It’s been a long wait to hear new music from country’s most angelic voice, but Alison Krauss has announced that she will release a new album called Windy City—her first project without her band, Union Station, since 2007’s Raising Sand with Robert Plant.
The new album is set to be released on Feb. 17 and features 10 classic songs that Alison hand selected with her producer Buddy Cannon (Kenny Chesney, George Jones), including the lead track, Brenda Lee’s “Losing You.”
“Usually it’s just all songs first,” Alison said in a statement. “It was the first time I’d ever not had songs picked out, and it was just about a person.” That person was veteran Nashville producer Buddy Cannon. “That was absolutely the moment,” she says of the moment she stepped in the studio with Buddy to sing “Make The World Go Away” for Jamey Johnson’s 2012 album, Living For A Song. “Wow! Buddy really makes me want to do a good job.”
As Alison and Buddy worked in the studio to create Windy City— the first new music since 2011’s Paper Airplane—they decided to record songs like “Gentle On My Mind” by Glen Campbell; “You Don’t Know Me” by Eddy Arnold; Willie Nelson’s “I Never Cared For You” and Brenda Lee’s “All Alone Am I,” that pull at the heartstrings.
“It’s almost like you didn’t know it was sad, because it doesn’t sound weak.” Alison says of the album. “It doesn’t have a pitiful part to it, where so many sad songs do. But these don’t. And I love that about it. I love that there’s strength underneath there. That whatever those stories are, they didn’t destroy. That that person made it right through it. I love that.
“It was really fun. I had a great time doing it. And to really have the mindset of seeing something through someone else’s eyes was a blast,” said Alison.
Alison has released 13 albums, including her most recent 2011’s Paper Airplane and has sold more than 12 million records to date. With 27 wins, she is the most awarded female artist in GRAMMY history.
You can pre-order Windy City today, along with the album’s lead track “Losing You.”
