Alison Krauss & Union Station: "Paper Airplane"

After putting a second record with Robert Plant on hold, Alison Krauss returns with "Paper Airplane," the lead single and title track from the upcoming album with her usual musical partners, Union Station. A truly breathtaking collection of 11 exquisite songs, "Paper Airplanes," is her 14th album and 6th with Union Station, chosen with the impeccable taste and unerring intuition that have characterized her entire body of work, delivered by this world-class unit with an immediacy that goes beyond mere virtuosity, will be released on April 12.
The bluegrass singer-songwriter-extraordinaire is a spectacularly gifted vocalist, fiddle player and producer. As the crystalline queen of understatement, Krauss has wandered the chambers of the human heart now for two decades, weaving the always fragile fabric of emotions with a haunted, shimmering quality and perfectly played notes. Since her debut at the age of 14 in 1985, she has sold more than 12 million albums and won 26 Grammy Awards, the most for any female artist of any genre.
For "Paper Airplane," there is mostly the doubt in the wreckage made. Futility infuses the beauty, failure informs the beauty of the desolation. This is a song of love unresolved, a gorgeous notion of how much the very last gasps and spasms of "getting over" a love can be. Krauss explained the theme of track: "To me, it's like being in the middle of a very trying time and knowing it will end, but at the moment you're in the middle of it." This track finds Krauss and her virtuous band once again reminding us why they have become such a golden beacon in today's country landscape. The impressive title track is frankly everything we hoped it would be. A sweet folk ballad with subtle Americana and country touches. This is a song to get you through those painful nights you're sure you won't survive.
Throughout her remarkable career, which spans a quarter century, though she's only 39, Krauss has remained grounded and real. Deeply introspective as an artist, she's commensurately outgoing and spontaneous in conversation—both sides of her character evidencing a life-embracing humanity. Her stalwart loyalty to Union Station, her dignified evolution from quirky teen fiddle player to jaw-droppingly beautiful hitmaker, her incorporation of pop and rock classics into her bluegrass idiom – all these things mark a woman who has the taste to build an audience with class and character; she doesn't alienate her old fans and yet she is constantly bringing new ones on board.