Alison Krauss A Hundred Miles Or More Review

Astonishingly, although she is only in her mid-30s, singer, musician, and bluegrass prodigy Alison Krauss has now been recording for twenty years, both as part of the band Union Station and as a solo artist. This new compilation highlights her work away from Union Station, with a particular emphasis on her collaborative work. It also does the job of rounding up a number of rarities and guest spots that fans might otherwise have more trouble acquiring, although this is not to suggest that the collection is some kind of rag-bag; the quality is uniformly excellent throughout, and nowhere more so than on the four unreleased tracks that head up the compilation, “You’re Just A Country Boy,” “Simple Love,” “Jacob’s Dream” and “Away Down the River,” all of which display the multi-award-winning Krauss’s production flair.

Newcomers might know Krauss best from the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? That film’s “Down to the River to Pray” is included here along with other soundtrack work including “You Will Be My Ain True Love”, collaboration with Sting from Cold Mountain. Other guest artists featured here include James Taylor, the Chieftains and John Waite. The selection of tracks ranges from bluegrass (“Sawing on the Strings”), country and folk to the rock-pop of Waite’s “Missing You” (the re-recording is another of the album’s highlights), but is always held together by Krauss’s high, strong voice and her rootsy integrity. Often aching and vulnerable, always beautiful, these songs form an excellent companion to her earlier compilation, Now That I’ve Found You and the album is definitely one you will want to put on repeat.