Paper Airplane | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 12, 2011 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Bluegrass | |||
Length | 43:15 | |||
Label | Rounder | |||
Producer | Alison Krauss & Union Station | |||
Alison Krauss chronology | ||||
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Singles from Paper Airplane | ||||
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Paper Airplane is an album by Alison Krauss and Union Station. Released on April 12, 2011, it was Krauss's 14th album and her first release with Union Station since Lonely Runs Both Ways in 2004. It includes cover versions of "My Opening Farewell" and "Dimming of the Day", originally recorded by Jackson Browne and Richard Thompson, respectively.
The album's lead single, the title track, was released to country music radio and Adult album alternative radio on March 28, 2011, but failed to chart.
The album was engineered and mixed by Mike Shipley, whom Krauss persuaded to return to engineering after a 10‑year absence. [1]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [2] |
Rolling Stone | [3] |
Thom Jurek of AllMusic gave Paper Airplane four-stars, describing it as melancholy, with songs revolving around themes of trial and perseverance. He also praised the cover versions of "Dimming of the Day" and "My Opening Farewell". He considered the album "polished yet authentic". [4]
Andrew Greer of Christianity Today also honored Paper Airplane with four stars, finding it "an exquisite eleven-song canon," and added: "Though their haunts are heavy-hearted, a tangible hope pervades Airplane, attesting to the band's spiritual sensitivity even without the band's usual faith song standout." [5] The album won Grammys for Best Bluegrass Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. [6]
Paper Airplane sold approximately 83,000 copies during its first week of release, making it Krauss's first number one album on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. [7] It is also the highest entry for Krauss on the Billboard 200, where it debuted at number three. Raising Sand , Krauss's collaboration with Robert Plant, reached number two on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2007. In addition to these charts, it also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums and number one on Billboard Folk Albums. [8] The album has sold 384,000 copies in the United States as of November 2016. [9]
Paper Airplane was a minor hit in Europe, debuting in the top forty of several European countries, such as the Norwegian Albums Chart. It became Krauss' most successful album in the UK, reaching number 11 on the UK Albums Chart (overtaking 2009's compilation Essential Alison Krauss , which reached number 13) and earning a silver certification from the BPI.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Paper Airplane" | Robert Lee Castleman | 3:36 |
2. | "Dust Bowl Children" | Peter Rowan | 3:06 |
3. | "Lie Awake" | Viktor Krauss, Angel Snow | 3:55 |
4. | "Lay My Burden Down" | Aoife O'Donovan | 3:52 |
5. | "My Love Follows You Where You Go" | Barry Dean, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose | 4:03 |
6. | "Dimming Of The Day" | Richard Thompson | 5:20 |
7. | "On The Outside Looking In" | Tim O'Brien | 3:35 |
8. | "Miles To Go" | Barry Bales, Chris Stapleton | 2:54 |
9. | "Sinking Stone" | Jeremy Lister | 4:42 |
10. | "Bonita And Bill Butler" | Sidney Cox | 4:03 |
11. | "My Opening Farewell" | Jackson Browne | 4:08 |
Total length: | 43:15 |
No. | Title | Length |
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12. | "These Days" (also an iTunes pre-order bonus track) | |
13. | "A Place Outside" | |
14. | "Frozen Fields" | |
15. | "We Hide & Seek" (live) | |
16. | "Faraway Land" (live) | |
17. | "Every Time You Say Goodbye" (live) |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [31] | Silver | 60,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join Union Station, releasing her first album with them as a group in 1989 and performing with them ever since.
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrass, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord in 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2016, The Rounder Founders were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
Live is the fifth album and the first live album by Alison Krauss and Union Station. All of the songs except "Down to the River to Pray" were recorded at The Louisville Palace on April 29–30, 2002. The album was released on November 5, 2002.
Lonely Runs Both Ways is the sixth album by bluegrass music group Alison Krauss & Union Station, released November 23, 2004. The album won the band three Grammy Awards in 2006, including Best Country Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocal for the song "Restless", Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Unionhouse Branch", and Best Country Album. The song "A Living Prayer" was honored with the award for Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year from the Gospel Music Association.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific". A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called "dobro's matchless contemporary master" by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
Little Sparrow is the thirty-eighth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on January 23, 2001, by Sugar Hill and Blue Eye Records. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album and "Shine" won Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The album is dedicated to Parton's father, Lee Parton, who died in November 2000.
Alison Krauss & Union Station is an American bluegrass and country band associated with singer Alison Krauss. It was initially composed of Krauss, Jeff White, Mike Harman and John Pennell. Later additions included Alison Brown, Tim Stafford, Ron Block, Adam Steffey, Barry Bales and Larry Atamanuik. In 1992, Stafford was replaced by guitar and mandolin player Dan Tyminski and in 1998, Steffey left and was replaced by Dobro player Jerry Douglas.
Ronald Franklin Block is an American banjo player, guitarist, and singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the bluegrass band Alison Krauss & Union Station. He has won 14 Grammy Awards, 6 International Bluegrass Music Awards, a Country Music Association Award, and a Gospel Music Association Dove Award.
"When You Say Nothing at All" is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. It was a hit song for four different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 1988; Alison Krauss & Union Station, whose version was their first solo top-10 country hit in 1995; Irish singer Frances Black, whose 1996 version became her third Irish top-10 single and brought the song to the attention of Irish pop singer Ronan Keating, whose 1999 version was his first solo single and a number-one hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand.
New Favorite is the fourth album by bluegrass music group Alison Krauss & Union Station, released August 14, 2001. The album peaked in the top 50 of the Billboard 200 and within the top 5 of the Billboard charts for both Country and Bluegrass and was certified gold. This album was released in the same year as the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which Krauss appeared on, that had a large effect on bluegrass in the United States. At the 44th Grammy Awards, New Favorite would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and the single "The Lucky One" won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal as well as Best Country Song.
So Long So Wrong is an album by the bluegrass group Alison Krauss & Union Station, released in 1997, and the first to feature guitar and mandolin player Dan Tyminski who would replace Adam Steffey. The album reached number 4 on Billboard's Country Albums chart.
Raising Sand is the first collaborative studio album by rock singer Robert Plant and bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss. It was released in October 2007 by Rounder Records. Raising Sand won Album of the Year at the 2008 Americana Music Honors & Awards and at the 2009 Grammy Awards.
A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection is a compilation album by country/bluegrass artist Alison Krauss. It was released on April 3, 2007, and is a collection of new and old songs that Krauss has recorded. It features duets with Sting, Brad Paisley, John Waite, and James Taylor. The album debuted and peaked at No. 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200, No. 3 on the U.S. Top Country Albums, and No. 38 on the UK Albums Chart.
The discography of American country and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss consists of fourteen studio albums—five solo, six with her group Union Station, and three collaboration albums. She has also released four compilation albums, one live album, and over 30 singles. Her most successful album, Live, has been certified 2× Platinum.
American musician Steve Earle has released twenty-one studio albums, including collaborations with the Del McCoury Band and Shawn Colvin. Earle's work reflects a wide range of styles, including country, bluegrass, roots rock, and folk. He or his labels have also released six live albums and eight compilation albums.
Detour is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Cyndi Lauper, containing cover versions of country and western songs. It was released on May 6, 2016, and is the artist's first for Sire Records. The album was recorded in Nashville and produced by Tony Brown. In the United States, the album debuted at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and number four on the Billboard Top Country Albums and sold 36,800 copies as of September 2016.
For Better, or Worse is the seventeenth studio album by John Prine. It consists of tracks in which the artist teams with an all-star contingent of female singers on a selection of vintage country songs as duets. It was his first studio album in nine years, preceded by 2007's Standard Songs for Average People.
Windy City is the fourth solo studio album by bluegrass-country artist Alison Krauss. Released on February 17, 2017, the album is Krauss' first solo release since Forget About It in 1999, and includes ten covers of classic songs that she selected with producer Buddy Cannon.
God's Problem Child is the 66th solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Willie Nelson. It was released on April 28, 2017, by Legacy Recordings. The album features new songs co-written by Nelson and producer Buddy Cannon. Using their frequent method, Cannon and Nelson wrote the songs exchanging the lyrics in text messages, while Nelson later recorded his vocals in the studio.
Raise the Roof is the second collaborative studio album by British singer-songwriter Robert Plant and American bluegrass-country singer and violinist Alison Krauss. The album was released on November 19, 2021, by Rounder Records and Concord Records in the United States and Warner Music for the rest of the world. The album was nominated for three Grammy Awards at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song for "High and Lonesome," and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for "Going Where the Lonely Go".