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The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo
Release Date: 2009-05-19
Sales rank: 48
Comedian, actor, author, and banjo player Steve Martin releases his first musical recording since 1978's number 1 hit "King Tut." This is no novelty record though. It's some of the best banjo music to come down the pike in a long time. The Crow features able assistance from some of Steve's pals, including Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Tim O'Brien and Mary Black. Martin wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on this album, creating a new body of work that will stand alongside the classics for years to come. |
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Release Date: 2000-12-05
Sales rank: 179
The best soundtracks are like movies for the ears, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? joins the likes of Saturday Night Fever and The Harder They Come as cinematic pinnacles of song. The music from the Coen brothers' Depression-era film taps into the source from which the purest strains of country, blues, bluegrass, folk, and gospel music flow. Producer T Bone Burnett enlists the voices of Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, and kindred spirits for performances of traditional material, in arrangements that are either a cappella or feature bare-bones accompaniment. Highlights range from the aching purity of Krauss's "Down to the River to Pray" to the plainspoken faith of the Whites' "Keep on the Sunny Side" to Stanley's chillingly plaintive "O Death." The album's spiritual centerpiece finds Krauss, Welch, and Harris harmonizing on "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," a gospel lullaby that sounds like a chorus of Appalachian angels. --Don McLeese |
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Throw Down Your Heart, Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3: Africa Sessions
Release Date: 2009-03-03
Sales rank: 444
Throw Down Your Heart chronicles banjo virtuoso and 18 time Grammy award winner Béla Fleck's musical journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo. Bela's boundary-breaking musical adventure takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and provides a glimpse of the beauty and complexity of African music. Using his banjo, Béla transcends barriers of language and culture, finding common ground and forging connections with musicians from very different backgrounds. |
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A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection
Release Date: 2007-04-03
Sales rank: 498
"A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection" is comprised of 16 tracks, highlighting Alison Krauss's career outside of her traditional releases with longtime band Union Station. The album features Krauss's collaboration with John Waite on the single "Missing You," as well as Krauss's contributions to film soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated songs "The Scarlet Tide" and "You Will Be My Ain True Love," written for the motion picture "Cold Mountain," and "Down to the River to Pray" from the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Known for her collaborations, Krauss also includes several duets in the collection such as the 2003 hit with Brad Paisley, "Whiskey Lullaby," and her duet with James Taylor for the tribute album "Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers," "How's the World Treating You." The collection debuts five new songs: "You're Just a Country Boy," "Jacob's Dream," "Simple Love," "Lay Down Beside Me," and "Away Down the River," all of which feature Krauss as a producer.A Hundred Miles or More carries the subtitle A Collection, and what a curious collection it is--cuts from soundtracks, side projects, and tribute albums, plus guest duets on other artists' albums and five previously unreleased tracks. In other words, this is a collection of Alison Krauss performances that have never appeared on an Alison Krauss album, though it holds together better than such a grab-bag approach might suggest. Highlights such as her duet with Brad Paisley on "Whiskey Lullaby" and her a cappella rendition of "Down to the River to Pray" from O Brother, Where Art Thou? will be familiar to most Krauss fans, though it's doubtful that many share her infatuation with retro rocker John Waite (with whom she revives his "Missing You" and duets on a cover of Don Williams's "Lay Down Beside Me."). Other projects represented range from Disney to the Chieftains to the Louvin Brothers (she duets with James Taylor on their "How's the World Treating You." There's minimal contribution from her Union Station band--making this a solo release by default--and little information to indicate whether the previously unreleased tracks were outtakes from earlier releases or recently recorded for this one. --Don McLeese More Alison Krauss
Lonely Runs Both Ways | 
Live | 
Now That I've Found You: A Collection | |
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Destination Life
Release Date: 2009-06-16
Sales rank: 467
The seven time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year returns with a stellar lineup of new, original and classic bluegrass songs. Rhonda Vincent takes the music to new heights while maintaining her deep bluegrass roots. The new album features her award winning touring band in their first studio appearance. Grab your bags and get on board for a trip through Americana - Destination Life! |
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The Crow [Limited Edition Pop-Up Digipak]
Release Date: 2009-06-16
Sales rank: 2121
Comedian, actor, author, and banjo player Steve Martin releases his first musical recording since 1978's number 1 hit "King Tut." This is no novelty record though. It's some of the best banjo music to come down the pike in a long time. The Crow features able assistance from some of Steve's pals, including Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Tim O'Brien and Mary Black. Martin wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on this album, creating a new body of work that will stand alongside the classics for years to come. The Deluxe Limited Edition package includes three bonus tracks plus the amazing and just as advertised performing crow!! |
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Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live
Release Date: 2002-11-05
Sales rank: 773
This two-CD, 25-song set, recorded in Louisville on two nights in the spring of 2002, finds bluegrass's most celebrated crossover band at the top of its game. Krauss's warm, feathery vocals, capable of conveying complex emotions in a single note, appear more full-bodied than in studio recordings, yet lose none of their sensual appeal or dramatic tension. She's perfect, for example, as the melancholy temptress on "Let Me Touch You for Awhile," coming across as both savior and seductress, while Jerry Douglas's Dobro echoes the searing strains of passion and pain. With banjoist-guitarist Ron Block, bassist Barry Bales, and guest drummer Larry Atamanuik anchoring the rhythm, the ensemble deftly blends bluegrass with jazz, rock, and folk, combining lightning speed (though rushing through "Forget About It") with sophisticated chops, tangible emotion, and thrilling vocal blends. The crowd, more spellbound with every note, doesn't even breathe on "Ghost in This House" and nearly tears the place down on Dan Tyminski's voice-of-George Clooney showcase, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." But who could blame them? It's only one highlight on an album of uncommon artistry, a moving testament to how good live music can be in the hands of world-class players. --Alanna Nash |
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Brothers from Different Mothers
Release Date: 2009-03-31
Sales rank: 4024
Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent became the most heralded new act in bluegrass as their debut album Dailey & Vincent and busy tour schedule introduced them to wildly appreciative audiences. The group won seven awards for that album at the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, including Album of the Year. Brothers from Different Mothers presents the band at a level of synergy that only comes from constant live performing. It exudes the enthusiasm of a venture still fresh for all its participants. Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent have been bluegrass musicians throughout their careers, and never depart from that core sensibility on Brothers from Different Mothers But, like the earliest icons, they also push the bluegrass envelope. Best of all, they've found the closest thing to brotherhood - a true musical partnership. |
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Sea of Tears
Release Date: 2009-04-21
Sales rank: 1019
The third record from Boise-ID singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell's Sea of Tears evokes the era of classic country and early British-invasion era blues rock . On her third album Eilen Jewell is more Dusty Springfield than Gillian Welch. Sea of Tears finds Jewell acknowledging her electric influences and the roots of rock and roll on the album's twelve tracks. On the record she pays homage to British invasion of the sixties, bands like The Kinks and The Animals; her forlorn, yet confident, delivery matches slow rock and resonant guitar sounds throughout the record. Although nine of the tracks are Jewell originals, the entire album could easily have been recorded over forty years earlier. Sea of Tears has a smooth sliding pace that is punctuated by a chill of sharp guitar and the tone can be summarized in the words of "Shakin' All Over." In the track, a cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' recording, Jewell expertly explains the album's sound in the lyrics, "Quivers down the back bone...shakin' all over." The slow syncopation on the record hits the listener like ice water on a hot sunny day, unexpected but appreciated. |
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Cool Water (& 17 Timeless Favorites)
Release Date: 1995-05-01
Sales rank: 2015
From the Living Stereo Series, the Long Time Classic Completely Remastered. |
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