Bluegrass and country singer Alison Krauss is known for many things: her delightful voice, her talent with the fiddle, and more recently, her dynamic pairing with Robert Plant. For the 51-year-old Krauss, music has been a lifelong passion. Despite that, however, she has never thought of herself as someone with “big plans.” Instead, she’s followed her skills all the way to more than two dozen Grammy Awards.
Videos by American Songwriter
So, with someone so accomplished, one might wonder what Krauss has to say about life and love, her craft, her career, and the world at large. Without further ado, here are the 20 best Alison Krauss quotes.
1. “The grand old lady of bluegrass? Well, wouldn’t that be a wonderful title to have? I hope I do enough to earn it someday.”
2. “Being in the studio is a really romantic time.”
3. “Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it’s the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it’s not the truth coming out of your mouth, it’s not appealing.”
4. “I started with the classical violin when I was 6, and I guess it went well.”
5. “When it’s open and honest, that’s when the real nature of who you are as a vocalist or as a performer, all of that stuff can finally start to become what it’s supposed to be. Like settling into yourself. It’s not even a musical thing, it’s a whole mindset, a whole acceptance of who you were supposed to be. Life sounds good.”
6. “I don’t get recognized in London or at home either—very seldom anyway. Either that or I look so crazy no one wants to come up to me.”
7. “I love hard singing.”
8. “I love being in the world of the unknown.”
9. “That’s what I love. Not being interrupted, sitting in a car by myself, and listening to music in the rain. There are so many great songs yet to sing.”
10. “It’s not that I have resisted songwriting, it’s just not something I felt I have had to do. I’ve just not woken up and thought, I must do this. But I have often heard music that I have instantly felt ‘I have to sing that song’.”
11. “My parents made us do everything, try everything.”
12. “I think that people respond to honesty in music, so I only choose songs that are the truth for me.”
13. “Whenever I’ve chosen a song because it’s clever, it’s always turned out to be a mistake.”
14. “I don’t look for bliss, just contentment.”
15. “You know, if you really want to fiddle the old-time way, you’ve got to learn the dance. The contra-dances, hoedowns. It’s all in the rhythm of the bow. The great North Carolina fiddle player Tommy Jarrell said, ‘If a feller can’t bow, he’ll never make a fiddler. He might make a violin player, but he’ll never make no fiddler.'”
16. “Songs come from all over the place. You can’t predict what you’re going to like. You might like something that doesn’t fit right now. What was working for you at one point, something you’ve loved for years and years, when you get together with everybody, you think, this doesn’t match up with what’s going on with you personally.”
17. “If you don’t know what makes green, you’re going to try every color combination.”
18. “Growing up I used to love bands like Free and ELO and the Rolling Stones. When Robert Plant got in touch it made perfect sense to me.”
19. “I grew up in a school that had a big music program, and it was incredible. It’s what I looked forward to during the day. I had chorus, strings, band.”
20. “I think you translate emotion better when you take your hands off.”
Photo by Per Ole Hagen/Redferns
