The Best That We Can Do

03/06/1998 1:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
David Swan

The critically acclaimed and commercially successful bluegrass band, Alison Krauss and Union Station, pulled up for their third Tonight Show appearance in a tour bus emblazoned with a woman’s name. But that name was not "Alison Krauss." In fact, the bus read, "Martha White Bluegrass Express." It seems Martha White is a division of Pillsbury flour that’s sponsoring the group’s tour, which stops at L.A.’s Wiltern Theater after their Tonight Show performance. Said bass player Barry Bales, "You’d be amazed at the people who actually met Martha White," adding that people have commented, "I saw her the last time she played here." Too bad Martha is not a performer, but a colleague of the Green Giant and Poppin Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Though the present leg of their ongoing tour brings them to The Coast, it is interesting to note that the group hails from all over the U.S. as opposed to only the South and Appalachia, traditional centers of bluegrass music . Acoustic guitarist and vocalist Dan Tyminski (whose hometown is West Rutland, Vermont) had this to say about the group’s geographic diversity: "I think we all went to a lot of the same bluegrass festivals.  We’d known each other for a while, traveling to a lot of the same shows and the same festivals and we’d just get together and play when we saw each other and: ta da!", they came together as a group.

While the group may not have shared common hometowns, every member credited their parents with having a tremendous impact on their pursuit of music. For example, mandolin player Adam Steffey said, "My mother plays piano and organ in the church where I grew up, in Kingsport, Tennessee. She still does that. As far as getting into bluegrass and taking an interest in playing mandolin, my grandfather would take me to shows. I would go with him up to different shows within 20 or 30 minutes of Kingsport, and I started getting interested in it that way, just taking lessons and getting albums and things. As soon as I got old enough to drive, every spare minute I’d take off and go by myself and play." Dan echoed this type of experience when he recalled, "In my case, Mom and Dad just always liked old-time country and bluegrass music and they would travel around to local festivals around the Northeast. That’s what got me started: hearing a lot of live music." Similarly, Barry said, "My dad plays guitar and mandolin and always had – he’s played for a long time – and when I was growing up he always had a big record collection of old country and bluegrass records. That was the only music that I knew of. I just sort of got into it that way. It was sort of a natural thing that was just always around." Banjo player and acoustic guitarist Ron Block pointed out that when he was 14, his interest was piqued when he saw and heard bluegrass legend Lester Flatt on TV. The interest was no doubt furthered since his "dad had a music store, so he had lots of instruments and things available, and he played, but not bluegrass. So I got into it kind of sideways."  Finally, fiddler and vocalist Alison pointed out, "I wouldn’t be playing music without my parents suggesting it. My brother played piano and they suggested that I take an instrument, too." At age five, Alison started on piano. She added, laughing, "I ended up starting to like it about seven years later."

The discussion was interrupted by the dressing room phone. Barry answered, then after a brief discussion, asked Alison, "How many Grammys have you won?" After Alison replied, "We have seven," Barry apprised the party on the other end of the line, hung up, and joked, "It was a wrong number. It was a call for Alice In Chains."

The joking continued as the members of Union Station jeered at Alison, who had been asked what her favorite book, TV show or film was. While Alison thought about it, "the boys in the band" gave her grief over her liking the Harry Hamlin classic, Clash of the Titans. Alison then answered more seriously, "I guess my favorite movie is The Color Purple. I really love that. And I can probably speak for everybody; everybody’s favorite book is the Bible. It’s good reading." Dan said, "For me, for TV show, there’s only one: Andy Griffith." Adam added, "Andy Griffith for me, too," but when pressed for his own choice, he revealed, "My favorite movie is probably Raising Arizona." Barry picked "They Were Expendable, the John Wayne movie. It’s one of my favorites." And Ron asked, "Do you ever watch Inside the Actors’ Studio on Bravo? That’s a really cool show." Was there an aspiring actor in the midst of Union Station? Ron said, "No, but a lot of what they say applies to music. Sally Field was just talking about how she gets the emotional content to a scene, she thinks about things that happened to her that make her sad. Things like that. Art is art. It translates."

The group then ran through their favorite foods. While Ron wasn’t too partial, he singled out Mexican food. Alison said, "I’m not a picky eater. I’ll eat whatever they put in front of me. I’ll eat chicken no matter what. I’m trying to pick one thing, because I eat everything and a lot of it. Sugar and salt and butter. Those things are my favorites." Barry jumped in and added, "Her favorite is those pickled sausages and chocolate milk," then noted his own favorite was "Meat and three. Home cooking." Adam is a self-confessed "cheesecake nut." And Dan rounded out the group when he sarcastically said, "I don’t eat very much," then said his favorite is "Coffee ice cream. That’s it. Entree. Appetizer. The full deal. That’s it."

The group’s worst vices focused on food as well, since Alison’s favorite foods, sugar and salt, were her downfall, as was Dan’s love for coffee ice cream and Adam felt ashamed for "Eating like a damn horse." Barry thought about it and said, "Boy, where do I start? Probably tobacco products and the use thereof. Cigars, chewing tobacco, that kind of thing." And Ron ? "Procrastination. It ruins my life all the time." Barry then joked, "He would have answered you sooner but he was putting it off," to everyone’s laughter.

The guys then ran through their secret ambitions. Dan revealed he had his eyes on being a "pro golfer. That would be a cool thing," then added with a bit of bravado, "It’ll probably happen in about another year or so." While Adam admitted, "I don’t have one really. Tough question, though," after some thought, he quipped that deep-down, he wants "to be Dan’s love slave…and caddy." Barry said, "I don’t know, but if there’s anything that’s even remotely close to that, it’s to be a professional fisherman." It was suggested he could get a fishing show on TNN, and Barry was not opposed. Ron then revealed, "I like to write an awful lot. Not fiction, more theology and stuff like that. I might like to do that someday."

But Alison, while admitting "I really don’t daydream about it a lot," did eloquently sum up not only her own aspirations, but those of the band: "I feel like we’re real lucky that we get to do this for a living in the first place. The most we can do, and the best that we can do, is to do the best that we can do."