"Playing It Dangerously represents important contribution to the discipline of ethnomusicology, and is especially convincing as regards the growing field of studies in music and affect."–Naila Ceribasic, scholarly advisor, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb
"The tambura bands that play dangerously across the pages of Ian MacMillen's compelling book rechart the discursive landscapes of race and nationalism today, opening spaces for witnessing music's intimate affect in critical new ways."–Philip V. Bohlman, author of Music, Nationalism, and the Making of the New Europe
"MacMillen's timely work offers a new understanding of how affect 'blocks' musicians'strategies of signification. This detailed ethnography amplifies the rich multilocality of intimacies expressed and delineated in tambura performance."–Denise Gill, author of Melancholic Modalities: Affect, Islam, and Turkish Classical Musicians