Audiobook Review: ‘Three Pianos: A Memoir’

I’ve been a fan of Andrew McMahon since the Jack’s Mannequin days. I’ve seen him on tour as often as possible and I always loved the stories he told about his songs on stage, so I was very excited to learn he’d be writing a memoir! Even if you aren’t familiar with his music, he has one heck of a story to tell about his 39 years of life so far.

Title: Three Pianos: A Memoir
Author: Andrew McMahon
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

Goodreads Summary

Thank you to the publisher, Princeton Architectural Press, for sending me an advanced readers copy! All opinions are my own.

I love and respect Andrew McMahon.

Thats it, thats the review.

Ok but seriously, if you want someone who knows their way with words and has a story to tell – read this book. Andrew may not even be 40 yet, but he sure has a lot of life and stories to tell and I was eager to hear each and every one. I’ve been seeing Andrew McMahon perform since the Jack’s Mannequin days and I still go to every tour I can. (I checked, I first saw Jack’s Mannequin open for The Fray in summer 2009!)

Andrew has always told these stories about his life on stage and its amazing to finally see them written on the page – and many of these I didn’t know. The thing is, he isn’t perfect and he shows that. He wasn’t a perfect kid, he didn’t look perfect, he drank and smoke and experimented with drugs, and that’s all ok. He lets who he was truly show through and how that helped shape him into the person he is today from a teenager in Something Corporate, to Jack’s Mannequin, to his adult life in Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.

This is a love letter to the pianos who got him through the tough days. Really, he speaks to his pianos throughout this memoir – and I love that. And to the friends and family who stood by him, and those he parted ways with. Everyone has a role to play in your life, and yours in theirs, sometimes briefly and sometimes for a lifetime. He met his wife Kelly when they were just teenagers and seeing how she played such a vital role in his life throughout the years is a joy to read about – and his now seven year old daughter, Cecilia.

Even if you don’t know who he is – I think his story is still one worth reading.

I was sent an advanced copy from the publisher by request, but I didn’t end up picking this up until the end of October and figured I’d grab the audiobook from Libro.fm and listen – since Andrew himself narrates it. I loved listening to Andrew speak his story – and there are piano interludes through the audiobook which was very cool to listen to. Highly recommend listening to this one!

I stayed on 1.7x speed, slow for me but with nonfiction I prefer to go slower than with fiction.

My Rating:

This was such an insightful read into one person’s life story. It’s hard to say “I enjoyed this” because Andrew McMahon has gone through and survived a lot, and a lot of it wasn’t “fun” – but I found this to be an interesting read. I highly recommend this, and highly recommend listening even if audiobooks aren’t your usual thing. It feels like a friend is speaking to you.

Advertisement