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Highly recommended.Happy listening--Peter D. Even my wife, who's normally allergic to anything remotely New-Agey, likes PLAINS a lot. Easy listening, without the negative connotations. .I'll just add my voice to the choir, here, letting you all know that this is a particularly fine and exceptionally listenable album, that just gets better with replays. Tillman This album came as a gift from one of my sisters awhile back, so thank you, Con, for such a fine and thoughtful present.I keep PLAINS in the car, for bad-radio times, and for stressful moments. I like George Winston, but don't particularly seek him out. It holds up remarkably well to repeated listening.
Few things are as pleasant as finding that that a source of enjoyment has more in it than you expect. Winston seems to be visually inspired. In either case the rewards come as a great surprise. Somehow, this weekend, I found that I had missed an album, and the pleasure was worth the wait.Plains is classic George Winston.
Winston uses misic and influence from Aaberg, Chet Atkins, Hawaiian, Sammy Cahn (and even Sarah McLachan) with the adeptness of a polished musican.But for me, it is still Winston's own work that makes me wish I had worked harder on keyboards. Listen to the happy, folksy rhythm of Dubuque and compare it with the thoughtfulness of Aaberg's Before Barbed Wire. There is also the melancholy romanticism of Frangenti and the delicate styling of Give Me Your Hand.The surprise is his use of Hawaiian slack key music (No Ke Ano Ahihi and 'Ike Ia Ladana) once you listen, the influence on Winston's music is obvious. Graduation, Plains, and Rainsong are the best on this album, which is sure to see a lot of playing. There is a tendency to write some of Winston's work as New Age when it is simply reworking of a mix of styles into something that is something of its own. Whether this is as profound as a new line of discovery or the simple pleasure of an album of music that you had overlooked is a moot point.
Of course, Winston isn't bound by his traditional Montana settings and music. Get it for your own rainy days, you'll love it. George Winston is one of America's musical treasures, combining folk with light jazz, making music that can delight and uplift at the same time. Many of the tracks are landscapes or impressions.
Once in a while a piece does lapse into loungeiness, but the great majority of his work shows a great deal of thought and attention, and will reward your close attention. In the last year or so, I've been listening more carefully to his work, and find that the large majority of it is just excellent. I, and those that first discovered George Winston, some years ago, were mocked because Winston is so easy to listen to. I doubted my taste, at the time, and agreed with what a lot of people were saying, that if he's that polular, he can't be any good.
Track 9 ("Merry Go Round") should have been deleted. Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" just doesn't work for me here. there is no "Carol Of The Bells", "Thanksgiving" (both from "December"), "Tramarack Pines" or "Cloudy This Morning" (both from "Forest") here. The majority of this album flows - and depending on where you are. Check out "Rainsong", "Cloudburst", "Before Barbed Wire". Any George Winston is good stuff.
As for the individual songs. Winston plays the Cahn & Atkins tunes well, but his own new age stuff is easily the best. Some releases tho, are better than others. While Winston is able to pick and choose his 'cover' tunes, I feel his choices on "Plains" could have been better. it will give you the opportunity to experience some of those deep thoughts. While "Plains" is very good, it doesn't effect me like 1982's "December" or 1994's "Forest".
There are however some classic Winston-esque tracks here.
Whenever I want to gain peace and serenity, I play this CD.George Winston uses his incredible talents to soothe my soul.
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