"I've never been here before," Don McLean told the sold-out audience Saturday at the kickoff concert of the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center's 11th season. "And since it's been 40 years, the odds of my returning are nil, so we're going to play lots of songs tonight."

The singer-songwriter, best known for the song "American Pie," did just that in a wide-ranging show that highlighted both his deep knowledge of the American songbook and his own remarkable compositions.

Photo by Kyle Kurlick

Folk singer Don McLean performed at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center on Saturday, covering music from his entire professional career to a sold-out audience.

Photo by Kyle Kurlick

Don McLean in concert at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center.

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A compact, 350-seat theater, the Bartlett center has proved itself a dependable venue for intimate, acoustic-based concerts, and McLean, performing with a lean, four-piece rock band, filled the bill.

Foreshadowing the pre-ordained performance of McLean's iconic epic "American Pie," the group kicked off the night with a medley of songs by Buddy Holly, the rock pioneer whose death 50 years ago inspired McLean to pen his rock-and-roll reverie back in 1971.

Holly was not the only music legend invoked this night, however. McLean peppered his set liberally with eclectic covers, including songs by Mahalia Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Woody Guthrie, and a roadhouse medley of "Tulsa Time" and "Deep In the Heart of Texas," an obscure gem from British songwriter Geraint Watkins not to be confused with the Lone Star State anthem.

Chief among the standouts, McLean delivered a potent rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" -- a song he had a hit with in 1981 -- that elicited the first standing ovation of the night. Though the singer is now 63 years old, he demonstrated his voice, a pure and surprisingly versatile instrument, remains in fine form.

Another artist who reared his head throughout the night was Elvis. Noting the Elvis Week just ended, McLean early on invoked him in introducing his own song "And I Love You So," a staple of Presley's (and Perry Como's) sets for many years. A softer, acoustic stretch included "Lovers Love A Spring," McLean's new song (with a "co-write" from William Shakespeare) from his current -- and he says last -- album, Addicted to Black.

That song, inspired by one of Shakespeare's sonnets, was one of the many pleasures to be found by McLean's excavation of his own body of work. His performance of the delicate "Winterwood," a lesser-known cut from the American Pie album, and the stunning "Bronco Bill's Lament," showed that the "American Pie" songwriting accomplishment was no fluke. McLean carefully planted the show's climax -- some might say its rasion d'être -- midway through the second set. It started with McLean's delivery of "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)," an ode to Van Gogh. With the crowd on its feet applauding, McLean launched immediately into "the song."

The performance was appropriately straightforward, though McLean, having sung the thing every week of his life for the past 37 years, played around with the phrasing and vocal dynamics, a trick you either found charming or annoying depending on your temperament. In addition the piano filigree, used sparingly on the classic recording, was a bit too omnipresent here, giving it a touch of the hotel lounge. But the verses -- all six of them -- were there and everything else was as you remembered it. However, the song never really took flight until after it was over, when, with the crowd once again on its feet, McLean and band launched into a reprise of the chorus and first verse -- a little bit faster, a little rougher -- that would have made Holly himself smile.