Lonely Runs Both Ways is the sixth album by Alison Krauss and Union Station, released by Rounder Records on 23 November 2004 (catalog number 11661 0525 2). Krauss sings lead and plays fiddle and viola; Dan Tyminski sings lead and plays guitar and mandolin; Ron Block plays banjo and guitar; Jerry Douglas plays dobro and lap steel; Barry Bales plays bass; and Larry Atamanuik adds drums on several tracks.
Of the fifteen songs, Robert Lee Castleman wrote “Gravity,” “Restless,” “Doesn’t Have to Be This Way” and, with Melanie Castleman, “Crazy as Me.” Del McCoury wrote “Rain Please Go Away,” Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote “Wouldn’t Be So Bad,” and Donna Hughes wrote “My Poor Old Heart.” Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty” is the one older song. Block wrote “I Don’t Have to Live This Way” and “A Living Prayer,” Douglas wrote the instrumental “Unionhouse Branch,” and Krauss co-wrote “This Sad Song” with Alison Brown. Krauss sings lead on most of the songs, Tyminski on “Rain Please Go Away,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “This Sad Song,” and Block on “I Don’t Have to Live This Way.”
The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, number 6 on the country albums chart and number 1 on the bluegrass albums chart, and was certified gold. At the Grammy Awards in February 2006 it won Best Country Album, and its tracks won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (“Restless”) and Best Country Instrumental Performance (“Unionhouse Branch”).
Tracklist
- 1 Gravity 3:36
- 2 Restless - Remastered 2:51
- 3 Rain Please Go Away Source Recording 2:28
- 4 Goodbye Is All We Have 3:53
- 5 Unionhouse Branch 2:55
- 6 Wouldn't Be So Bad 3:10
- 7 Pastures of Plenty Source Recording 3:44
- 8 Crazy as Me 3:13
- 9 Borderline 3:26
- 10 My Poor Old Heart Source Recording 3:07
- 11 This Sad Song Source Recording 2:20
- 12 Doesn't Have to Be This Way 3:33
- 13 I Don't Have to Live This Way 2:03
- 14 If I Didn't Know Any Better 3:48
- 15 A Living Prayer 3:34
