This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
You can’t really call Alison Krauss and Union Station a bluegrass band anymore. They’re far too accessible, far too polished — and honestly, far too popular.
Thankfully, you can’t call them a pop band yet either, as the enjoyably earthy Lonely Runs Both Ways makes clear. But even if fiddling vocalist Krauss and co. haven’t abandoned their roots, they have settled into a comfortable pattern on this 10th Rounder set. Krauss handles the sweet, angelic ballads. Guitarist Dan Tyminksi (of O Brother Where Art Thou’s Man of Constant Sorrow fame) takes the down-home back-porch numbers. And as they nimbly, gracefully pick their way through the contemporary Americana field, it’s clear there is something you can call them: Splendid.
