-/- ☆ Graduation

6. Graduation
(George Winston; Dancing Cat Music (BMI))

Plains : 1999 / Dancing Cat

Produced by George Winston
Co-produced by Cathy Econom & Howard Johnston
Recorded & Mixed by Howard Johnston
Additional engineering by Justin Lieberman, and Mark Slagle, Adam Muñoz & Jack Crymes
24 Bit Mastering by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, CA

Piano technician: John Pfeifer
Art direction by Sonny Mediana
Assistant art director: Joanie K.Y. Chan Jones

Early pressings include two limited edition bonus tracks.
Solo performer: George Winston (guitar, piano).

Includes liner notes by George Winston.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

PLAINS was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
A distinctly American sensibility comes shining through the august soundscapes of master new-age pianist George Winston.
This is not too surprising.
In addition to his generous catalog of releases for Windham Hill, Winston has also written the soundtracks to a Charlie Brown film on the Constitution and released albums on the Informed Democracy label.

PLAINS makes clear, however, that there are some dark, occasionally unsettling undertones to Winston’s aesthetic. Such shadows belie the notion that new age is a genre without a sinister side.

For one thing, Winston is not afraid to drift into angular, Thelonious Monk-like playing, as he does on a reading of Angelo Badalamenti’s “The Swan.” Despite the familiar rolling rushes of melody that introduce the album-opening “Dubuque,” calling to mind, as they always do, Civil War documentaries and pre-game baseball tributes, Winston plays a portion of the song’s refrain on plucked piano strings.

“Before Barbed Wire” is another highlight, its lightly roiling melodic tension resolving into gushes of major chords.

Nit Music ManiaClub … Angel’s Wings
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