The first we hear from 16-year-old Sierra Hull on her debut album is a quick pair of delicate, descending mandolin lines that run back up the neck before she enters asserting, in a high, sweet, crystalline voice, 'No one else will ever know/This is how these passions always grow..' It's all pure Sierra -- the seamless, confident instrumental work, the uncommonly expressive voice of tender years suggesting a well of complex feelings about to overflow in an ache of classic dimensions. Yes, she sounds for all the world like the young Alison Krauss, whose presence is felt throughout the album in style, in temperament (she chose some of the songs) and in sound -- its impeccably austere production was steered by Union Station's banjo master Ron Block, for starters. In addition, fellow AKUS members Dan Tyminski (guitar, baritone vocal) and Jerry Douglas (dobro) join an impressive band lineup that features dramatic cameos on fiddle by Mountain Heart's Jim Van Cleve (whose quick-pulsed instrumental 'Smashville' affords Hull an opportunity to fashion a fleet-fingered opening solo run of a minute's duration to set the stage for equally voluble retorts by Block, Van Cleve and guitarist Clay Hess) and the ever-towering Stuart Duncan, who hits a high-water mark even for him with an exquisitely crafted solo rising elegantly up out of the beautiful love song 'Only My Heart.' Hull even shines as a songwriter, contributing a surging, minor-key lament of unrequited love, 'Pretend,' in which she sounds preternaturally scarred. A contemplative statement of abiding faith, 'Trust and Obey,' closes out things, with Hull offering her testimony in a voice imbued with the serenity and certainty of a true believer, which she is. This young lady, the real deal a few times over, delivers one of the truly startling debuts in recent memory.