“The thing about these solo shows is that it’s really setup for a campfire singalong, so everyone is welcome to sing as much as you’d like”. It doesn’t actually greet you as you begin playing Colin Meloy Plays Live!, but it’s the first time we get to hear Meloy’s dulcet spoken tones. It does sets the overall feeling for the album though. This is going to be a fun and frill-free run through his “Greatest Hits”. The grandmaster behind the indie troubadours The Decemberists embarked on a set of solo acoustic shows in the US back in 2006, and this album are the choice picks from those dates.It’s an interesting release, coming off the back of The Decemberists bombastic and prog influenced masterpiece The Crane Wife. If these shows had been after that, it could easily be seen as a rebellion against the studio trickery and artistic embellishment of that album. But, these shows being prior to that, it feels slightly odd. It’s brave for any artist to venture out alone with just the songs and acoustic guitar for company. The songs are stripped down and exposed to their bare bones. With Meloy his songs are quite often stories, tales of daring do and fantastical worlds. They’re not a window into his soul as much as, say, Jeff Tweedy’s solo shows. Having seen Tweedy during a solo acoustic show, the Wilco songs, stripped back from their production trickery revealed themselves as beautiful and honest love songs full of regret and longing.So, whilst hearing stripped back versions of ‘Devils Elbow’, ‘On The Bus Mall’ and ‘The Engine Driver’ are still great tales of the human condition, hearing them stripped back doesn’t really reveal anything new to the casual listener. The Decemberists live act is a great show to see, they’re animated and gifted players who give a performance that opens and embellishes the songs. Hearing Meloy play those same songs solo does make you realise he is a talented story teller (some of the between song banter is great), but this album doesn’t quite do him justice as a solo artist. The inclusion of 'Dracula's Daughter', "the worst song I've ever written", does raise a giggle for its sheer cheesyness, but it goes no further than that. Stripped back these songs, to me at least, don't reveal anything more about the songs or Meloy himself.If you’re a fan of The Decemberists, you probably already own this. But someone with a mere passing interest, or looking for an introduction to the main attraction, you might end up wondering what all the fuss it about. 69%Links Colin Meloy [official site] [myspace]