WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

American Routes Shortcuts: Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss
American Routes

Alison Krauss grew up Champaign, Illinois. She began competing in fiddle contests when she was just eight years old. At fourteen, Alison recorded an album of traditional tunes with her brother Vik on bass. She joined up with the band Union Station, formed by childhood friend, songwriter John Pennell. Over the past two decades, Krauss has won twenty-seven Grammys--more than any other living musician. I asked Alison about her early life in Illinois and introduction to music.

 

 

Alison Krauss: I think where you grow up and the atmosphere and the land has a lot to do with the kind of music you end up being drawn to. For me, when we were growing up, there was a lot of time to daydream in the car, and we drove a lot of places. So we saw a lot of the highway, and I did a lot of daydreaming about, you know, when I was listening to music. I think it’s really, really valuable time. 

Nick Spitzer: What music were you actually listening to? Was it on the car radio or where were you hearing it?

AK: Yeah we had car radio stuff but you know once I got into fiddle music, I listened to a lot of bluegrass. 

NS: Well what is it that leads you really to turn to the fiddle? I guess you’d had some classical training on violin but you turned to the fiddle and really become a very strong performer, a competitive performer. What is it in you that then applies your love of what you’re hearing and seeing that gets you to take that step? 

AK: My mother’s a painter, who was also, you know, I always say repelled by normalcy, that’s how I would describe her. And my dad didn’t have a lot of time with any kind of the arts, and they wanted to make sure that if Vik and I had any kind of ability, they were going to find it. 

NS: Your brother Vik. 

AK: Yeah, and so we were in all kinds of sports classes, we danced, art classes, and one of the things that we did was we needed to take an instrument for five years. So Vik started on the piano, and then two years later I started on the violin. We got a book and bought a record, a Richard Greene album on Rounder, and it had J.D. Crowe on it. It was called Duets. I listened to that and loved that and started going to these contests. I don’t think because I was a naturally competitive person, but I would get very inspired. You know you hear somebody that you love and how they played, and you’d want to get better. 

NS: You haven’t generally been known for writing your own songs but you have made incredible performances of other writers that you obviously admire a great deal. 

AK: I didn’t ever really sing traditional bluegrass tunes. I sang John’s stuff and Nelson’s stuff.

NS: This is John Pennell you’re speaking of. 

AK: John Pennell, who I grew up with. But you know, everything had to be true for me. I knew not to get in the way of it. I find it sacred, you know, it’s a really sacred thing to be even allowed in. 

NS: Over the years you’ve taken a lot of interesting leaps and I guess just getting involved with Nashville. In Nashville you become known probably more to many people as a singer rather than a fiddle player. Tell me about going into the world of Nashville and all of its variations that you could try. 

AK: I guess I moved here, I was nineteen. But as far as getting here I mean just about everybody from back home is here now. 

NS: It’s the mecca. 

AK: Everybody’s here. It’s a small town, and to be in a place where you have so many like minded people, you know, and everybody kind of speaks the same language and loves the same stuff it’s a really nice place to be. 

To hear the full program, tune in Saturdays at 5 and Sundays at 6 on WWNO, or listen at americanroutes.org.