Alison talks about 100 Miles Or More: A Collection
Brad: Welcome Alison Krauss.
Alison: Thank you, Brad.
Brad: So nice to have you here - and the reason you are here is to talk to us a little bit about this new album of yours, called A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. And I also happen to know that there were quite a few songs that you had to choose from and putting together this new collection of songs from all these different, sometimes very disparate projects that you have done over the last 12 or so years. Some soundtracks, some tribute albums to other artists. You had to whittle it down and I think you whittled it down to eleven songs?
Alison: Yes
Brad: Without the new ones, just going back over your last twelve or so years and trying to decide what to include here. There are five new ones; we'll talk about those in a little bit. And I know our listeners will be very excited to hear the new stuff. But first I wanted to start with how you started in trying to figure out which 11 songs.
Alison: I can't remember how many we started with. There was a bunch. We had cut a song, the last thing Chet Atkins produced. They were doing some remakes of hits he had worked on, and it's called "The Three Bells" that the Browns sang. That's always been one of my favorite tunes; the melody just destroys me every time I hear it, it's so beautiful. I've always loved that tune and Jim Ed's singing, and it was so beautiful. We recorded that for the record and that was one of the choices.
We had cut a tune on a Waylon Jennings tribute record that I loved. The tune was, "Just Because You Asked Me To". It's almost a "Good Hearted Woman" feel to that tune, and we slowed it down and made it a ballad. I've always thought what a real heart-breaking tune. The person saying, "I would walk away from you and all the things I love about you, just because you asked me to." Just kind of a one-sided conversation.
There were a lot of things that we have done for outside projects through the years. It is something that we love to do as a band and I love to do myself. You complete something different and something that stands on its own, it's not related to something else. You don't go through the strife of making a whole project. But it's nice to kind of get an assignment: "I want you to pick from this batch of songs," or "I want a song that fits here" or "I need a ballad here" or "I need this for this." And we get to try something different...and I always look forward to getting to work on an outside project. But then when it comes time that you would make a record of all those outside projects, it's hard to have any idea how they would fit together, because they really didn't have any other place. They weren't meant to be with something else, at least of your own. And so there's not going to be a theme that is necessarily going to be the same. Even though there are a lot of death songs on here, maybe more than normal for me, they all give me a similar feeling. So that was the goal when I went through all the material. When do I stop having a thread of familiarity when I go through these old tracks?
Brad: Is it hard to articulate what that feeling is? Is it the kind of the thing that you just know it when you hear it that it works, the feeling that you were looking for as being a common thread?
Alison: I guess it's more of a mood. So what's the mood? When something comes on that doesn't work, it doesn't physically feel good. Whenever I hear things or instruments; a range or song; it's basically a physical feeling when I am going through it. Does it feel good to have something happen there? It's funny because the tune "Sawing on the Strings" is the most upbeat, not only in tempo, but in mood for the whole record. In my eyes it's completely opposite of anything else on there.
Brad: And the idea was for you to do something a little bit different than what some audiences were used to. Really showcase the instrumental and your fiddle abilities and bring in some of the people who inspired you and people that you have look up to musically over the years. So there is Sam Bush, Tony Rice is on that song, and who else is on it with you?
Alison: Stuart Duncan and of course Union Station's all on there.
Brad: The first recording of that song you became familiar with, when you were much younger, was the version that Tony cut with David Grisman.
Alison: Yes. He cut that on the Rounder album David recorded and that's the album that they started out singing "Hello everybody, how do you do, we're here to sing and play for you". I believe it's Ricky Skaggs singing tenor with them. That's such a great way to start and then they kick into that song. It's the epitome of the happy part of bluegrass, all those ideals and what you would imagine it to be like when you hear the really happy, joyous side.
Brad: It's very happy and joyous and almost provides an essential emotional sort of reprieve from some of the other sadder songs that are on there.
Song: "Sawing on the Strings"
Brad: That's "Sawing on the Strings", Alison Krauss with Union Station, and special guests Tony Rice, Stuart Duncan, and Sam Bush. My guest in the studio is Alison Krauss; we're talking about her new album: A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. It brings together a variety of songs from various projects that Alison has done over the last dozen years or so. Different projects with other artists where she was asked to come and sing as a guest on their album, sometimes it was a soundtrack, some of these songs were from individual stand-alone projects like the one that we just heard on the CMT Video Awards. But speaking of soundtracks, there is a song here from probably one of the most successful soundtracks ever, and that is the soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. And we have on the album, "Down to the River to Pray." When you were working on that project, you were working with T Bone Burnett, the producer, did you have any inkling at that time, just how successful that album would turn out to be?
Alison: No way, and not because the music wasn't great - it's just that the stars have really only ever aligned a few times . Or course "Dueling Banjos" brought such a revival and The Beverly Hillbillies.
Brad: Bonnie and Clyde.
Alison: Yeah.
Brad: And those are probably the three.
Alison: That's the three. The music was showcased so beautifully and recorded with such integrity and respect, and how wonderful that it happened like that - that it would have its due.
Brad: How did you like working with T Bone Burnett?
Alison: It was really an incredible experience. I've worked with him before, on Cold Mountain and Ya Ya Sisterhood. I would come in for a day and work on something and he is so encouraging. By the end of the day you are thinking, "I must be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. I must really be something else." Because he really keeps the mood up and he is so very happy with what's going on and so complimentary, whatever he is doing really keeps you inspired. Sometimes I would sing all day long. It wasn't like I was in there killing it and then leaving. I was singing all day long, "Well yea! I'll sing it for you again, sure!" He's positive and encouraging to all those playing. He has such a respect for roots music and a huge knowledge of the history of roots music and rock-and-roll.
Song: "Down to the River to Pray"
Brad: My guest in the studio is Alison Krauss. We're talking about Alison Krauss' brand new album. Another one of my favorite songs on this album, and when it came out was absolutely my favorite song on the album that it came out on was Down the Old Plank Road by the Chieftains. The song that you did with them was "Molly Bán."
Alison: Yeah I love that song.
Brad: It's so gorgeous. There's been much talk about the kinship between Celtic music and bluegrass music. Did you find that kinship specifically with the Chieftains when you worked with them?
Alison: It was a huge band and they had bluegrass folks all over playing throughout it. You know Barry Bales played on it, Tim O'Brien, Bryan Sutton, Jeff White, and Jim Mills were on that record, so it naturally fits together. And so many of our tunes that - when I say our tunes, people that grew up playing bluegrass - of course we know where all of those came from, at least a good majority of them. The history of that band and the length of time they had all been playing together at that point...you see that so much in bluegrass families playing together and people really keeping the core of the band together. But I loved that recording session. It was a real stretch. The melody of that tune has an interesting scale, I never sang that before. Paddy Moloney stood there singing me the melody, that's how I learned it. It's just second nature to him and here I am, "wait a minute, will you sing that again?"
Brad: You do love a sad song.
Alison: I love that feeling of loss, it means there was something huge to lose when there's that sadness.
Brad: And as a singer you feel, you can invest yourself that much more into it.
Alison: I've always been drawn to that. I don't know if you're drawn to the sadness part of it, or whatever happened before it was gone. I love tunes where the person is redeeming himself. With Tony Rice's music, so many of the themes of those tunes....he's figuring it out. I love the themes of what he chooses to sing. It's someone who's been through the mill and they're redeeming themselves. They're figuring it out and making a choice for something else. That's such a beautiful thing to see in real life and it really is a beautiful thing to sing about; and it brings a very hopeful feeling, those are real emotions, that's the stuff that makes the world go round? That's what moves people to "do".
Brad: Well let's hear the piece. It's "Molly Bán" Originally on the Chieftains album, Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions. Alison chose it from many songs off different recordings she has done for other projects over the last twelve years for her A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. New from Alison Krauss.
Song: "Molly Bán"
Brad: And that was "Molly Bán" sung by Alison Krauss with the Chieftains. It appears on Alison's new album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. And Alison Krauss is my guest in the studio. There's a song on here that was originally recorded for a tribute to the Louvin Brothers. Were the Louvin Brothers an influence on you as you were listening to different musical styles growing up?
Alison: I appreciated them more as an older person. I was really influenced by what they call the second generation of bluegrass. I'd listen to Ricky Skaggs, Joe Val a lot, Del McCoury, and of course Tony, The Bluegrass Album Band, JD Crowe, Doyle Lawson - kind of that second generation, and then as I've gotten older I go and look back. Charlie Louvin has probably written, three of my top favorite songs ever. There'll be one that will kill me and I'll say "who wrote that?" And it's always Charlie Louvin. I got a chance to talk to him. I went and had lunch with him one time and got to ask him about these tunes. It was really incredible to spend that time with him. Sitting across from him and hearing a little bit about his father, and about where he grew up. He talked about his mother - hearing about that life and whether or not the picture I have in my mind is really that accurate is hard to say. But thinking about him growing up and talking about what his dad was like and how these tunes have such emotion, told so sweetly, it really is amazing because it's the opposites; it's the contrasts that make something so magical. All this hardness over here, is what makes that person so soft over here. And to sit across from him, you see that a lot with these incredible song writers. Robert Lee Castleman can be very gruff and rough, but over here he is as soft as they come. You hear that in those lyrics, there's just such a longing. Harley Allen....such a longing. It's really beautiful when the contrasts are what the real beauty is.
Brad: For that project you did the song "How's the World Treating You" as a duet with James Taylor. How was that working with James?
Alison: Well I didn't really get to work with James. I sang my part and then went to the playground while he sang. Then I came back and heard it. But he was there the same day. He was playing in town and he and his son came over to the studio. It was very nice. I stood and listened a little bit to him doing his part. It reminded me of that part spread he did with Linda Ronstadt. Hearing him sing the part where I'm singing the lead and he's singing two parts below. "That's him and that's me." [laughs] It sounded so neat. Hearing him sing that part, "This is weird."
Song: "How's the World Treating You"
Brad: Let's talk about some of the new songs on this record. There are five new songs. The one that just absolutely destroys me in terms of tugging at the heartstrings is "Jacob's Dream." Was it hard to get in the studio and, I mean, just as a listener listening to this song, it's almost hard because at a certain point I guess I thought initially, well maybe hopefully this is going to work out ok.
Alison: It doesn't and I remember the first time I heard that tune when Julie Lee sang it for me. I guess it was the second line of the tune, you knew nothing good was coming. And it's the way they did the melody of that song and the chords they chose besides the lyrics.
Brad: As is turns out it's a true story.
Alison: Yes, it's a true story. There's a memorial to those two boys where they were found. It's up by where she lives. It's called the Tragedy at Knob Hill and those children were the Cox children.
Brad: The story goes that they followed their dad up.
Alison: They followed their dad out hunting and the mom was doing her chores. She didn't notice them going. There was snow still on the ground, so it was still cold. They went after him into the woods and never came back. And what happens in the tune, it trades from a couple verses to a chorus, a couple verses and a chorus. And the choruses are always what they believed the boys would be saying if they were out there by themselves and what was going through their minds. To be calling and calling and calling for your parents and have them not come. "We'll never do it again, we'll never, we'll never leave home like that, we'll never go into the woods by ourselves." It's such a tragedy, and a thousand people went out searching for them and never found them. Then a man miles away had a dream one night that he saw the boys in the woods and where they were. And then he had it again and told his wife he had this dream. She said, "I know where this place is and you've got to tell." There was a line where I couldn't keep singing. "He told his wife he saw the boys huddled close beside a log. For two more nights the dream returned, this vision sent from God." When that line came in, I couldn't finish. Because of the tragedy and a dream from God to bring some relief - even though the relief was the worst nightmare. It was just such an incredible story.
Brad: Incredible story and just an incredible treatment that you give it here. "Jacob's Dream" from Alison Krauss' new album, A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection.
Song: "Jacob's Dream"
Brad: That was "Jacob's Dream" from Alison Krauss' new album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. Alison Krauss is my guest in the studio. We're talking about some of the new songs that you chose to put on this recording. Another one that's just a beautiful song, written by a songwriter that you have tapped before is Sarah Siskind for "Simple Love." What was it about that song?
Alison: She is a friend of Julie Lee's who wrote "Jacob's Dream," with John Pennell. The first time I heard this song was at Julie's house. She was having a birthday party and everybody was jamming in a circle and I was sitting on this little pew in the middle listening to them. Sarah's parents were there and she started singing "Simple Love". It's basically about the selfless love of a man, and in this story you find out who that man is by the third verse, which is her grandfather, her mom's dad. And the song for me, when I heard them sing it - she sang it with her Mom and Dad - a song about family.
I asked her later at the party if the song was a real story, because she talks about the relationship between the Dad and his daughter, which was her mother and she goes, "Nope, nope. It's what I hoped.....kind of what I hoped it would be."
It's incredible because it's really the dream of every young girl. Before you even know it is yours. She captured it so beautifully, the line that always got me was "And when I'm in my final hour looking back I hope I had a simple love like that." To know that you were finishing your life and the core of who you are, what you'd hoped for your life, was no regrets and you got it. What a dream. I think that's why it just wore me out, for months and months. As long as I had that song, every time that line came up, if I tried to show it to someone, I just couldn't get through it.
Brad: "Simple Love" from Alison Krauss' new album.
Song: "Simple Love"
Brad: That's "Simple Love" from A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection new album by Alison Krauss. One of the new songs is another Julie Lee song, "Away Down the River."
Alison: I saw Julie Lee sing this song at a gig at The Basement in Nashville. There are musicians and singers that you come in contact with throughout your life that change the way you view everything from then on. Tony Rice of course is kind of the foundation of what I'm longing for. When I heard Shawn Colvin I knew I would never hear another woman sing the same way again. When I heard The Cox family, I'd never think of music the same way again. When I heard Robert Lee Castleman, when I heard those songs, I thought things will never be the same. Michael Johnson, when I heard him play live, I thought, "Oh what am I going to do?" You know, it just changed my life. And Julie Lee when I heard her, and even more so when I saw her play because she has such a feminine beauty and strength that is just magical. I'm on the edge of my seat when I see her. I watch her confidence and her strength, and her beauty, it's really magical. She is such an honest person with her lyrics. She's one of the nicest people I have ever met, generous, almost childlike in her sweetness and innocence, just a beautiful woman.
I saw her play and she sang "Away Down The River" and I thought "Oh no, she did it again." It was so beautiful I wanted to sing the song, but how in the world am I going to do it? And it was a true story. Her grandmother had died and it was such a positive. I've heard other songs with that sentiment, being the person who has gone on already and bringing comfort, but I don't think I have ever heard it put so beautifully like she did. And where it was, it was so hopeful and positive and comforting, I thought, "Wow, what a wonderful thing to pass onto somebody and an encouraging thing to want to have that kind conversation before that might happen."
Brad: Let's hear it then. It's "Away Down the River." A song written by Julie Lee on Alison Krauss' new album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection.
Song: "Away Down the River"
Brad: That's "Away Down the River" brand new from Alison Krauss' album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. Alison there is another new song on this album and it's a duet and the person that you do the duet with also does a duet with you on another song. We're talking about John Waite. As some of our listeners may know is the British rocker who had a number of big hits in the ‘80s both as his solo career and as a member of The Babies and the band Bad English. You and John went into the studio and re-cut his classic "Missing You" and then you asked him to come back again and do this song "Lay Down Beside Me," an old Don Williams song. What was it about "Lay Down Beside Me" that attracted you and what was it about John's singing that you thought would be the perfect match for that song?
Alison: I always thought that was such a beautiful song. When I hear Don Williams sing, that is a man, a grown man. He's finally got it figured out and he has found the best time of his life. I love the little things about the tune. "I knew when I saw you smile and now I can rest for a while." Yeah, that's beautiful. "Kiss all the hurting of this world away." Whatever's happened, this person will make it all better.
It's just a wonderful idea, and I love John's voice. I mean, there's records you love, there's songs you love, and that's why you love this person over here. And then there's the voices that you love and that's what makes you love the song. I think his voice - he's in that Merle category for me - without singing anything like Merle Haggard. He's in that category, the sound of his voice itself, how he says his words, how he phrases his lines. The sound of his voice, it says so much, it makes me think I know who that person is because of the sound of it. I love that voice itself without lyrics...he sounds like the redeemed man. And that's why I think that song is so perfect for him.
I love the contrast within that song. I love the key change when it goes to the female, I love it that we hear what she has to say. And that we've got this redeemed man over here singing this first verse, explaining how he got there. Yet what she says is the simplest thing, "I knew when I saw you smile." And that's a beautiful romance.
Brad: And gets back to what you were talking about earlier, the hopeful songs. There's a real hope in there, and the realization of true dreams.
Alison: Yea and I love that the story there, that it's over, it's already done. They achieved it and that's why I like ending the record with that. They've finished it.
Brad: "Lay Down Beside Me" written by Don Williams, performed as a duet by Alison Krauss and John Waite.
Song: "Lay Down Beside Me"
Brad: My guest in the studio has been Alison Krauss. We've been talking about her new album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection. It's a beautiful, beautiful collection. Congratulations, Alison.
Alison: Thank you
Brad: Congratulation once again, on just knocking my socks off and a lot of other people's socks off as well. Well, good luck with it and again thanks for coming by.
Alison: Thank you.
