Krauss & Union Station Back on Bluegrass Train

Alison Krauss may not have upped her Grammy take this week, but she scored big where it really mattered.

For more than a dozen years this onetime bluegrass wunderkind appeared virtually incapable of an error in judgment. But her latest album, “Forget About It,” seemed a misstep into often schmaltzy adult pop.

In her concert Thursday at Anaheim’s Sun Theatre, however, she reasserted her solid grounding in heartfelt bluegrass and country, and even brought the new material up to par with sharper arrangements and more intense vocals.

The absence of a relaxed piano and sugary backup vocals from the album’s version of Todd Rundgren’s “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference,” in fact, made all the difference between an adult-contemporary snoozer and a straight-to-the-heart lament of ill-fated love.

It also helped that her consistently inspiring band, Union Station, was in top form--except for banjoist-guitarist Ron Block’s laryngitis--and that the quartet has an extra fret-board ace in the hole on this tour: Dobro master Jerry Douglas (whose presence may have been an extra incentive to lure Eric Clapton to Anaheim for her set).

It’s practically been a deluge of great bluegrass through the Southland recently, with Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley and now Krauss & Union Station, whose train appears reassuringly back on track.