The Dispatch from Moline, Illinois • 69

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27. 200Q THE DISPATCH AND THE ROCK ISLAND ARGUS H3 ENTERTAINMENT Krauss standing at country's crossroads Hi- Mi speech for a woman who has spent most of her life preparing for a career in music. Krauss started playing classical violin when she was 5, but she soon became enamored by the playfulness of country bluegrass. The violin quickly turned into a fiddle. At age 12, she won the Illinois State Fiddle Championship and was named most promising fiddler in the Midwest by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America.

Two years later she set the standard for Leann Rimes by recording her first album, "Too Late to Cry," before she could drive a car legally. Krauss' albums seem to alternate between mainstream country and Bill Monroe-inspired bluegrass. By contract, her backing band. Union Station, appears in the album title with her on alternating recordings which always seem to be the bluegrass-tinged albums. The band has always been her musical support network, much like an extended family.

Dobro player Jerry Douglas and mandolinist Sam Bush have been playing with Krauss since the first album and are once again featured on "Forget About It." Veteran rock drummer Jim Keltner is featured on drums while Lovett and Parton add backing vocals to the closing song, "Dreaming My Dreams With You." A bluegrass and country traditionalist from Champaign, even Krauss admits that in today's country, primping comes before pickin'. "It was a different world before video a completely different story," Krauss said. "I remember as a kid not knowing what an artist looked like until I bought their record. Now, looks come first." Krauss is probably due for some national attention even if she shows up for photo shoots in her bathrobe and bunny slippers. Starting with her 1990 album, "Everytime You Say Goodbye," nearly all of her releases have been nominated for or awarded Grammys, Country Music Awards and International Blue-grass Music Association accolades.

"Forget About It" has followed suit, picking up three Grammy nominations (best female country vocal, best country album and best engineered album) earlier this month. CMA and the IBMA won't convene again until the fall, but Krauss is a sure bet for some nominations from both. Recognition by peers is flattering, but Krauss' ability to score so well with Grammy is something of an enigma. The award's voting body, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, is prone to favor albums with swift sales and broad radio appeal. Krauss hasn't had either, but "Both had offered to sing on my records in the past, but I had to work up the courage to ask them," Krauss said.

"They were so generous and tolerant." More modesty from the cover girl. Perhaps more than any of her other albums, Krauss' feather-light voice is pushed to the fore on "Forget About It" There's a reason Douglas' Hawaiian-hillbilly dobro is a constant in Krauss' arrangement; its tinny notes are a contrast to her pliant delivery in songs like the radio-ready "Stay." Krauss remakes Todd Rund-gren's "It Wouldn't Make a Difference" into a ballad that the progressive rocker probably never envisioned. And on "It Don't Matter Now," one of three songs contributed by former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald, she utters pained questions like, "Is that sorry on your breath?" like she's waiting for the listener to confess. "I've always preferred to sing songs by other writers," Krauss said. "In the end I think I'm much better at choosing what songs by other people that are best for me than composing my own." Choosing.

At least she'll take credit for something. Houston Chronicle In her 15 years of entertaining, country and bluegrass star Alison Krauss has never had a more scintillating opportunity for superstar-dom than right now. In between the glitz of teen-pop and the blitz of rap-rock, the women of country music carried 1999. According to SoundScan, which monitors album purchases, sales were up 5.5 percent last year. A lot of that was on the backs of the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

Krauss claims to care less, but her turn may be coming whether she wants it or not. No longer the girl with powder-blue eyeliner and big Grand Ole Opry hair, Krauss, 28, has had a Celine Dion-style glamour make-over. Her new album, "Forget About It," is a collection of lulling country ballads, jogging mandolins and a cover photo as vogue as any Twain or Chicks pose. More important, "Forget About It" is the most accessible and Krauss-centric album of her career. She recorded it with her longtime band, Union Station, and recruited such guests as Lyle Lovett and Dolly Parton.

Still, it's Krauss' ethereal vocals that clearly carry the collection. Discuss songcraft, and Krauss is more than willing to while away the afternoon. But mention how her charming new image might attract male groupies to her concerts, and she's oblivious, even a little embarrassed. "That was just me for a day," Krauss laughed in her helium-high nasal giggle. "I told the photographer before he came over that I had some zits on my face and he said, 'No problem.

No I couldn't believe it." Actors needed in area Three area theater and comedy groups are seeking interested performers for workshops and auditions for their coming seasons. The menu of events is as follows: Countryside Community Theater is holding a theater audition workshop from 2 to 5 p.m. today at North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium in Eldridge. Interested participants should bring music to sing and clothes that allow for adequate movement. Hosts Ron and Cindy May, Georgian Jecklin and Tammy Clem-mons will be on hand to give instruction and answer questions.

CCT's 17th season includes "Follies" in June and "The Wizard of Oz" in July. Auditions for the shows will take place March 11. Playcrafters Barn Theatre is holding auditions for the third production of its 2000 season. The theater will hold auditions for "Arsenic and Old Lace," a comedy by Joseph Kesselring, at 7 p.m. nightly March 5-7 in Playcrafters' Barn Theatre lobby, 4950 35th Casting is for three women ages 20 to 70; 11 men ages 20 to 70.

The director of the show is Jeff Adamson. Show dates are May 5-21. Students in grades 6-12 can register for a session of improvisational comedy with a Comedy Sportz team from Circa '21 at the Bettendorf Public Library. Registration begins on Wednesday; the program will be held on Tuesday, March 28 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Comedy Sportz players make up sketches based on suggestions from the audience.

Their act is similar to the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and the Second City stage shows. For more information, call 344-4175. Alison Krauss she's not asking questions about the Grammy process. "Any time you get recognized it's awesome and humbling," she said. It's a modest pre-acceptance I a hi (o) rr ST SHOWCASE CINEMAS S3 DAVENPORT MILAN STADIUM-STYLE SEATING ALL DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO 24 HOUR PHONE 388-9797 24 HOUR PHONE 787-4635 BARGAIN PERFOWMANCESPAILY ALL SHOWS STARTING BEFORE A fM c0EMT Wm) HOMIHEE CIRCOTIS TheWhole Nine Yards JjHgjj-5HBBH" Closes March 18 BEST PICTURE vv 3 WINNER I SI 0 LLa www.nineyards.net jss-, MILAN GOLDEN GLOBES i3 12:50 3:00 5:10 7:30 8:00 9:45 10:15 SAT.

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