Customer Reviews

Playin' Favorites

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Buried away in boxes with many other old albums is my prized copy of "Playin' Favorites." This has always been one of my "desert island" records and its influence on me has lasted over 25 years. When I pick up my guitar and sing, I always come back to songs from this album - "Ancient History", "Lovesick Blues", "Everyday", and "Over The Mountains."

The arrangements are simple, and the additional performers top notch, including the bluegrass mandolin virtuoso Frank Wakefield. The songs cover a wide range of styles, all in the country or folk vein, from Hank Williams, to Roy Rogers, to bluegrass banjo, to the tender British Isles ballad "Over The Mountains", to the great Buddy Holly tune, "Everyday." If you want to hear another side of Don McLean, beyond the overplayed "American Pie" that we all know, the side that also wrote and performed the beautiful "Vincent", then "Playin' Favorites" is for you.

This album is a confluence of songs often turned to by fine musicians as the building blocks for their life in music. The session players all shine...Chuck Leavell, Frank Wakefield, and Neil Larsen most notably. You will cherish this album as I have. I keep it by the door. If the house catches fire, it goes with me.

Years before Nanci Griffith thought of doing Other Voices, Other Rooms, Don McLean came up with this collection (tribute is too strong a word) of folk songs from bygone days, interspersed with some tunes from the likes of Buddy Holly (a great version of Everyday). Nicely recorded, subtly done, one to treasure.

This is one of my all-time favorite albums. Don Mclean at his folk and bluegrass best, and stuff you won't hear anywhere else. Highly recommended for anyone who likes folk, bluegrass, or just the mellifluous sound of Mclean's voice.