Alison Krauss

A "greatest hits” album of sorts, A Hundred Miles Or More collects Alison Krauss’s work outside of Union Station, combining a few unreleased tracks with recordings from film scores and work with other artists. As always, Krauss’s voice is nothing less than extraordinarily shocking, blindingly beautiful. She is a joy to listen to, sometimes in spite of the terribly melancholy nature of the songs, which is good because the disc excels at tracks that make you want to cry, cry and well, cry some more, possibly accompanied by some tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth. Her smoked crystal voice grants both melancholy and peace to the storytelling. "Jacobs Dream,” where two children wander into the woods and get lost, is musically and emotionally powerful for its simplicity. The traditional "Molly Ban,” beautifully executed with the Chieftains, haunts the listener with a wash of droning pipes and whispering soprano. For her parings with other artists, she gently slips through the misty pines with Sting in "You Will Be My Ain True Love,” then power chords on "Missing You” with John Waite. When there is this much referencing of death, love or combinations thereof, it’s impossible not to feel the car shifting to the sappy-sweet side of the road, but we are constantly rescued from this by the quality of her vocals and the diversity of instrumentals that make this long journey fly by.