29-03-2025, 19:13
ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION ~ Arcadia
![[Image: 220px-AKUS_Arcadia.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/AKUS_Arcadia.jpg/220px-AKUS_Arcadia.jpg)
Arcadia can mean a place of rustic innocence and simple, quiet pleasure - idyllically pastoral or innocent. There's actually a suburb name Arcadia in Pretoria, South Africa which I doubt is any of those things! But on to the music, which is coincidentally rather more of the bluegrass persuasion than country, IMHO. These songs are oral histories, and some fairly grisly at that, albeit sung in dulcet tones! Wowzer - "Granite Mills" is harsh, as I expect they must have been. Incidentally, that song was penned by one Tim Eriksen PhD - a musicologist who specialises in folk history. I guess the Arcadia of this album is an appearance then, whilst other stuff simmers below. There is a mix of traditional songs and newer offerings to be found here and lead vocal duty is alternated although not precisely - Alison does get the lion's share.
I have a sneaking suspicion that these musos are bluegrass/country royalty. Excellent production, great musicality, the whole album has an accomplished polish to it and I liked it, with the exception of perhaps one track which I could have done without - more of a rockabilly vibe. But that's just personal taste. I remain a total sucker for the fiddle and other soulful stringed things - the emotion they convey.
This one was written by Viktor Krauss and Sarah Siskind ...
Arcadia can mean a place of rustic innocence and simple, quiet pleasure - idyllically pastoral or innocent. There's actually a suburb name Arcadia in Pretoria, South Africa which I doubt is any of those things! But on to the music, which is coincidentally rather more of the bluegrass persuasion than country, IMHO. These songs are oral histories, and some fairly grisly at that, albeit sung in dulcet tones! Wowzer - "Granite Mills" is harsh, as I expect they must have been. Incidentally, that song was penned by one Tim Eriksen PhD - a musicologist who specialises in folk history. I guess the Arcadia of this album is an appearance then, whilst other stuff simmers below. There is a mix of traditional songs and newer offerings to be found here and lead vocal duty is alternated although not precisely - Alison does get the lion's share.
I have a sneaking suspicion that these musos are bluegrass/country royalty. Excellent production, great musicality, the whole album has an accomplished polish to it and I liked it, with the exception of perhaps one track which I could have done without - more of a rockabilly vibe. But that's just personal taste. I remain a total sucker for the fiddle and other soulful stringed things - the emotion they convey.
This one was written by Viktor Krauss and Sarah Siskind ...
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson
