Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Bluegrass
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 4-DEC-1987

Track Listing

1. Too Late to Cry
2. Foolish Heart
3. Song for Life
4. Dusty Miller
5. If I Give You My Heart
6. In Your Eyes
7. Don't Follow Me
8. Gentle River
9. On the Borderline
10. Forgotton Pictures
11. Sleep On

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11989 in Music
• Brand: KRAUSS,ALISON
• Released on: 1992-02-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
On the surface, Alison Krauss's 1987 Rounder debut is a well-executed, completely satisfying bluegrass album with both traditional and contemporary elements. Once you realize that the sublime singer and expert fiddler you hear is a mere 15 years old, it becomes extraordinary. True, hearing a 15-year-old sing about "my whiskey on ice" and other such mature themes is a bit disconcerting, but what amazes is not what she's singing about but the masterful command she has over her angelic voice. And her fiddle licks are even more impressive. The record simply oozes potential and poise, even if the best was yet to come. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Oh, my. Oh, oh, my......
I remember distinctly when I first heard one of the cuts on the lp version of Too Late to Cry on a radio show called Grass Roots or something like that out of Kalamazoo, MI. I stopped whatever I was doing to listen closely to "Don't Follow Me", and then the first chance I got to get up to Lansing's Elderly Instruments (the best darn music & instrument store in Michigan)I bought it.

I think this recording is just about as perfect as anything since Abbey Road. Each song is a little gem. I really prefer Alison's voice as it sounds in these earlier recordings: stronger, more nasal. She purposely changed it to the softer, more pop-friendly version around the time of the "Every Time You Say Goodbye", I believe. But her singing is not the only treat; she had won many awards for her fiddle playing by this time, and it shines; and she is backed up by only the best musicians in bluegrass---Jerry Douglas & Sam Bush, for example.

Peppy, strong, and true to bluegrass roots.

Her First and Still Her Best
This CD showcases Alison Krauss's amazing voice in songs that show it to its best advantage. The producers of her more recent CDs have chosen songs and arrangements that lack energy and cause her singing to be breathy. In 1987, these folks hadn't gotten their hands on her, and she's in full voice on the slower songs as well as the faster ones.

Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, and Tony Trischka are the "name" musicians accompanying her; the lesser-known musicians play just as well, though, and Alison's fiddling is impeccable.

This CD has it all - good songs (good in their own right and good choices for Alison to sing), good picking, and good singing.

Alison Krauss' Strong Debut
In 1987 Alison was only 15, and some of the songs on this CD are kind of "honky-tonky". In "Song For Life" the lyric begins "I don't drink as much as I used to...." and it's a little incongruous putting the words together with the 15 year-old voice. Her vocal tone was a little twangy and nasal-sounding, almost strident as she belted out some of these tunes, and I wonder if she was influenced maybe a little by some of the Nashville Big-Hair bunch like Reba.

Still.... if she had not appeared until today and suddenly this recording appeared, it would be at least as head-turning today as it was 15 years ago. No other vocalist in the genre approaches this kind of material with this kind of instrumentation with THAT kind of voice. Alison surrounded herself by superstars like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, so the supporting cast was top-notch.

In her first recording she was both astonishingly new and talented, but also showed great promise of things to come. In the recordings that followed she has unfailingly measured up to that promise. Even in her first record she began showing her taste for sorrowful mournful tunes of doomed love, even on uptempto tunes like "Don't Follow Me" and the title "Too Late to Cry". She also began demonstrating her talent for beautiful slow ballads like "Gentle River".

Required stuff for those who want the complete Alison Krauss collection, but I knock it down to 4 stars because the maturity of her voice and mastery of material would show up in full on later recordings.