Review: Rain and cold can’t dampen Alison Krauss at Ledge Amphitheater

WAITE PARK, Minn. — “Wow! It’s chilly,” bluegrass queen Alison Krauss, dressed in a long black quilted coat, declared to a sold-out crowd Sunday night at the Ledge Amphitheater.

Explaining her aversion to cold weather, the Illinois native said she carries around a heating pad. “I’ll put on a co-oat,” she said with an exaggerated Minnesota accent.

Indeed, it was a little chilly. Feels-like temperature of 47 degrees. And it drizzled for the second half of the concert. But that didn’t deter 4,000 hearty Minnesoootans or Alison Krauss + Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, as they’re officially known.

As a vocalist, Krauss puts the sweetness in bittersweet and the sad in sadness. She and her band are not only some of the niftiest pickers in bluegrass but also the finest singers. The weather couldn’t dampen their spirits as Krauss and company delivered an entertaining and enriching evening of bluegrass, folk and country music punctuated with her easy humor.

It’s been 14 years since AKUS, as their T-shirts call them, have headlined a concert in Minnesota. Since then, Krauss has been displaced by Beyoncé as the woman who has won the most Grammys, surprisingly recorded with Def Leppard, and received the National Medal of Arts. And, oh yeah, she saw Dan Tyminski, Union Station’s singing guitarist of 33 years, depart for a solo career.

AKUS are making up for lost time by playing not one, not two but three concerts in Minnesota this week, with outdoor gigs also scheduled in Mankato on Tuesday and Duluth on Wednesday.

While Krauss may be a woman of constant sorrow in song, she pursues a lighter mood between songs, whether corny or quirky. Sometimes she just winged it Sunday like asking if this apparently temperate area “is one of those places you can grow pumpkins all year. I did a school report on Alaska years ago and that’s how I tied it in.” OK, then.

Some of her jokes are practiced such as when she acknowledged Ron Block, the banjoist who brought a song to the band 33 years ago, and “we’re still working on it.”

Krauss and Union Station have been together so long — some for 36 years — that they fit together like a hand in a glove. Even singer/guitarist Russell Moore, who joined just this year for the recording of “Arcadia,” the ensemble’s first project in 14 years, melded in like an old-timer.

Moore impressed with one of those high, lonesome voices that has earned him the male vocalist of the year prize six times from the International Bluegrass Music Awards. On Sunday, he seemed to be channeling Gordon Lightfoot on story songs like “Granite Mills” and “The Hangman,” showed his range on a twang-abilly treatment of JD McPherson’s “North Side Gal” as well as added vocal harmonies.

The three-part harmony singers varied from song to song as did the lead vocalists, though Krauss sang the most songs and did all the talking. That was a welcomed and dramatic change from last summer at Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Prior Lake when she played second fiddle figuratively and literally to the domineering Robert Plant. No golden god this time, just a golden goddess.

The 53-year-old’s crystalline soprano, a mix of beauty and grace, translates sadness in uncommon ways. On Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” she had the right ache in her voice, underscored by the moan of Douglas’ dobro. With her evocative voice, “One Ray of Shine” became dark and ominous. “Whiskey Lullaby,” her country hit duet with Brad Paisley, was truncated Sunday but still as haunting as ever.

Shout outs, too, to the instrumental acumen of mandolinist Stuart Duncan, banjoist Block and dobro ace Douglas, who did an intriguing and intricate solo instrumental medley of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” and Chick Corea’s “Spain.” The entire sextet, including Krauss on fiddle, sparkled on “Orange Blossom Special,” a warhorse that was so reinvigorated that it received the night’s biggest ovation.

The 110-minute set ended with an intimate encore featuring singers around one microphone, commencing with a trio treatment of Krauss’ country hit, “When You Say Nothing at All.” Soon came the faith-themed ending of the bluegrass spiritual “Down to the River to Pray,” “A Living Prayer” and “There Is a Reason,” hymn-like numbers that suggest that Krauss’ sweet, angelic and often haunting voice is the last one you want to hear on Earth and the first one you want to hear in heaven.