Classy, seasoned, crisply performed country, folk and bluegrass by the acclaimed Champaign, Illinois singer-songwriter and fiddle player, joined again by her perennial band, their first together since 2011’s Paper Airplane, and her first since the 2021’s album Raise The Roof with Robert Plant. It’s a beautifully resonant and bright release, interspersing Krauss with intimate, personal songs, notably also with musicians Jerry Douglas (Dobro), Barry Bales (bass), and Ron Block (guitar), and its newest member, award-winning bluegrass singer Russell Moore, who sings on numbers mostly in between, often picking up the bluegrass, toe-tapping pace tragic narratives such as on The Hangman or the dark, folky Granite Mills. It’s a winning contrast, Krauss’s pure voice soars with a more lingering, beautiful sustain, not unlike that lovely Dobro guitar, such as on opener Looks Like The End of the Road, or the rather profound and gorgeous The Wrong Way: “In my life, I've learned a lot / Not from things I've done / But from things that I have not.” Two of the best come in the middle of the album, Krauss on the One Ray of Shine, and again on jauntily excellent Richmond On The James. The fast-slow-fast-slow pattern and shared vocals continues to the end, all wonderfully performed, with Moore in particular fine form on the toe-tapper Snow, with the album gently closed by Krauss singing the gentler There’s A Light Up Ahead. In all, a real treasure of a release, with wonderful work by artists at the top of their game. Out on Down The Road Records.
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