REVIEW: Michelle Malone -- Fan Favorites, Vol. 1 Unplugged

If nothing else, lockdown pushed us all to our creative limits — whether that was through art or just finding new ways to get by. For blues troubadour Michelle Malone, those endless months gave her the opportunity to perfect her acoustic performance. Most of these shows were in her living room and beamed across the world, though Malone also performed in people’s front years (from a socially distanced 6 feet, of course.) Fan Favorites, Vol. 1 Unplugged was inspired by these performances and finds Malone giving new life to her extensive catalogue.

As mentioned in yesterday’s Rainbow Ruckus, the acoustic treatment gives the Atlanta songwriter room to spread her wings. She already has a well-earned reputation as a guitar slinger, but this rendition of “Dust Bowl Man” from last year’s album 1977 allows the listener to focus on Malone’s worldly voice and the story’s drama.

“Avalon,” from 1999’s Home Grown, becomes a lilting folk tune reminiscent of Malone’s longtime friends the Indigo Girls. While Malone wrote the song about the chaos of touring, the loss of control and normalcy takes on a new meaning in 2023. Giving the song the folk treatment, importantly, adds a political tinge as well.

Not that politics is anything Malone shies away from, as we see in the opening track “Feather in a Hurricane” (from Debris, 2009). But the album has its lighter side, as with “Butter Biscuit.” It’s playful, possibly a little dirty, and a crowd favorite. While it’s been a part of Malone’s set for decades, this is her first studio recording.

Above all, Fan Favorites shows us an artist in full command of her skills, rediscovering her extensive catalog just as she invites listeners old and new to explore it with her.

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