Alison Krauss and Jerry Douglas

Alison Krauss is the kind of late starter that could put this current generation of pop stars to shame. Picking up the violin at the age of five, she started studying the classical side of the instrument first before turning to bluegrass soon afterwards. Three years after she picked up the instrument she was already entering and winning talent contests and by the age of ten she was performing with her own band. She spent her early teenage years winning vast amounts of praise for her musicianship, with Vanity Fair calling her a Virtuoso and the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America naming her the "Most Promising Fiddler in the Midwest”.

However, Krauss’ career would soon take her far beyond anything regional. When she was twelve she joined the band of bassist and songwriter John Pennell, an outfit called Silver Rail. However, after another band was discovered of the same name, their moniker was changed to Union Station. In 1985 she released her first solo record, a collection of classic fiddle tunes that didn’t really go anywhere. However, it did land her a record deal with Rounder Records, and with Union Station backing her, and Pennell writing the songs, together they created Krauss’ second album “Too Late To Cry” in 1987.

It was at this point that Krauss and Union Station started to get some mainstream attention, quickly following up “Too Late To Cry” with extensive touring and then 1989’s “Two Highways”. This was Krauss’ first album to be credited to her and Union Station, but Rounder wanted her to alternate between solo records and then records with the band, so the first time that Krauss achieved mainstream success was under her own name with 1990’s “I’ve Got That Old Feeling”. The record was a reasonable commercial success but it was also the first record to net her a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Recording.

The 90’s proved to be very kind to Krauss, as her and Union Station took their brand of rootsy bluegrass into the mainstream charts. 1994 saw the release of her first top ten country hit in the form of “Somewhere In The Vicinity Of The Heart”. 1995’s compilation album “Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection” saw her embark into the top twenty of the Billboard 200 for the first time, peaking at number 13. The collection of older releases and covers from her career, one that was already a decade long at this point, would also go double platinum, selling two million copies before the year was out.

Since then, Krauss has gone from strength to strength. She’s won a veritable mountain of Grammy Awards (27 in total), had a further five more of her albums certified Gold, become an omissible live act with Union Station and generally become one of the biggest Bluegrass artists in the world. Not to mention recording and releasing a critically acclaimed and commercially successful album with the one and only Robert Plant as well. She’s something of a legend, and for that, she comes highly recommended.

Equally appealing to fans of jazz, blues, folk, bluegrass, country and roots music, prodigal Dobra player Jerry Douglas first picked up the instrument at the tender age of eight. Influenced by the likes of Flatt & Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, Douglas joined his father’s bluegrass band in his teens where he was subsequently spotted at a local festival by the Country Gentleman. The young musician spent the rest of the summer touring with the Country Gentlemen before being invited to the studio to make his recording debut. With a growing reputation as a pioneering Dobra and lap steel player, Douglas was courted by the likes of J.D. Crowe & the New South, David Grisman, Doyle Lawson, appearing on a host of albums during the mid to late ‘70s.

In 1979 the musician issued his debut solo album “Fluxology” on Rounder Records. The progressive bluegrass style of the album was subsequently replicated, albeit with varying influences, on 1982’s “Fluxedo” and 1986’s “Under the Wire”. Following the releases Douglas continued his extensive collaborations, working with Dan Fogelberg, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Barenberg and Mayer. Douglas issued a pair of albums in 1987, the full-length “Changing Channels” and the Rounder Records compilation “Everything Is Gonna Work Out Fine”.

Arguably the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, in 1989 Douglas released the full-length “Plant Early” on MCA Records. The studio album “Slide Rule” followed in 1992 featuring Alison Krauss, Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien, succeeded by “Restless on the Farm” in May 1998. Shortly after the release the musician would begin his fruitful musical collaborations with Alison Krauss and Union Station, appearing on seven of the group’s albums from 1999-2011. The lap steel and Dobro player would also regularly tour with Alison Krauss when not fulfilling his own touring duties.

In 2001 Douglas earned his fourth Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his contributions to the “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. The same year he collected two more Grammys, this time alongside Alison Krauss, for Best Country Performance (“The Lucky One”) and Best Bluegrass Album (“New Favorite”).

Douglas’ subsequent solo release was the full-length “Lookout for Hope”, which became his first charting album, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album chart. Released on Koch Records, the musician’s ninth studio album “The Best Kept Secret” was issued in September 2005, and followed by the Sugar Hill label compilation “Best of the Sugar Hill Years” in 2007. The No. 69 charting country album “Glide” appeared in August 2008 featuring the likes of Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice and Rodney Crowell, followed by the Christmas album “Jerry Christmas” in 2009 and the full-length “Traveler” in 2012.