Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas at Mershon Auditorium; Columbus, Ohio; April 19, 2025
Alison Krauss & Union Station built their encore like an opening sequence, gathering around a single mic and expanding from trio to quartet to quintet to sextet for a spiritual - in the literal and figurative senses - six-song sequence of “When You Say Nothing at All,” “Whiskey Lullaby,” “Down to the River to Pray,” “A Living Prayer,” “When He Reached Down his Hand for Me” and “There is a Reason.”
Thus ended the third show of AKUS’ first tour in a decade. And save for some monitor issues and a pedal problem that tried - and failed - to trip up Ohio native Jerry Douglas during his solo portion, an enthralling, instrumental combo of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” and Return to Forever’s “Spain,” early-tour hiccups were nonexistent.
“We’ve been doing a lot of practicing but it’s still scary,” Krauss said after the band ripped through the instrumental “Choctaw Hayride,” early in its 33-song, 110-minute performance.
This was a different Union Station. While Krauss, Dobroist Douglas, Ron Block (guitar and banjo) and bassist Barry Bales remain; Dan Tyminski is out, ably replaced by Russell Moore on guitar, mandolin and second lead vocals. And, for the tour, the group expanded to a six piece with the addition of Stuart Duncan. Though he was placed on the back line next to Bales, Duncan was essential on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and background vocals, his solos often eliciting the loudest bursts of applause from the sold-out crowd that gathered April 19 inside Columbus, Ohio’s, Mershon Auditorium for an Easter eve bluegrass revival.
The group came on with no announcement at 7:35 and took their places on a subtle but visually appealing stage set that nodded to the titular Arcadia with a 3-D marquee, ticket booth and street lamp situated before a screen that carried various outdoor scenes to illustrate individual songs.
And Union Station played most of them - some truncated to accommodate their abundance - in a career-spanning offering that included “Ghost in this House,” “Baby, Now that I’ve Found You,” “Let Me Touch You for a While” and others. Moore got to shine on his four Arcadia spotlights, the sauntering “North Side Gal” and the gloomy “Hangman” the highlights, and channeled Tyminski brilliantly on “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn.” The biggest setlist surprise came in the form of “Angel Flying too Close to the Ground,” which began with Douglass and Krauss alone before the band melted in - a glorious arrangement that nodded to the new era of Union Station.
Nodding to the old, Krauss remains angelic of singing voice and hilarious of speaking voice, whether good-naturedly ribbing Block for his formerly vegetarian ways or teasing Bales, an avid hunter, for dressing in “secret clothes” and “murdering god’s creatures.”
With more than 70 shows scheduled through September, the latest iteration of AKUS is guaranteed only to get nimbler and more precise. This is an almost-unfathomable premise as the just-out-of-the-gate band is already nearly perfect with the six singers and players dialed in to their lead and support roles and working together for the greater good.
Grade card: Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas at Mershon Auditorium - 4/19/25 - A
