Alison Krauss Album: “Forget About It”

Description :

Personnel: Alison Krauss (vocals, fiddle, strings); Pat Bergeson (acoustic & electric guitars); Ron Block, Dan Tyminski (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Jerry Douglas (dobro, lap steel guitar); Sam Bush (mandolin, slide mandolin, background vocals); Joey Miskulin (accordion); Matt Rollings (piano); Barry Bales (acoustic & electric basses, background vocals); Viktor Krauss (acoustic bass); Jim Keltner, Kenny Malone (drums); Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, Evelyn Cox, Sidney Cox, Suzanne Cox (background vocals). Recorded at Emerald Sound Studios and Seventeen Grand Recording, Nashville, Tennessee. FORGET ABOUT IT was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Country Album and for Best Engineered Album, Non Classical. "Forget About It" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. This is a Hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Personnel: Alison Krauss (vocals, fiddle, strings); Pat Bergeson (acoustic & electric guitars); Dan Tyminski (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Ron Block (acoustic guitar); Jerry Douglas (lap steel guitar, dobro); Sam Bush (mandolin, background vocals); Joey Miskulin (accordion); Matt Rollings (piano); Barry Bales (acoustic & electric basses, background vocals); Viktor Krauss (acoustic bass); Jim Keltner, Kenny Malone (drums); Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, Evelyn Cox, Sidney Cox, Suzanne Cox (background vocals). Recorded at Emerald Sound and Seventeen Grand Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. FORGET ABOUT IT was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Country Album and for Best Engineered Album, Non Classical. "Forget About It" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Alison Krauss is a genuine rarity: a bluegrass singer and fiddle player who achieved popularity without altering or commercializing her sound. On FORGET ABOUT IT, she again fuses bluegrass, country, and pop influences, covering unlikely tunes and making them sound fresh and new. Though there are very few true bluegrass tunes in this set, the bluegrass sound is here in full force. The close harmonies, Krauss' high, lonesome soprano, and the traditional-sounding dobro and fiddle are all at the heart of the sound here. The songs are mostly slow, subdued expressions of romantic melancholy and heartbreak. The musicianship is, as usual, both immaculate and inspired. Dolly Parton and Lyle Lovett show up to give harmony to the lovely closing track, "Dreaming My Dreams With You." FORGET ABOUT IT also contain some of Krauss' most memorable singing. A beautiful piece of work. Alison Krauss is a genuine rarity: a bluegrass singer and fiddle player who achieved popularity without altering or commercializing her sound. On FORGET ABOUT IT, she again fuses bluegrass, country, and pop influences, covering unlikely tunes and making them sound fresh and new. Though there are very few true bluegrass tunes in this set, the bluegrass sound is here in full force. The close harmonies, Krauss' high, lonesome soprano, and the traditional-sounding dobro and fiddle are all at the heart of the sound here. The songs are mostly slow, subdued expressions of romantic melancholy and heartbreak. The musicianship is, as usual, both immaculate and inspired. Dolly Parton and Lyle Lovett show up to give harmony to the lovely closing track, "Dreaming My Dreams With You." FORGET ABOUT IT also contain some of Krauss' most memorable singing. A beautiful piece of work.

Don't be fooled by those that try to pigeon-hole this un-pigeon-holeable artist: Krauss is one of those very rare all-in-one pros with more talent in her little finger than most of the population of Nashville combined. She's a virtuoso fiddler, producer extrodinaire, and intuitively understands that less is usually more. Being backed by a band that's just a good is the icing on the cake.

Refreshingly unformulaic, her music stands alone. While past albums have had more pervasive "traditional" themes, "Forget About It" rests so firmly on her foundation of experience that there's something here for everyone, from the hard-core fan to the first time listener: elemental guitar and dobro licks pristine in their simplicity, thick, layered harmonies and violin, and of course, that knee-weakening voice.

"Forget About It" has been oft-called Krauss' "Pop Album," but anyone who knows anything about her music understands that labling her in any broad way means missing the point entirely. The only thing Pop about "Forget About It" may be the well of inspiration she draws from, including writers such as pop-icons Todd Rundgren and Michael McDonald. But Krauss' arrangements have always done more than justice to their oringinal incarnations, invariably becoming works of art that stand firmly on their own. If you're a fan, you'll wear this one out just as you have all the others. If you're thinking of giving this truly talented girl a listen for the first time, prepare to be blown away.

Alison Krauss is a true talent. She has one of the most beautiful voices in country music, that expresses emotions, without overdoing it, or taking away from the simplistic nature of the songs. The harmonies on this album, FORGET ABOUT IT, are beautiful. The lead song "Stay" is a beautiful song with equally compelling vocals and instrumentation. This is common throughout the whole CD. "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" is a sorrowful, sad track about a realization that there never was any love or commitment in the relationship, it's my favorite song on the album. "Ghost In This House" is another tragic song, but its so beautifully done with its vocals and instruments. "It Don't Matter" and "Could You Lie" are other beautiful songs, actually in fact there are no filler tracks to be found. The final track "Dreaming My Dreams With You" is a nice love song, very nice. Overall, this is an excellent album and I highly reccomend it to anyone who likes country music, true country, with a tinge of bluegrass backed with beautiful vocals and instruments. And if you're tired of the same sounding country music that a lot of artists are making out of Nashville, give this a try, you'll be surprised and find she's very much talented and doesn't get the recognition or respect she deserves.

a brilliant, beautiful, gentle album sure to bring a tear to your eye or a flutter to your heart. Alison Krauss does not forsake bluegrass material entirely here -- nowhere on pop radio will you find dobro breaks (although pop radio would be better if you could) -- but the album is essentially folk/pop. Alison manages a terrific balance between songs with her familiar, Union Station backup, and different sounds: hushed, crystalline, and luminescent. This album certainly should delight anyone who liked "So Long, So Wrong" or any of Alison Krauss's forward-thinking bluegrass records -- the radio-friendly single "When You Say Nothing at All," being a good example. Alison Krauss has a golden touch -- everything she attempts ends up unique, beautiful and worthwhile to any fan of bluegrass, folk, pop, or someone who simply appreciates a true talent, a georgeous voice, a sweet fiddle, or a deft subtlety.