Instead, Krauss was building relationships on the bluegrass circuit. With her bands Silver Rail, Classified Grass, and finally Union Station, she caught the attention of promoter Bob Jones, who worked with both the Kentucky Fried Chicken band contest in Louisville — which Krauss’ group won in 1986 — and the Newport Folk Festival, a venue that brought her to the attention of Rounder president Ken Irwin. Irwin requested a demo from Krauss; on the strength of that tape, Rounder signed her.
For her debut, Krauss selected the songs and Irwin put together an all-star cast: Roy Huskey Jr., Tony Trischka, Russ Barenberg, John Schmaltz, Lonnie Meeker, and three pioneers of modern bluegrass: Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas. But Krauss herself wasn’t quite ready. “I really like some of those songs still,” she says. “But I didn’t even know what I was singing there. I was too young, I couldn’t understand or grasp the songs.
“When I started to live a little, getting a little older, things start making sense. You start playing differently, things naturally change. Your desires are different about everything. Getting out of the high school mode, you naturally just calm down. But I wouldn’t trade anything that’s happened. That record might have been a little better a few years later. Of course, I oversang and overplayed, but what can I say? I was using too much Aquanet. My hair was way too big and way too stiff.”
The relationship between Rounder and Krauss has remained one of the most important and enduring in American music, not just for its longevity, but because Irwin has consistently allowed Krauss to make only the albums she has wanted to make.
“I’ve come to appreciate Ken more and more the older I’ve gotten,” Krauss says. “His love for music and his love for history, his desire to record history. He’s genuinely passionate about music. He’s a legitimate music lover in the business of making records. You don’t see that very often; you see businessmen in the business of making records.
“I remember one time we were playing with the Cox Family onstage. We’d made a gospel record a few years ago, and Ken was down in the audience, and he was crying. He’s the president of the record company! And there he was crying because he was being moved by the music.
“The older I get, the happier I am that I never went anywhere else. You look back at the history of independent labels recording bluegrass, Rounder has always been consistent in recording young people at the start of their careers.”
Krauss has always placed a premium on loyalty and human connections. For her first album, she chose six songs written by John Pennell, the bass player who guided her through her early bluegrass bands. She continues to record songs co-written by her brother Viktor (the longtime upright bassist in Lyle Lovett’s Large Band), and returns again and again to the writers she most trusts: R.L. Castleman, Michael McDonald, Jeff White and Bob Lucas, among others.
“I’m pretty lucky not to have any regrets about my career,” she says. “I was lucky to get a manager who was the most honest person you’d ever meet, so I’ve had the same manager, Denise Stiff, since I was 15 or 16. Of course, we have our special, working dysfunctional relationship. But staying with Rounder and Denise has just been the right thing to do. I’m so glad I didn’t go anywhere else.
“One time, we were close. My parents were very excited and I thought it was neat too. It was while we were making the second album. But I liked what were doing musically, and that was the point. Why would we change if we were happy?
“We’ve had meetings with a lot of different labels through the years. I felt it would be stupid not to meet, and we were always honest with them. Switching to a major just never seemed liked the right thing to do, because we were already doing the right things. We had our needs met, and we were making the records we wanted to make.”
It has often been noted that Krauss loves a range of music, including classic rock — as if anyone who spent their teens in the midwest during the 1980s could do otherwise. “When I’m riding around in the car, I like funk and hard rock, good time grooving music,” she smiles. “Some songs can be too heavy for me; it’s amazing what they are doing, but it’s not enjoyable. It’s too much for me. It’s like I’m not ready to hear that.
“But the songs I want to sing are the ones that truly move me, make me feel something. To find a song that really moves you, that’s such a reward. To have a relationship with a three-minute piece of music for years — I mean, how much do you go through before you find that?
“The guys [in Union Station] don’t get as excited about the song selection, but I do. I’m the most passionate about that. If I hear something on the radio I like, I’ll write it down, and then I’ll find out what else the singer or writer has. I keep a list and write everything down. I’ll remember the songs for years also.”
Most recording projects with Union Station — currently Krauss, upright bassist Barry Bales, guitarist/banjoist Ron Block, dobro master Jerry Douglas, and guitarist/mandolinist Dan Tyminski — begin with intense and frequently taped rehearsals, to which every member brings ideas for arrangements. Krauss, however, has most often taken the lead in imagining how the songs she has found will be realized in the studio.
“Whenever I’m arranging songs I have all the lyrics out, with ideas for parts written down,” she explains. “Sometimes I might have a little more of an idea of what should happen, but this last [studio] album [2001’s New Favorite], we were all involved. Once we get in the studio, I’ll say which song is the best one to start with, which will set the mood for the record. But it’s changed over the years; it’s not so scary as it was.”
