Following the success of the startlingly popular traditional
old-timey soundtrack for the film
O Brother, Where Art Thou?,
contemporary bluegrass pioneers
Alison Krauss & Union Station moved in the opposite direction for their 2001 release,
New Favorite. While
Krauss and
Union Station guitarist/vocalist
Dan Tyminski got deeply in touch with their dust bowl
Americana roots for their work on the film, their follow-up studio album is certainly the slickest, most
progressive work they've recorded to date.
New Favorite seems almost neatly divided into two albums: one following the same path as
Krauss' 1999
contemporary country solo album,
Forget About It, and the other helmed by
Tyminski, bringing a
progressive slant to
Union Station's
traditional bluegrass feel. The whole album is well crafted (with the exception of
Tyminski's laborious, drawn-out
"The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn") but will certainly not sit right with certain elements of the band's core audience, who has come to know them as the strongest traditionally based
bluegrass act still recording. The whole album feels a little too slick and reverbed out; the brilliant dobro work of
Jerry Douglas seems mired in echoes, and at times
Krauss' vocals seem to be coming out of some deep studio well. The musicianship, however, is beyond top-notch. The players (specifically banjo player
Ron Block and guitarist
Tyminski) are among the best in the genre, and the harmonies between the two vocalists are stunning and chill inducing. Their call and response vocals on
"Daylight" serve as the highlight of the album, traced delicately by
Douglas' dobro and chilling to the end. Unfortunately, the collective spirit that was so evident on their 1997 release
So Long So Wrong seems to be dissolving, and the award-winning fiddle playing that brought
Krauss to the nation's attention seems to be becoming almost a background instrument (if it shows up at all). While there are intriguing moments in the album, it lacks the spark that
So Long So Wrong had in spades, and even their few moments on the
O Brother soundtrack seemed to breathe more life into the band than
New Favorite does. ~ Zac Johnson
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