Alison Krauss + Union Station Live
April 2005 Reviewed by: David Cantor Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The 2003 Alison Krauss + Union Station Live DVD captures a good toe-tapping contemporary bluegrass performance from this experienced band. It is enjoyable seeing Krauss introduce "Faraway Land" as being on longtime band member and songwriter Ron Block’s "new album." His sincere and passable singing doesn’t match Krauss’s natural and nurtured gift, but the song is good. And it is heartening to see performers share the spotlight warmly and graciously.

But this DVD shows why this band’s forte is its studio work. Krauss and the gang’s stage chatter is like a slowly deflating balloon. Krauss steps to the microphone and tentatively describes the origins of the next song -- in mundane terms undeserving of the gravitas (or is it self-consciousness?) we’re shown. During one of these belabored introductions, you can see the eyes of one of the players move back and forth in boredom or mockery -- surely a daily part of the friendship involved but not professional in a concert context.

The music is strong, and it’s good to see the band play "Bright Sunny South" and a few other traditional ballads next to their longtime singer-grasswriter fare. "Every Time You Say Goodbye" is one they always ace. "Tiny Broken Heart" comes off nicely. A newcomer to the group would immediately perceive its mastery of the material and the intricate comfort that weaves the players together into a tight ensemble. A long-time fan will experience little surprise. There’s no leap off the solid cliff of mastery into the churning sea of risk.

The second disc, with its "exclusive" interviews and "over 150 rare and unreleased photos and home videos," is beside the point. Many people, artistic or not, possess batches of pictures of themselves they haven’t bothered to show anyone and are not of significant interest to anyone except themselves and diehard fans. This is a good band, but they are not historic figures or enigmatic thinkers whose mysteries we must decipher by observing them in mundane circumstances.

I have seen Krauss and the Station onstage, and I prefer that or their CDs to this DVD, which tries to capture an event for which you really "had to be there."

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