The sold-out crowd basked in high heat and the gorgeous vocals and fiddle-playing of the Grammy-winning artist touring behind her latest album. Browse photos from Krauss’ concert and another weekend bluegrass show, Steep Canyon Rangers.
SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS, PLUS A GALLERY FROM ANOTHER WEEKEND BLUEGRASS CONCERT: STEEP CANYON RANGERS AT PERRIN BREWING
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Temperatures didn’t drop below 90 until the sun started setting just west of the Frederik Meijer Garden & Sculpture Park stage, but the sweltering heat and humidity didn’t deter fans of Alison Krauss, who took the capacity crowd of 1,900 to church Sunday night in Grand Rapids.
The Grammy-winning songstress delivered a spiritually inspiring, gospel-heavy set filled with bluegrass and country cuts from throughout her 30-plus-year career as she performed songs she recorded with her band Union Station, a couple from her collaboration with Robert Plant (on 2007’s “Raising Sand”) and newer material from her 2017 chart-topping solo release, “Windy City.”
Joined by an all-star cast of long-time collaborators — featuring Union Station members Barry Bales (bass) and Ron Block (banjo, guitar), along with Jay Bellerose (drums), Matt Rollings (piano), James Mitchell (guitar) and siblings Suzanne (vocals) and Sidney Cox (dobro) — Krauss kicked things off with new tunes “River in the Rain” and “I Never Cared for You” before diving back into older numbers such as “Stay,” “Forget About it” and “Baby Now That I’ve Found You.”
She drew some of her largest cheers of the night, however, on the country classic “It’s Goodbye and So Long To You” that appears on her latest release as well as tunes from the award-winning “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, such as “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby,” “Down To The River To Pray” and “Keep on the Sunny Side.”
Krauss, who fiddles as well she sings, regaled the attentive crowd with stories throughout the night, riffing on Father’s Day, the beautiful gardens and her Michigan roots that were traced back to her grandmother who called gin rummy “Michigan Rummy,” used the term “boardinghouse reach” and had a strong sense of state pride with which many Michiganders can identify.
“There’s nothing wrong with some state pride,” Krauss remarked.
Playing just north of 20 songs on the night, she played to the Sunday West Michigan audience, hitting heavy on gospel cuts and songs such as “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven,” the traditional “I Got Shoes” and her own, “When God Dips his Pen of Love in My Heart.”
She took it home with a three-song encore that featured fan favorite “When You Say Nothing At All,” as well as “A Living Prayer” and “It is Well With My Soul.”
New Jersey singer-songwriter Steven Delopoulos, of Burlap to Cashmere, opened the show with a short solo set, sharing stories behind a handful of originals and also playing a cover of fellow Asbury Park native Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Alison Krauss, Steven Delopoulos at Meijer Gardens
Photos by Jamie Geysbeek
PHOTO GALLERY: Steep Canyon Rangers, Mark Lavengood, Seth Bernard at Perrin Brewing
Photos by Jamie Geysbeek