The liner notes are brief, but well-written considering how VP can sometimes slack off in that department (understandable, but not necessarily excusable, with the large volume of releases they put out each year). Two interesting stories stand out. The first talks about McGregor's cross-cultural success with Cubans due to his cover of the folk tune "Guntanamera" in 1988 and his work with the Hopi Indians, where he was the first Jamaican reggae artist to perform on a reservation. The second discusses the good luck that follows McGregor. In 1989, McGregor was due to fly with Sly & Robbie, Maxi Priest, and Dean Fraser, but they group changed their travel plans. It's a good thing they did -- their original flight was Pan Am flight 103, the fatal flight that crashed in Scotland.
While the selection of songs on these discs is quite good, I do have a few nitpicks. First of all, there was no reason for this anthology to be on two discs -- the total length of both discs comes out to only 67 minutes. They could have fit all 20 tracks on one disc and still had room for two more. I don't know how much they're pricing this release at in the stores, but my bet it's around $20, the normal price for a double-disc set. Also, for whatever reason, the songs are not arranged chronologically. Most anthologies are, so I don't quite understand their reasoning here (this is similar to my qualm about the new Jacob Miller double-disc where they put 7 or 8 remixes starting off disc 1 rather than using them to close out disc 2). Minor complaints aside, the Freddie McGregor Anthology serves its purpose as a starter album or an addition to a long-time fan's collection.
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