Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: edwardofhuncote on December 03, 2024, 10:36:18 AM
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Alison Krauss & Union Station announced a tour for this year, and with what may surprise a few folks, a change in personnel at the guitar slot.
https://bluegrasstoday.com/russell-moore-to-take-guitar-spot-with-alison-krauss-union-station/ (https://bluegrasstoday.com/russell-moore-to-take-guitar-spot-with-alison-krauss-union-station/)
I'm glad on both counts... number one, very glad to see Al finally mount up for another honest-to-goodness Union Station run, and two, Dan Tyminski has a great thing going with his own band now. It would almost be unfair to those people to pull the rug out from under them just as their gig was getting going. I don't know what his motivations were for not rejoining AKUS, might have been, but I'm good with it, and Russell Moore will be more than fine in that job.
Very interesting development today in the shallow, muddy little puddle of bluegrass music.
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Dan probably decided he likes his life not living at the beck and call of Robert Plant.
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You know, I love Alison Krauss and Union Station and I want musicians to make money but the tickets for her outdoor shows in Mn this summer are going for over $150. Take someone with you and that’s a $400 night. It’s not too steep for my budget but I just can’t bring myself to pay it when I can see a great local band for less than half that price.
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Tickets haven't gone on sale here in Salem for the September, 23rd show yet (tomorrow I think) but that would push my upper limits... I'll shop it and see. My Dad wants to go, and I was thinking about getting him two tickets. Last year, I got him a pair of very good seats to see Dan Tyminski's band here in Roanoke, he and my little sister went. That was at the Jefferson Center for Performing Arts, an auditorium, where the sound doesn't suck. Alison is playing at the Salem Civic Center. I've heard them play there before and it sounds about like any really good bluegrass group trying to play amplified in an arena. I have no doubt it will be as good as it can be. Granted, given the number of people she will draw now, Jeff Center just wouldn't be a feasible venue for AK&US.
Beyond just the tour next year, from what I read and understand here, there is a recorded project in the pipeline that the tour will support. So Russell Moore will be part of that too, which makes it more interesting from a band perspective. The last Union Station project "Paper Airplane" has been quite a while gone. How Russell will affect the direction of the band is going to be something we'll have to wait for... he's a different voice, and a different rhythm guitar style altogether.
*purely anecdotal, and coincidental... just yesterday evening I met up with my luthier-buddy Ward Elliott at Golden Cactus microbrewery in downtown Roanoke, literally right around the corner from the old Iroquois Club (long since closed up) where I first saw Alison Krauss & Union Station, late-Summer 1989. I don't remember what the door was... probably $5 or something. I wasn't 21 yet, but they knew me so I got in. She split the night with some local guys, the Lonesome River Band, with a young Dan Tyminski on mandolin. She had just played fiddle on their recent album. Didn't sing... just played fiddle.
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Most I've ever paid is $75 per for jimmy J and his singer. I might have less problem with prices if I hadn't walked up to the ticket booth at Alpine Valley the day of the show & laid down $12 for an evening with the Grateful Dead. Or, as a teen, walked 5 minutes to the college my dad taught at & paid $3 for Circus, Focus, the Rascals, Mike Quatro, Muddy Waters, etc. (One night in early '70, I didn't go - because I'd never heard of the Allman Brothers Band. Fool.......)
A few years ago Bonamassa played the Coronado Theater in Rockford. It's a beautiful place, so I thought I'd give him another chance. Nose-bleed seats were $125; one at a table by the stage was $765. I wouldn't play $765 to see Jerry Garcia and Andres Segovia jam with J.S. Bach, let alone to watch a kid in a suit 3 sizes too small play the same blues-rock clichés I can hear done better in 1000 bars any night.....
Peter
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Hmmm. Well, it's breaktime here in the Scroll Shop, so I'll stick my head in the proverbial lion's mouth. Honestly, $100 ain't what it was. I get paid $100 for gigs, on slow nights.
Maybe some of it's generational?
I'm a little bit younger than the average of regulars here, but as a general rule I don't go to concerts of any size. I hate crowds, or rather, being in them. Even if I get tickets to this AK&US show, they'll be for my Dad and someone else... I won't go. Probably my sister or one of his buddies. I just won't deal with the hassles. I've made exceptions for Fleetwood Mac twice, and Jimmy J's team once. It isn't completely about the cost of tickets, but I admit that I think >$150 is getting excessive for a 2 hour show considering what you have to deal with just to get in anymore. FWIW, I had awesome seats to see Fleetwood Mac in Charlotte back in 2013, for <$100, and just slightly more for even better seats in 2015, like $120. When I went to catch JT in Greensboro, it was <$100, and I got to hang with Jimmy J for a few minutes and talk Alembic stuff. I've been a James Taylor fan for years anyway, and I'm a Tarheel by birth. It was a a great show, and getting to meet a bass hero too was a bonus points highlight. I had a $uper gig myself the next night in Charlotte that made the whole thing revenue-neutral, then I went on vacation for a week.
I have observed that the Gen Z trainees I just left to do what I used to didn't even flinch at $500 tickets to see pop-country acts they like, (*I won't name them so as not to generate a bash-fest...) and were totally willing to drive state lines away to see them. It's completely standard in their mind. Hell, they buy donuts and coffee with their phone. I expressed surprise that tickets to *Eddie and the Ripchords were that much and they just kinda' looked at me like... yeah, man. Pro football (or other sports) games? Yep, same deal. A couple of them banded together and drove to Nashville to watch a Titans game, hit Broadway and Music Row and got lubed-up before the game. Cost $1000's. They had a ball, texted me pictures from the stands. It was a party/concert atmosphere. I was already in bed.
My point is, these days people are willing to pay more for live entertainment than some of us seem to be willing to be. I have no clue why. I realize musicians are pretty much the bottom of the food chain in this pyramid, but on some level, I think it's a good thing that concert attendance can be counted upon.
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Big fan of AKUS, amazing band.
Yeah, $100 ain't what it used to be, except that the tip jar income IS about the same as it ever was. :o
ClearChannel, owner of most of the venues in the US and many around the planet - AND Ticketmaster - are wringing the last of the money out of what's left of the music business. Algorithms which sets ticket prices based on demand at that moment. If more than 10 people are logged-in trying to buy a certain show all of the sudden the price goes up. Add facility fees, parking fees, beer fees, and it's a frickin' investment to go to a show. No wonder people are determined to have a great time! And so disappointed if they don't.
It's very rare for the wife and I to go to a show these days. I can barely get myself off the couch and around the corner to the Baked Potato to hear my friends play... I just hope live music isn't completely destroyed by big-corp greed.
Then again, I'm really old. 8)
Jimmy J
PS: thank you guys for supporting the JT team, so nice of you all.
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Well, I’m going to Vancouver BC today - but NOT for the Taylor Swift show. Tickets are going for actual thousands. We needed to go over for an eye appointment and wanted to stay overnight - but hotel room prices were quadruple the usual. So night ferry back.
Fortunately, I guess, AKUS aren’t playing Galiano Island. Or Vancouver either.
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I saw the “Sound Test”, the unveiling if the infamous “Wall of Sound” at the Cow Palace in Daly City (just south of San Francisco), on 3/23/74. Got to see the Dead all night. Bill Graham provided breakfast, (croissants and oranges for all, IIRC), and we were given a mini LP with two new songs on each side on the way out. All for the price of a $4 ticket. That’s $25 in today’s money. I have a poster from Bill Graham’s first NYE show, 1966-1967. Friday night, 12/30 and Saturday night, 12/31. Friday night was the Dead, the Airplane, and Quicksilver, 9:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m., for $2.50. The NYE show was the same three bands, 9:00 p.m. - 9:00 a.m., with breakfast, $4.00, which is $25.50 in 2024 dollars. I believe tickets for The Last Waltz, which included all of the acts plus a full Thanksgiving turkey dinner were $25, or $120.50 today. Times have certainly changed. I’m with Greg and Peter. Phil Lesh spoiled me with Terrapin Crossroads. No more music in baseball stadiums for me.
Bill, tgo
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AK+US at Mountain Winery would be a lot of fun. Prices look to be about 160-400ish. Maybe I can take an Element Acoustic to the sound check.
I've been to two shows this year, Paul Weller at the Fillmore in SF and David Gilmour at the Hollywood Bowl. Weller was a very reasonable price, I think it was around $65, the sound was less than stellar but the show was energetic and the crowd was great. Gilmour ticket was outrageous, and I got very good seats. The sound was great and I was glad to be close since he didn't use the side screens and the large circle screen behind the band doesn't show the musicians most of the time so I did get to SEE the band. I didn't think he was ever going to tour the US again and so I thought I was going to have to budget in a trip to the UK to see him, so compared to that it was a bargain.
Knowing how much work goes in to these shows, the GA prices are usually fair even if expensive. I'm honestly just so happy to have live music again, I happily pay the price. Plus I really never go on a vacation, so these music excursions are my mini holidays.
I'm with Bill and am forever spoiled by Terrapin Crossroads, both for price and proximity. Go and see a great show at a fair price on a Tuesday night and be home by 11:00pm. Those were the days!
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It would be great if she extended the show to the UK. It's been many years since AKUS last played Edinburgh tho' we do see jerry Douglas at the end of January every year in Glasgow. It's also been a few years since JT came over so if you could have a word in your singer's shell-like Jimmy :) We do have tickets to see Bonnie again in June but it would be nice for us to have something else to look forward to.
Graeme
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It would be great if she extended the show to the UK. It's been many years since AKUS last played Edinburgh tho' we do see jerry Douglas at the end of January every year in Glasgow. It's also been a few years since JT came over so if you could have a word in your singer's shell-like Jimmy :) We do have tickets to see Bonnie again in June but it would be nice for us to have something else to look forward to.
Graeme
There is a documentary somewhere of that UK tour... they were really sharp as a band around then. I did get two tickets to the Salem, Virginia show next September for my Pops. It was pretty steep, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I got pretty good ones for $120 ea. (they're Christmas presents, so don't tell! 🤫)
*here's that CMT All Access documentary... it was 19 years ago Graeme... so yessir that's been a while. There are a bunch of funny, candid clips in there along with good music. The funny, silly Alison I remember. I hope she still is.
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*here's that CMT All Access documentary... it was 19 years ago Graeme... so yessir that's been a while. There are a bunch of funny, candid clips in there along with good music. The funny, silly Alison I remember. I hope she still is.
I was going to say I didn't think it could be 19 years ago but we've lived in Scotland now for 26 years so it probably has. Where has the time gone?
Graeme
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Curiouser, and curiouser... ???
https://bluegrasstoday.com/more-akus-2025-tour-news-stuart-duncan-added-tv-march-19/
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Weird. It's not like they couldn't find a top-notch fiddler a little closer to home.....
Peter
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Stuart was in the band for the Plant/Krauss gigs, so along with Jerry Douglas, it's not surprising.
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Agree, not much she does surprises me, but this one did leave me wondering why. Ron kinda' answered the question with the explanation that Stuart Duncan joining as a utility guy... that kinda' made sense of it. In addition to being a world-class fiddler, he plays a number of other instruments. And like Joey pointed out, they they have worked together a bunch, with Rob't Plant and others. Anything Stuart Duncan is part of automatically gets better. I think what me, and a lot of the really old AK&US fanbase are having a hard time getting our heads around is that Alison Krauss is in a position to bankroll pretty much any band she wants to. Even after a tour is announced and scheduled.
I was watching this interview the other day while out walking... it's about an hour long and from a few years ago. The interviewer is a bit of a doofus, but I don't think I've ever heard her talk this openly before, so she must have enjoyed it. You can hear the passion in her when she talks about the early days of playing.
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They were on the Opry the other night.
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Thanks for the interview, Greg! And here I was thinking I couldn't love her any more than i did......
Peter
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The new album is out today, you can actually buy a hard copy of it from the band. https://alisonkrauss.com/ (https://alisonkrauss.com/)
I put my order in first thing this morning. Gotta' say though, and leaving open that maybe it'll grow on me, the first impressions of this album are mixed. It's dark... and not just depressing, heartbreaking, dark, it's just... there's this sinister overtone to it. The writing is brilliant. The musicianship is tops. The production is perfect. I'm a fan of the band and the people, and have been, for decades. That said, I've yet to hear a track on this record I want to learn... and that is a very hard thing to say.
*FWIW, I already got a shipping notification for my copy of Arcadia. The team at Union Station Land is on the ball.
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... That said, I've yet to hear a track on this record I want to learn...
Yes, but just listening to music is an end in itself. :)
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Arcadia just hit Amazon Music; running ;ate tonight, but I plan to give it a spin tomorrow after Senior management retires.
Peter
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Oh my word! That is just a beautiful album!
I love it - dark undertones and all.
Peter
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Oh my word! That is just a beautiful album!
I love it - dark undertones and all.
Peter
... That said, I've yet to hear a track on this record I want to learn...
Yes, but just listening to music is an end in itself. :)
I've only listened to it in the one car I have that connects to my phone w/Bluetooth. And I'm reserving much opinion until I can listen to the whole thing uninterupted, and read the liner notes. For me, that's part of the whole project... or what ties it all together. I will say; that of the tracks that I like, I did really like them.
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I've had a couple days to take it all in, and I get it now. I had to listen to the whole thing uninterupted and in its entirety. Several times. It's still very dark. I wonder if it was meant from the beginning as a 'band' effort, or if this was a collection of works Alison had set aside for her own project. It seems like a mix of both, but flows so seamlessly together that you can't tell where one started and the other left off. I think that's a testament to both her choosiness of songs and the talent of people she is surrounded by to present the songs in a cohesive way. I think Union Station has become bigger than just the band that tours... it's what she imagines a song to sound like when it's played. Maybe right down to who plays it. Might even be her own brother, arranging a string section.
Listened to as a whole, I believe it's a better product than Paper Airplane was, and that was a great project. There are some vintage-sounding tracks on here, and when I read the personnel list, my guessing was confirmed. The guitar I'd been hearing was Dan Tyminski and sure enough, Adam Steffey is there on two tracks playing mandolin. Russell Moore is only credited with having sang vocals on this record, which doesn't surprise me given the short timeframe between the announcement that he'd be replacing Dan in the tour lineup, and the album dropping. Stuart Duncan is listed here too, playing twin fiddle, filling in another puzzle piece.
I'm going to take a break from Arcadia today. It really does affect you on an emotional level... to the point of distraction. You can't listen to it casually. It isn't that kind of record.
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I've had a couple days to take it all in, and I get it now ...
Thanks; nice review by someone who knows the subject.
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The tour opened the other night in Louisville. Alison has a lotta' fun introducing the guys, especially Barry who's been there the longest.
I've noticed several repeats and songs that were cut short in videos that are posted. I wonder if they weren't shooting for another live album or video from the Louisville Palace. 🤔
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"I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby"... from eons ago. This was actually on one of Jerry Douglas' records and Alison subsequently released it on her compilation... I dunno, 30 years ago. Glad to see it's back in the set, but why just one verse and a tag-outro?
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The tour rolls on... I happened to catch this on YouTube the other day.