Alison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplane

Bluegrass superstars Alison Krauss (fresh from her dalliance with Robert Plant) and Union Station are back with a brand new album and, happily, it’s business as usual with a whole bunch of classic sounding tunes from the voices (Alison shares vocal duties with Dan Tyminski) that bought you the standout tracks from the now essential ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ soundtrack.

The highlight’s the pluckingly great title track, an exquisite vocal performance from Alison set against some nicely understated playing with a suitably subtle country twang. Close runner up, 'Dustbowl Children' (with echo’s of O Brother’s ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’ in there) somehow sounds strangely timely. Perhaps that’s intentional...maybe the ‘dustbowl’ they’re singing about is a metaphor for what’s left of our economy here in the west eh? I’d like to think so. Elsewhere 'Lie Awake’s' sultry laid back groove is well worth the price of the album alone. Lush.

Paper Airplane's out on Rounder Records on April 12th