Alison Krauss & Union Station

Alison Krauss

Born in Champaign, Illinois, Alison Krauss grew up listening to everything from folk to opera to pop and rock music, but quickly fell in love with bluegrass when she began playing fiddle at the age of five. Shortly after, Krauss began entering fiddle contests. At the age of 14, Rounder Records signed her to her first record deal and she went on to release her debut solo album two years later. The accomplished bluegrass musician became a member of the Grand Ole Opry at age 21.

Since 1985, Krauss has released 15 albums including five solo projects; seven with her longtime band and musical collaborators, Union Station; and two collaborations with Robert Plant. She’s sold more than 12 million records to date, and her honors include 27 Grammys, nine Country Music Association awards, 14 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and two Gospel Music Association awards. In 2019, she received the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given to artists by the United States government, and in 2021 she was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

Her latest release, Raise the Roof, teams her once again with former Led Zeppelin vocalist Plant; it’s the long-awaited follow-up to 2007’s Raising Sand, which was certified platinum and won six Grammys, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. “It makes you feel like you’re hanging off the edge of a cliff,” she said to the New York Times about working with Plant. “”It is so exciting, and so magnificent.” Plant and Krauss will begin touring together in the summer of 2022.

Krauss frequently collaborates with artists from a wide range of genres, including Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Vince Gill, The Chieftains, James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, Johnny Mathis, Cyndi Lauper, Heart, Bad Company, and Phish. “Whiskey Lullaby,” a duet she performed with Brad Paisley, won two CMA Awards in 2004.

In recent years, she has appeared on recordings by Leonard Cohen, John Prine, and Don Henley, and she has recorded and toured with Willie Nelson, whom she honored with a performance during the 2015 Gershwin Prize Tribute Concert. In 2020, she performed “Amazing Grace” with Andrea Bocelli on his Believe album, and in 2021, she appeared on Barry Gibb’s Greenfields and (along with Rhiannon Giddens) joined Renee Fleming on a new version of Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge” on Fleming’s album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene. She recorded with Def Leppard for the band’s upcoming album. In addition, Union Station is in pre-production on a new album, their first since Paper Airplane in 2011.

Krauss has participated in numerous tribute projects, including albums honoring Kris Kristofferson, Laura Nyro, and Roger Miller. She has also produced albums for Alan Jackson, Nickel Creek, and the Cox Family. Some of these collaborators were formative for Krauss, and she lists influences including Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, Larry Sparks, the Cox Family, and Ralph Stanley.

Krauss has contributed songs to a number of films, including “Down to the River to Pray” in the cult classic film O Brother, Where Art Thou? and “You Will Be My Ain True Love” and “The Scarlett Tide” in the film Cold Mountain. She recorded “If We Don’t” with Dolly Parton for the 2018 film Dumplin’. Krauss has provided the voice for several cartoon movie characters, including Bambi’s mother in Bambi II and Annabelle in Annabelle’s Wish, as well as the singing voice of Davey’s girlfriend in the Adam Sandler movie Eight Crazy Nights.

Krauss’s most recent solo album, 2017’s Windy City, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and Top Bluegrass Albums charts and received two Grammy nominations. In 2013, she performed at the Kennedy Center’s “American Voices” festival that was created and hosted by Renee Fleming and also honored Dolly Parton and Paul Simon with performances during the Kennedy Center Honors. She has performed for three Presidents—George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.

Union Station

Barry Bales

Bassist BARRY BALES has been a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station since 1990. In that time, he has become a successful producer and songwriter, as well as one of the most in-demand session players in acoustic music. Barry has received 15 Grammys, 22 International Bluegrass Music Association awards - including 4 Bass Player of the Year trophies - 1 Country Music Association award, and 2 Academy of Country Music awards, including Song of the Year for "Nobody To Blame" written with and recorded by Chris Stapleton. He is also a passionate outdoorsman and conservationist, as well as manager of his sixth-generation family farm.

barrybales.net

Ron Block

Union Station’s banjoist/guitarist/vocalist Ron Block is something of a musical Huck Finn, a tireless adventurer exploring various styles yet rooted firmly in the bluegrass-country tradition. As a session musician he’s played on recordings by Dolly Parton, Kate Rusby, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, and many others. Ron has written many AKUS songs through the years, including “A Living Prayer” and “There is a Reason.” As a solo artist he has released eight recordings of his own, a gospel duo album with pianist Jeff Taylor, and two instrumental albums with Irish tenor banjoist Damien O’Kane blending Celtic music and bluegrass.

ronblock.com

Jerry Douglas

Dobro master and 14-time GRAMMY winner Jerry Douglas is to the resonator guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar, elevating, transforming, and reinventing the instrument in countless ways. Additionally, Douglas is a freewheeling, forward-thinking recording and touring artist whose output incorporates elements of country, bluegrass, rock, jazz, blues, and Celtic into his distinctive musical vision.

Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master" by The New York Times, three-time CMA Musician of the Year award recipient Jerry Douglas is one of the most innovative recording artists in music as a solo artist, band leader for The Jerry Douglas Band and his GRAMMY winning bluegrass band The Earls of Leicester, as well as a member of groundbreaking ensembles including Alison Krauss & Union Station, J.D. Crowe & the New South, The Country Gentlemen, Boone Creek, and Strength In Numbers. Douglas shines and soars. His distinctive sound graces more than 1500 albums with artists such as Garth Brooks, George Jones, Paul Simon, Little Big Town, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, Ray Charles, Dierks Bentley, and Tommy Emmanuel, among many others.

In addition to touring, Douglas has co-produced and performed on a series of platinum albums. He has produced albums for Alison Krauss, Del McCoury Band, Maura O’Connell, The Whites, Jesse Winchester, Steep Canyon Rangers, and recently John Hiatt. He is co-music director of the acclaimed BBC Scotland TV series Transatlantic Sessions. In 2004, Douglas was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with an American Heritage Fellowship, and he served as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s “Artist In Residence” in 2008.

As Jerry Douglas continues his incalculable influence on country, Americana, bluegrass and their many related genres, he forges ahead as a true pioneer in American music. Jerry has been a member of AKUS since 1998.

jerrydouglas.com

dantyminski.com

In 1994, Dan Tyminski joined AKUS to play guitar and sing. On his own, the Vermont native was the singing voice of George Clooney in the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” winning the 2001 CMA Single of the Year for the Soggy Bottom Boys’ “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow.” O Brother’s success helped ignite a renewed – and more mainstream – interest in bluegrass music. Loved by traditionalists and progressives alike as one of the best tenor vocalists alongside legends Ralph Stanley, Bobby Osborne, and Ricky Skaggs, Tyminski is truly a titan in his own right.

His voice reached across genres when he recorded the vocals for the global smash “Hey Brother” for Swedish DJ/electronic dance pioneer Avicii. Hailed by NPR for “softening the boundary lines between vastly different genres and approaches by placing an emphasis on mood and tone,” the 14 Grammy winner who came to AKUS from the Lonesome River Band was praised by The Los Angeles Times for his voice and its “hardscrabble sound that’s much more eastern Kentucky than Yankee Vermont.”

When not taking music to the world, Tyminski is also a sought after collaborator, writing and recording with Leann Rimes, Joan Osborne, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Charlie Haden and a storied list of others. A championship foosball player and accomplished golfer, he’s one of Golf Digest’s Top 10 Golfers in Music and can be found participating in several charity tournaments every year.

dantyminski.com

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