Paper Airplane (album)

Paper Airplane
Studio album by Alison Krauss & Union Station
Released	April 12, 2011
Genre	Bluegrass
Length	43:15
Label	Rounder
Producer	Alison Krauss & Union Station
Alison Krauss chronology
Essential Alison Krauss (2009) Paper Airplane (2011)
Singles from Paper Airplane
"Paper Airplane" Released: March 28, 2011 "My Love Follows You Where You Go" Released: January 2012

Paper Airplane is an album by Alison Krauss and Union Station. It was released on April 12, 2011 and marks Krauss' fourteenth album. It is Krauss' first release with Union Station since Lonely Runs Both Ways in 2004. The album includes covers version of "My Opening Farewell" and "Dimming of the Day", which were originally recorded by Jackson Browne and Richard Thompson, respectively.

The album's lead single, the title track, was released to country music radio and Triple A radio on March 28, 2011; however, the single failed to enter a Billboard music chart.

Reception

Critical

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]

Thom Jurek of AllMusic gave the album a four star rating, citing it a melancholy record with songs largely revolving around themes of trial and perseverance. He also praised the cover version of "Dimming of the Day" and "My Opening Farewell". Jurek also went to say that it is a very polished, pristine record, however, it feels organic and authentic, allowing plenty of room for the emotional power in these songs to come forth.^[3] Andrew Greer of Christianity Today also honored the album with four stars, calling it "an exquisite eleven-song canon," and further commenting, "though their haunts are heavy-hearted, a tangible hope pervades Airplane, attesting to the band's spiritual sensitivity even without the band's usual faith song standout." The album was awarded Grammys in the Best Bluegrass Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical categories at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.^[4]

Commercial

Paper Airplane sold approximately 83,000 copies during its first week of release, propelling it to become Krauss' first number one album on the Billboard Top Country Albums.^[5] It is also the highest entry for Krauss on the Billboard 200, where the album debuted at number three. Raising Sand, Krauss' collaboration with Robert Plant, reached number two on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2007. In addition to these charts, it also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums and number one on Billboard Folk Albums. As of the chart dated July 23, 2011, the album has sold 249,120 copies in the US.^[6]

Paper Airplane was a minor hit in Europe, debuting within the top forty of several European countries; such as the UK Albums Chart and the Norwegian Albums Chart.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Paper Airplane"	Robert Lee Castleman	3:36
2.	"Dust Bowl Children"	Peter Rowan	3:06
3.	"Lie Awake"	Viktor Krauss, Angel Snow	3:55
4.	"Lay My Burden Down"	Aoife O'Donovan	3:52
5.	"My Love Follows You Where You Go"	Barry Dean, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose	4:03
6.	"Dimming of the Day"	Richard Thompson	5:20
7.	"On the Outside Looking In"	Tim O'Brien	3:35
8.	"Miles to Go"	Barry Bales, Chris Stapleton	2:54
9.	"Sinking Stone"	Jeremy Lister	4:42
10.	"Bonita and Bill Butler"	Sidney Cox	4:03
11.	"My Opening Farewell"	Jackson Browne	4:08
Total length:			43:15

Target bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
12.	"These Days" (also an iTunes pre-order bonus track)
13.	"A Place Outside"
14.	"Frozen Fields"
15.	"We Hide & Seek" (live)
16.	"Faraway Land" (live)
17.	"Every Time You Say Goodbye" (live)

Chart performance

Chart (2011)	Peak position
Canadian Albums Chart[7]	23
Dutch Albums Chart[8]	49
German Albums Chart[9]	51
Irish Albums Chart[10]	28
New Zealand Albums Chart[11]	32
Norwegian Albums Chart[12]	4
Swedish Albums Chart[13]	10
UK Albums Chart[14]	11
UK Country Albums[15]	1
US Billboard 200[7]	3
US Billboard Folk Albums[7]	1
US Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums[16]	1
US Billboard Top Country Albums[17]	1

Notes

1. Jurek, Thom. "Paper Airplane review". Allmusic. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
2. Hermes, Will (April 28, 2011). "Reviews/Music". Rolling Stone (1129): 98.
3. "Paper Airplane - Alison Krauss & Union Station > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
4. "Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 2011.
5. "Alison Krauss & Union Station Fly to No. 1 on Country Album chart". Roughstock. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
6. "The Country Boys Continue to Dominate the Charts". Roughstock. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
7. "Paper Airplane - Alison Krauss & Union Station". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
8. "dutchcharts.nl - Dutch charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
9. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts - German Albums". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
10. "irishcharts.com - Discography Alison Krauss". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
11. "charts.org.nz - New Zealand charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
12. "norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
13. "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
14. "Chart Stats - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane". chartstats.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
15. "The Official Charts - UK Country Charts - May 14, 2011". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
16. "Bluegrass Albums - Week of April 30, 2011". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
17. "Top Country Albums - Week of April 30, 2011". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 23, 2011.