{"id":46046,"date":"2020-12-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/still-playin-favorites\/"},"modified":"2020-12-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T00:00:00","slug":"still-playin-favorites","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/still-playin-favorites\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Playin&#8217; Favorites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">It\u2019s hard to believe, but we are coming up on the 50<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the iconic <i>American Pie<\/i> album and single (the original Don McLean track, not Madonna\u2019s masochistic rendering of it). After that classic album, McLean released an album of covers called <i>Playin\u2019 Favorites<\/i>. And now, in pandemic-laden 2020, McLean revisits this territory with <i>Still Playin\u2019 Favorites<\/i>, which goes deep into the American songbook with tracks from Elvis, Dylan, Johnny Cash, and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">All of it is done with a distinctively Americana\/Country edge. In fact, listeners who are only familiar with \u201cAmerican Pie\u201d and \u201cVincent\u201d probably won\u2019t recognize this more aged artist. It does not sound like his early \u201870s singer-songwriter stuff. In some places his voice falters, but his tracks have true character and convey enjoyment from the artist and the band. So many releases today are sterilized by so many studio techniques that the emotion is lost. This album has a distinctly \u201clive\u201d feel to it. While there is an attempt here to sound like both Johnny Cash and Muddy Waters \u2013 see \u201cDoggone Lonesome\u201d and \u201cBackwater Blues\u201d \u2013 both come up a little short.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">And there\u2019s some choices on song arrangements that are interesting. \u201cGreenback Dollar\u201d is far different in arrangement than anyone would expect. \u201cLittle Sister\u201d is taken out of the rock and roll mold in which Elvis formed the classic version, and McLean turns it into a country doowop. The other Elvis track, \u201cTreat Me Nice,\u201d hasn\u2019t worn well in the woke era, but the arrangement here is somewhat tongue in cheek \u2013 whether purposefully or not, I cannot tell.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">But there are other tracks that are absolutely amazing. \u201cMost Likely You Go Your Way (And I\u2019ll Go Mine)\u201d is a Bob Dylan cover and as such is the most complex song both lyrically and in musical structure. \u201cHide Nor Hair\u201d is equally a stand out as a humorous explanation of a breakup that adores many people to classic country. \u201cBackwater Blues\u201d and \u201cKey To The Kingdom\u201d are not as great as white blues, but are still fun tracks for listening.<\/p>\n<p>  McLean may not be at his \u201cAmerican Pie\u201d best here, and he\u2019s not recreating the great American songbook like Rod Stewart did, but he\u2019s drawing on his roots and you can tell he\u2019s loving every minute of it. That\u2019s really what music is all about anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":34214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5712],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46046","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-don-mclean","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46046"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}