Alison Krauss Trivia
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50 free Alison Krauss trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Alison Krauss trivia quiz covers the Illinois fiddle prodigy who signed to Rounder Records at 14, joined the Grand Ole Opry at 21, and became the most Grammy-decorated woman in history until Beyoncé caught up. The easy questions cover the landmarks: her instrument, her band, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and the two albums with Robert Plant. From there the quiz moves through the Union Station line-up, the Cold Mountain songs she sang at the Oscars, her Nickel Creek productions and her only No. 1 hit. The harder half is for the die-hards: the county fair where it all began, the band that had to change its name from Silver Rail, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer placements, the $2 million Oscar sandals, the Phish and Def Leppard guest spots, and the 2025 return of Union Station with Arcadia. Every answer was checked against Alison Krauss's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Robert Plant, bluegrass and country music quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01At her mother's insistence, Krauss began lessons at five in which style of music?
Classical
Classical violin came first, but she soon tired of its regimented practice, and a fiddle contest her mother heard about turned her towards bluegrass instead.
Q 02What was John Pennell's band called when Krauss joined it at 12, before it became Union Station?
Silver Rail
Silver Rail hired her as a fiddler, changed its name because another band already used it, and by its first album in 1989 she was the one leading it.
Q 03Krauss was born in Decatur and raised in Champaign, both in which state?
Illinois
Illinois gave her folk records at home, where her mother played guitar; bluegrass came later, through the fiddle contests she entered as a girl.
Q 04Krauss's 2007 collaboration with Robert Plant, which won Album of the Year, was titled what?
Raising Sand
Raising Sand grew out of a 2004 Lead Belly tribute concert where the pair first sang together; Krauss recalls that the first thing Plant wanted to talk about was bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley.
Q 05Krauss held the record for most Grammys won by a woman until which star passed her 27 in 2021?
Beyoncé
Beyoncé took her 28th that night. Four years earlier Krauss had said she would be honoured to hand over the crown, calling her 'much more deserving than I could ever be'.
Q 06Krauss sang on the hit soundtrack of which film by Joel and Ethan Coen?
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? won the Album of the Year Grammy in 2002, and its success put Krauss and the soundtrack's other roots musicians on the road together for a multi-artist tour.
Q 07Whose vocals on 'I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow' were used for George Clooney's character on screen?
Dan Tyminski
Dan Tyminski first sang it as a guide for the actor, but producer T Bone Burnett said there was too little time to get Clooney up to speed, so the guide vocal stayed.
Q 08Krauss signed with which independent label at age 14?
Rounder Records
Rounder Records co-founder Ken Irwin first heard her as the fiddler and harmony singer on a local band's demo tape, then signed her as a solo artist.
Q 09What was the title of Krauss's 1987 debut solo album, released when she was 16?
Too Late to Cry
Too Late to Cry was recorded in Nashville, where her label had taken the teenager to meet pickers she knew only from album sleeves; one of them, mandolinist Sam Bush, played on it.
Q 10In 1993 Krauss, then 21, became the youngest cast member of which long-running show?
Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry membership made her its first bluegrass inductee in 29 years, and she recalls the staff band seeking out her teenage group backstage to say they were rooting for them.
Q 11Krauss's cover of which Keith Whitley song reached No. 3 on the country chart in 1995?
'When You Say Nothing at All'
'When You Say Nothing at All' was cut for a Keith Whitley tribute album; radio stations picked it up unprompted, and a baffled Krauss called its success 'a freak thing'.
Q 12Krauss topped the country singles chart in 2000 as a guest on 'Buy Me a Rose', a hit for which veteran?
Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers had started his own label, Dreamcatcher, after his run of hits faded; this ballad repaid the gamble, returning him to number one for the first time since 1987.
Q 13Krauss's duet 'Whiskey Lullaby' was recorded with which country star?
Brad Paisley
Q 21Krauss recorded 'I'll Fly Away' for a 2000 film soundtrack as a duet with which singer?
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch and Krauss are on the hit album, yet the film itself plays a 1956 recording of the hymn by the Kossoy Sisters.
Q 22At 13, Krauss won the fiddle championship at which long-running acoustic music festival?
Walnut Valley Festival
Walnut Valley Festival's 1984 title capped years on the circuit: her parents drove her to as many as three contests a weekend, and she called herself 'a real contest queen'.
Q 23Which sport did Krauss take up as a girl, before choosing music over it in her teens?
Roller skating
Brad Paisley cut it for Mud on the Tires. Co-writer Bill Anderson had arrived with one image, a love put out 'like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette', and it became the opening line.
Q 14Krauss sang two Oscar-nominated songs from which 2003 film at the Academy Awards?
Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain supplied two of the five nominated songs and Krauss sang both on the night, but the Oscar went to 'Into the West' from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Q 15At the 2004 Oscars Krauss wore a pair of $2 million 'Cinderella' sandals by which designer?
Stuart Weitzman
Stuart Weitzman picked her at the urging of his daughters, who were fans; Krauss protested, 'I have the worst feet of anybody who will be there that night!'
Q 16Which renowned Dobro player joined Union Station in 1998, having played on Krauss's records since 1987?
Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas was only asked to cover some dates while the band decided whether to carry on after its mandolinist left. About two weeks in, they asked him to stay.
Q 17Krauss produced two albums for which young acoustic trio, the second of which won a Grammy?
Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek had known Krauss since they were children; she watched them open for Tony Rice at the Ryman, and when they got a record deal she was asked to produce.
Q 18Which Krauss and Union Station album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 in 2011?
Paper Airplane
Paper Airplane sold about 83,000 copies that week and topped the country chart. Told that was four times what a hit bluegrass album sells in total, Krauss snapped, 'That's a shame!'
Q 19Which Nashville veteran produced Windy City, Krauss's 2017 solo album of country classics?
Buddy Cannon
Buddy Cannon had to wait: Krauss lost her voice to dysphonia mid-sessions and often sent the musicians home, until lessons with a vocal coach got the album moving again.
Q 20Union Station's 2025 album, their first since 2011, is titled what?
Arcadia
Arcadia introduced a new voice beside hers: Russell Moore, longtime singer of the bluegrass band IIIrd Tyme Out, joined as co-lead vocalist in place of a longtime member.
Roller skating came with a rock soundtrack: she has recalled skating to Foreigner's radio hits at a friend's house, and in her teens she picked music over roller derby.
Q 24A house in Urbana once owned by Krauss's father appears on the debut album cover of which emo band?
American Football
American Football's cover made a student rental famous: Fred Krauss had bought it in 1980, and by the time the album came out in 1999 it belonged to her brother Viktor.
Q 25Krauss's bass-playing brother Viktor went on to join the band of which Texas singer-songwriter?
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett's band came after early spells at his sister's side: Viktor played bass at the audition that got her into a bluegrass band at 12, and later filled in with Union Station.
Q 26Which TV series used Krauss's songs 'It Doesn't Matter' and 'That Kind of Love'?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer played 'It Doesn't Matter' just after Buffy coldly sent Angel away in its second-season opener, and came back for a second Krauss ballad four seasons later.
Q 27Krauss's cover of 'Baby, Now That I've Found You' was used in which hit Australian comedy?
The Castle
The Castle borrowed a cover that had changed her career: she turned the Foundations' swaggering 1967 soul hit into a delicate ballad, and it gave its name to the 1995 compilation that made her widely known.
Q 28Krauss sang on 'If I Could', a 1994 track by which jam band?
Phish
Phish later got her on stage too: when their 1994 tour reached the Nashville area, Krauss came out to sing her part live, at the soundcheck as well as the show.
Q 29Which 1994 single did Krauss record with the band Shenandoah?
Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart
'Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart' gave Krauss her first country top-ten hit: a one-song guest spot that carried a bluegrass singer onto mainstream country radio and won both acts a Grammy.
Q 30Krauss's 2007 duet 'Missing You' revived a 1984 hit with which original singer?
John Waite
John Waite was re-recording his old hits and thought another solo take on this one pointless, so he phoned his favourite female singer; Krauss, a fan for years, said yes.