POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Alison Krauss, a Low-Key Marvel at Troubadour

Alison Krauss and Union Station may be the newest members of the Grand Ole Opry, but the young bluegrass singer-fiddler and her band are the last thing you’d picture when thinking of the country music citadel.

Even by bluegrass’s relatively whole-grain standards, the 21-year-old Grammy winner from Champaign, Ill., is a low-key marvel. Her performance Tuesday at the Troubadour was a display of masterful understatement, her own cherubic, unaffected voice (teen-aged Brenda Lee meets Emmylou Harris) and unadorned appearance setting the tone.

Krauss’ mix of traditional mountain tunes and bluegrass interpretations of contemporary folk styles (including songs written by Karla Bonoff and Shawn Colvin) was marked by instrumental grace--minus the gratuitous showboating so common in bluegrass--and delicate vocal harmonies so hushed as to almost be subliminal.

For all the restraint, Krauss never seemed like a conservative--and not just because she threw the Beatles’ “I Will” (a lovely, yearning vocal performance) and a Bad Company song into the mix. In the few years since she’s risen to prominence she’s slowly, organically expanded her horizons, allowing her considerable talents to bloom.