Shadows

Twenty years after Tony Rice called on resophonic guitar virtuoso Jerry Douglas and friends to record Gordon Lightfoot’s “Shadows” with him, bluegrass heartthrob Alison Krauss decided to record this magnificent song as well. She assembled her Union Station bandmates — Dan Tyminski, Ron Block, Barry Bales and Douglas — to back her on it.
Rice must have had something to do with inspiring her to record the song. Paying tribute to Rice in her own way, she invited him to sit in and help out on guitar.
All about aging and regret, this beautifully written song has never sounded better, or more poignant. Of all the songs included on Lightfoot’s four-disc retrospective, “Shadows” was the one song I wanted Lightfoot to illuminate, but it proved to be the only song on which he declined to comment.
Last year I posted the video and it remains available online. Here it is again, as the Twin Cities’ Pete Lee likes to say, once more once.