academy Award. She appeared at both songs at the 76th Academy Awards, the first with Costello and Burnett and the other with Sting. Krauss received her first Grammy award as a producer on Nickel Creek's debut album (2000) and the sequel This Side (2002).

On Moody Bluegrass: A Nashville Tribute to the Moody Blues by Krauss.

Laura Nyro, reimagining Laura Nyro, appeared on "And When I Die" in Billy Childs' 2014 tribute album to Laura Nyro, Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro.

Krauss appears on Def Leppard's twelfth studio album, Diamond Star Halos, which was released in March 2022 as a featured vocalist on "This Guitar" and "Lifeless."

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