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The second week of Jazz Fest kicked off Thursday under blue skies and sunshine. While the weather was cause for celebration, Alison Krauss and Union Station started their headlining set at the Gentilly stage on a somber note, opening with the lovelorn ballad ?Let me Touch You For Awhile? and followed it with the hard scrabble, high lonesome ?Dustbowl Children.? Things picked up as Krauss and guitarist/vocalist Dan Tyminski traded songs, from Krauss?s fiddle tune ?Sawing on the Strings? to Tyminski?s tale of ?Wild Bill Jones.? The band backed off to make room for dobro picker and bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas, who played the instrumental ?Little Medley,? a showcase of slide-guitar pyrotechnics that eased into Tyminski?s cautionary tale, ?The Boy Who Wouldn?t Hoe Corn.? The band closed the set with Tyminski?s ?Man of Constant Sorrow? from the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

For an encore, Krauss, Tyminski and Douglas gathered around a single microphone in bluegrass fashion, along with Ron Block on *banjo and Barry Bales on upright bass.? [ Read more ]

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