Alison Krauss & Union Station Bring Wonderful Musicianship to Little Rock

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

Alison Krauss & Union Station feat. Jerry Douglas brought their incredible musicianship to the First Security Amphitheater in downtown Little Rock, Ark., on Monday, May 12.

The group, which has seen some change since I last saw them in 2014 in Rogers, Ark., seems rejuvenated with their latest album, Arcadia, released in late March. It’s the first Alison Krauss & Union Station album since 2010’s Paper Airplane.

Longtime Union Station member Dan Tyminski recently left the group to focus on his solo career. He has been admirably replaced by Russell Moore, known primarily as the leader of the bluegrass band Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out. The outstanding multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan also joined the band this year, showcasing his work on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo.

Longtime members Barry Bales (bass), Ron Block (guitar/banjo) and Jerry Douglas (dobro) are still with the band.

Arcadia was heavily featured on Monday night, and the stage was adorned with a ticket booth underneath a faux marquee that bore its name. Krauss opened the evening with the beautiful “Looks Like the End of the Road,” though she and the boys seem far from calling it quits. Then Moore took the lead on a traditional folk-sounding song, “Granite Mills,” which feels like the “Final Destination” of songs as it tells the horrifying tale of a mill disaster. Also featured from Arcadia during the evening were Krauss’s lead “One Ray of Shine” and the Moore-led “The Hangman” and “North Side Gal.”

The band showcased their immense talent during a few instrumentals throughout the show, which I believe included traditional favorites such as “Choctaw Hayride” and “Cluck Old Hen,” although I don’t have the complete setlist on hand to confirm. There’s nothing like good old-fashioned bluegrass music performed live on a nicely temperate Spring evening, especially right after rain.

It's the Krauss-led songs that you’re likely most familiar with if you’re a fan of the group, based on radio play. These songs, such as “The Lucky One,” “Let Me Touch You for a While,” and “Restless,” were among my favorites of the night. Krauss and Union Station’s output of singles from 2001 to 2004, which included these three and “New Favorite,” a favorite of mine that didn’t make the set on Monday, are my favorite stretch of Krauss/Union Station songs.

Robert Lee Castleman wrote “The Lucky One,” “Let Me Touch You for a While” and “Restless” and should be in a songwriter’s hall of fame for those alone. He won a Grammy for Best Country Song for penning “The Lucky One.”

My only complaint is that the performance of “The Lucky One” was abridged and came during a medley that featured a couple of other songs I would have preferred to hear complete versions of, such as “Ghost in This House” and “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You.” This issue would recur during the evening’s encore.

Among the other standout performances of the evening were “Every Time You Say Goodbye,” “Paper Airplane,” Krauss’ cover of the Willie Nelson classic “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” and some songs I wasn’t all that familiar with like “Gravity,” off 2004’s Lonely Runs Both Ways, and “Forget About It,” off Krauss’ 1999 self-titled solo album. Both of those were also written by Castleman, by the way.

Krauss was joined by Moore and Block, initially for a stripped-down encore, which began with an abridged version of what is likely her biggest hit, “When You Say Nothing at All,” which happens to be “our song” for my wife and me. It would’ve been lovely to hear the complete version. They also did an abridged version of “Whiskey Lullaby,” the 2003 hit she did with Brad Paisley. Bales, Douglas, and Duncan would rejoin the others on stage to finish the show with a four-song gospel medley that included “Down in the River to Pray” and “There Is a Reason.”

It was truly a magical night of music by the river in Little Rock.

Folk singer Willie Watson began the evening with terrific selections from his 2024 self-titled album, which marked his first release of original music, despite having been around the block for quite a while, including as a founding member of the excellent Old Crow Medicine Show. Among the best selections from his opening set were “Sad Song,” “Already Gone” and “Play It One More Time.” My absolute favorite performance from Watson was his finale of “Real Love,” a beautiful song he wrote for his wife Mindy, which was among my favorite songs of last year and ranked No. 20 on this website’s list of the best Americana/country songs of the year.