Alison Krauss – Forget About It

If there were any doubt left that Alison Krauss is a musician pursuing her own course with a healthy disregard for both the jealous embrace of bluegrass exclusivists and her own commercial success, Forget About It ought to clear things right up. With her latest album, the one-time bluegrass prodigy sidesteps those who would consign her music to any easily named category — and does it, paradoxically, by offering music of heartbreaking delicacy and restraint.

Not a writer herself, Krauss seems drawn to sweet, almost dreamy songs of compelling poignancy. With a brilliantly chosen complement of musicians — including the members of her band Union Station, husband Pat Bergeson on electric guitar, brother Viktor Krauss on acoustic bass, and veteran drummers Kenny Malone and Jim Keltner — she brings these songs to life with devastatingly thorough attention paid to every detail of the material’s often complex lyrics, and to the sound of every note. That can suck the feeling out of music sometimes, but here it’s a perfect reflection of the way the songs themselves are built on the accumulation of details, and it stamps the album with a powerful sense of identity. There’s never any question who made it, because it simply doesn’t sound like anything else — not even when she covers a Waylon Jennings hit written by Garth Brooks’ producer with Dolly Parton and Lyle Lovett doing the harmonies.

It’s easy for folks to forget, if they ever knew, that Krauss did plenty of time as a (really) young musician playing the tough fiddle contests and bluegrass festivals of the Midwest. For some reason — perhaps because her hard bluegrass is so good — she’s received more than her share of abuse for daring to want to play other kinds of stuff, especially when she chooses to get softer rather than rock out. Forget About It deserves better: It’s an album that pays real honor, not lip service, to the idea of following one’s muse, as it draws listeners into a rich world of emotion.