Alison Krauss & Union Station Reach Back To The Past On New Project ‘Arcadia’

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Alison Krauss & Union Station are set to release their first new album in 14 years, Arcadia, on March 28 via Down The Road Records.

The first single from the new project, “Looks Like The End Of The Road,” introduces another new chapter for the band and now. The track reunited the band and reignited their focus to carve out the 10 songs on Arcadia. 

“Usually, I find something that’s a first song, and then things fall into place,” says Krauss. “That song was ‘Looks Like The End Of The Road.’ Jeremy Lister wrote it, and it just felt so alive – and as always, I could hear the guys already playing it.”

Self-produced by Alison Krauss & Union Station, Arcadia’s songs transcend time, reveal beautiful and tragic truths, and reaffirm why the group remains one of the most influential acts of the past four decades. Even during an extended period apart where each member was building a thriving solo career and earning a collective total of more than 70 Grammys and selling tens of millions of albums, they continued to search for and patiently collect music that might one day bring them back together.

Largely penned by writers including Robert Lee Castleman, Viktor Krauss, Bob Lucas, JD McPherson and Sarah Siskind, Arcadia‘s songs are contemporary reflections of history. The album welcomes brand new member Russell Moore, who is best known as the frontman for chart-topping group IIIrd Tyme Out and is IBMA’s most-awarded male vocalist of all time, on co-lead vocals, guitar and mandolin. Moore joins Krauss (fiddle, lead vocal), Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals) and Barry Bales (bass, vocals) on the new collection.

“The stories of the past are told in this music,” continues Krauss. “It’s that whole idea of ‘in the good old days when times were bad.’ There’s so much bravery and valor and loyalty and dreaming, of family and themes of human existence that were told in a certain way when our grandparents were alive. Someone asked me, ‘How do you sing these tragic tunes?’ I have to. It’s a calling. I feel privileged to be a messenger of somebody else’s story. And I want to hear what happened.”

Arcadia rejoins Alison Krauss & Union Station with Rounder Records founders Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy, Bill Nowlin and John Virant, who are now heading up their own Down The Road Records. They first signed Krauss when she was 14 years old, and first worked with Douglas in 1975 when JD Crowe & The New South released their eponymous album, commonly referred to as Rounder 0044.

On the heels of Arcadia‘s release, Alison Krauss & Union Station will perform the music live at 75 tour dates across North America, with stops in Atlanta, Memphis, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Nashville, Richmond and more. Featuring Douglas, the “Arcadia 2025 Tour” is the band’s first run of shows together in more than ten years and kicks off April 17 in Louisville at The Louisville Palace.

Arcadia Track List:
1. “Looks Like The End Of The Road” (Jeremy Lister)
2. “The Hangman” (Maurice Ogden, Viktor Krauss)
3. “The Wrong Way” (Dan Tyminski, Robert Lee Castleman)
4. “Granite Mills” (Timothy Eriksen)
5. “One Ray Of Shine” (Sarah Siskind, Viktor Krauss)
6. “Richmond On The James” (Alison Krauss, G.T. Burgess)
7. “North Side Gal” (Jonathan David McPherson)
8. “Forever” (Robert Lee Castleman)
9. “Snow” (Bob Lucas)
10. “There’s A Light Up Ahead” (Jeremy Lister)

Lorie Hollabaugh
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