Alison Krauss is only 45 years old, but she’s been recording since her teens and has already received 27 Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year for her 2007 collaboration with Robert Plant, Raising Sand. She’s tied with Quincy Jones as the second most-awarded artist in Grammy history (behind the late classical conductor Georg Solti) and has also won more than any other living female artist or any other singer. Considering that Krauss’ stock-in-trade is bluegrass music—who ever heard of such a decorated fiddler?—it’s all the more remarkable. With that track record, when Krauss releases a new album, it gets attention; and, hopefully, Windy City will find its way to as many ears as Raising Sand did. For this one, Krauss, teaming with Nashville producer Buddy Cannon, looks back to an earlier era when country music was really country music—most of the songs here were originally recorded in the ‘60s-‘80s by artists like Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell. Yet it’s that distance of years that allows her to reshape them in her own image, to drill into the center of each one and interpret it anew, minus context. “River in the Rain” is a particular jewel: Written and recorded by Roger Miller (“King of the Road”) for his Broadway musical Big River, it’s a lush, soaring ballad, ornamented with light, unobtrusive orchestration. And no matter how many times you’ve heard “Gentle on My Mind,” the arrangement here will make you fall in love with it all over again.