The 14 tracks that make up Rounder's Essential Alison Krauss were handpicked by the artist herself. A successful performer since the age of 14, Krauss had quite the well to draw from, and Essential does a nice job giving listeners a cupful from each stage in her career, from the spirited, traditional bluegrass that propelled her into the spotlight in the late '80s to her genre-bending work with ex-Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant in the late 2000s. While by no means an exhaustive study of the artist, Essential Alison Krauss offers a tidy, compact summation of the talented singer/fiddler's career to date.