Too Late to Cry

 (13 customer reviews)

I remember distinctly when I first heard one of the cuts on the lp version of Too Late to Cry on a radio show called Grass Roots or something like that out of Kalamazoo, MI. I stopped whatever I was doing to listen closely to "Don't Follow Me", and then the first chance I got to get up to Lansing's Elderly Instruments (the best darn music & instrument store in Michigan)I bought it.I think this recording is just about as perfect as anything since Abbey Road. Each song is a little gem. I really prefer Alison's voice as it sounds in these earlier recordings: stronger, more nasal. She purposely changed it to the softer, more pop-friendly version around the time of the "Every Time You Say Goodbye", I believe. But her singing is not the only treat; she had won many awards for her fiddle playing by this time, and it shines; and she is backed up by only the best musicians in bluegrass---Jerry Douglas & Sam Bush, for example. Peppy, strong, and true to...Read more

This CD showcases Alison Krauss's amazing voice in songs that show it to its best advantage. The producers of her more recent CDs have chosen songs and arrangements that lack energy and cause her singing to be breathy. In 1987, these folks hadn't gotten their hands on her, and she's in full voice on the slower songs as well as the faster ones.Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, and Tony Trischka are the "name" musicians accompanying her; the lesser-known musicians play just as well, though, and Alison's fiddling is impeccable.This CD has it all - good songs (good in their own right and good choices for Alison to sing), good picking, and good singing.

In 1987 Alison was only 15, and some of the songs on this CD are kind of "honky-tonky". In "Song For Life" the lyric begins "I don't drink as much as I used to...." and it's a little incongruous putting the words together with the 15 year-old voice. Her vocal tone was a little twangy and nasal-sounding, almost strident as she belted out some of these tunes, and I wonder if she was influenced maybe a little by some of the Nashville Big-Hair bunch like Reba.Still.... if she had not appeared until today and suddenly this recording appeared, it would be at least as head-turning today as it was 15 years ago. No other vocalist in the genre approaches this kind of material with this kind of instrumentation with THAT kind of voice. Alison surrounded herself by superstars like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, so the supporting cast was top-notch. In her first recording she was both astonishingly new and talented, but also showed great promise of things to...Read more