****
(Rounder/Elite)
Reviewer: Graham Reid
Krauss has won so many plaudits for her bluegrass fiddle-playing and intelligent country music that it must be hard to shift preconceptions about her. She's a little bit country - and not even the slightest bit rock'n'roll.
But she is also a highly accomplished interpreter of a song who
could just as easily slew her career into pop chart acceptability here (as she has done Stateside), if that audience just had a chance to hear her.
But Krauss isn't a hitmaker for local radio because she avoids the swelling, anthemic diva-on-drugs choruses in favour of an assured, breathy approach which finds its voice here in soft, slow treatments of Todd Rundgren's It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference and Michael McDonald's Empty Hearts, best appreciated on the privacy of your own stereo.
This time out she also puts aside the bluegrass (the sole hints of country from a keening, gentle steel guitar) in favour of quiet consideration, seductive strings and classy arrangements.
So, she's a little bit country - but a lot more intelligent MOR this time. And as an interpreter of fine material, she deserves a larger audience here than she has. Recommended.
