Alison Krauss & Union Station Return to Arcadia
Today, Alison Krauss & Union Station announce the release of their first new album in 14 years. Out March 28th on Down The Road Records, and self-produced by Alison Krauss & Union Station, Arcadia is a set of ten songs that transcend time, reveal beautiful and tragic truths, and reaffirm why the group remains one of the most influential, widely celebrated acts of the past four decades. Even during an extended period apart – each member building a thriving solo career, collaborating with some of the greatest artists in the world, earning a collective total of more than 70 GRAMMY Awards, selling tens of millions of albums – they never stopped searching for and patiently collecting the music that might one day bring them back together.
Largely written by such modern masters as Robert Lee Castleman, Viktor Krauss, Bob Lucas, JD McPherson and Sarah Siskind, Arcadia’s songs are contemporary reflections of history. But there was one in particular that reunited the band and reignited their focus. “Usually, I find something that's a first song, and then things fall into place,” says Alison Krauss. “That song was ‘Looks Like The End Of The Road.’ Jeremy Lister wrote it, and it just felt so alive – and as always, I could hear the guys already playing it.” As Arcadia’s opening number, “Looks Like The End Of The Road” introduces another imperative new chapter for Alison Krauss & Union Station, and it is available today.
Pre-Order Arcadia, and listen to “Looks Like The End Of The Road” here:
Following 2011’s Paper Airplane, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country, Bluegrass and Folk Charts, Arcadia further expands the immaculately crafted, endlessly surprising sound that Alison Krauss & Union Station are known and loved for. Recorded in studios across Nashville, Arcadia also welcomes brand new member Russell Moore on co-lead vocals, guitar and mandolin. Best known as the frontman for chart-topping group IIIrd Tyme Out, Moore is the International Bluegrass Music Association’s most awarded male vocalist of all time. Alongside Alison Krauss (fiddle, lead vocal), Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals) and Barry Bales (bass, vocals), each member’s individual talent and acclaim transforms into one single, peerless and unstoppable force. On the songs of Arcadia, Alison Krauss expands:
“The stories of the past are told in this music. It's that whole idea of ‘in the good old days when times were bad.’ There's so much bravery and valor and loyalty and dreaming, of family and themes of human existence that were told in a certain way when our grandparents were alive.
Someone asked me, 'How do you sing these tragic tunes?’ I have to. It’s a calling. I feel privileged to be a messenger of somebody else's story. And I want to hear what happened.”
Furthermore, Arcadia rejoins Alison Krauss & Union Station with Rounder Records founders Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy, Bill Nowlin and John Virant, who first signed Krauss when she was 14 years old – and who first worked with Jerry Douglas in 1975, when JD Crowe & The New South released their eponymous album, commonly referred to as Rounder 0044. Now heading up their own Down The Road Records, the group’s relationship with the band serves as a testament to their enduring friendship and longstanding creative partnership.
