Review: Lindsey Buckingham - Glenside, PA Sept 22 (Philadelphia)

Lindsey Buckingham at the Keswick
By: Mark Wolverton
Broadstreet Review

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, especially when it comes to music. The songs and albums that speak to the core of our being when we’re passionate and volatile youngsters make an imprint on the soul and heart that never quite goes away-- even when the bands break up in rancor, retire, sell their beloved tunes to corporations for TV commercials, overdose in Parisian bathtubs, or just fade into oblivion.

So when those icons of one’s youth return decades later with new music and new performances, the apprehension can be overwhelming.

Real-life soap opera

Lindsey Buckingham made his mark in the 1970s both as the guitarist and one of the three singer-songwriters of Fleetwood Mac. That group’s history is one of rock music’s most famous soap operas, a saga of intra-band romance and intrigue that the group’s members channeled into their greatest artistic works, such as the classic album, Rumours.

Buckingham, weary of the strife and eager to pursue other musical interests in a solo career, left the group in 1987. The songs from his latest album, Seeds We Sow, are indeed more intimate and restrained than his Fleetwood Mac work, reflecting a greater self-awareness and maturity, as he explained to the Keswick audience.

He began his show quietly, performing a set of some of his most famous songs (“Big Love,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Trouble,” “Go Insane”), armed only with an acoustic guitar and his powerful voice, giving the tunes a fresh interpretative spin that highlighted their essential power and emotion. It was a gutsy move for an artist who’s somewhat infamous for his affinity for studio trickery and sonic manipulations. 

Time machine

But soon enough, Buckingham transformed the Keswick from a quiet nightclub into a rock arena, bringing in a three-piece band (drummer, guitarist, and guitarist/bassist/keyboardist) to ramp up the intensity both on his newer solo work and his Fleetwood Mac hits.  He proved his legendary guitar chops with his transcendent soloing on “I’m So Afraid,” displayed an uncanny talent for showmanship and musical arrangement on a spooky version of “Tusk,” and pulled out all the stops to close the main set with his signature song, “Go Your Own Way.”

Lindsey Buckingham managed to transform the Keswick into a melodic time machine that, for a couple of hours at least, made their fans feel 20 years old again.  Not a bad achievement for a guy in his 60s.

Lindsey Buckingham... New York City Reviews Wrap-up

Lindsey Buckingham Takes His ChancesFleetwood Mac guitarist delivers hits, new tunes in NYC
by Matthew Perpetua
Rollingstone

Lindsey Buckingham has been sticking to a handful of talking points in all of the press for his new solo album, Seeds We Sow, and he repeated them in his stage banter at the Town Hall in Manhattan last night. Basically: he's been splitting his creative life between what he calls "The Big Machine" (Fleetwood Mac) and "The Small Machine" (his often iconoclastic solo career), and the difference is akin to making blockbuster movies and arty independent films. This is a good analogy, but it seems more applicable to his studio output than this live performance, which erred on the side of an earnest blandness, at odds with the genuinely quirky sounds of much of his early solo work (not to mention his music with Fleetwood Mac). 

Buckingham opened this show with a handful of solo acoustic tunes that showcased his impressive finger-picked guitar technique before being joined by a trio of sidemen, who performed with great precision without necessarily augmenting his style. Though some selections from Seeds We Sow, such as the anthemic "In Our Own Time" and a driving "Illumination," made a good case for Buckingham's continuing creative vitality, it was difficult to buy his assertion that toothless numbers like "Stars Are Crazy" and "End of Time" are an artistic leap forward when they immediately followed the truly odd (and still magnificent) "Tusk" on the setlist. 

Continue to the full review at Rolling Stone

Live review: Lindsey Buckingham at the Town Hall
by Hank Shteamer
Timeout - New York

Between songs at the Town Hall on Tuesday night, Lindsey Buckingham spoke wryly of the big and small machines that have governed his career. The former was of course Fleetwood Mac, the protean pop outfit that Buckingham joined in the mid-’70s and subsequently helped transform into a megaseller. The latter, as was clear from the large number of empty seats, was Buckingham's solo career, which he likened to a Hollywood director's side gig crafting commercially iffy yet artistically fulfilling indies. Throughout the show, Buckingham deftly balanced the familiar with the fresh—including plenty of songs from his new record, the intermittently great Seeds We Sow—powering through the less fan-friendly segments with a riveting fierceness.

That edge was most apparent during the opening portion of the concert, which featured Buckingham alone onstage with an acoustic guitar (or rather, guitars, since an assistant brought him a new ax after each song). It's hard to know whether Buckingham feels he has something to prove—after three decades with the Mac, he's still far less famous than his bandmate Stevie Nicks—but he played with a near-demonic intensity, showing off his spiky, locomotive-style fingerpicking technique and still-deadly howl. Buckingham turned "Go Insane" (the new-wavey title track to his 1984 sophomore album) into a haunted meditation, and reached peak intensity on a barreling version of Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love." Folky Rumours lark "Never Going Back Again" showed up in impressionistic guise, with Buckingham stretching out each syllable of the verses to build maximum tension.

Continue for the full review



Spiraling Guitar Solos to Pace or Stoke SongsBy JON PARELESNew York Times
Lindsey Buckingham’s fingers started to race as soon as he’d basked in some applause at Town Hall on Tuesday night. A half-dozen songs later, all played solo with guitar, they had barely rested. His fingers had done dazzling things: fingerpicking that could be pristine and meditative or pointedly aggressive, counterpoints of staccato thumb-picked bass lines and gliding melodies, quasi-Baroque austerity leading into frenetic strumming.
The guitar was the full partner of his voice, and sometimes the senior partner, pacing the songs and stoking their dynamics, supporting the vocals or sparring with them, hinting at ragtime and raga, grabbing the melodic foreground. Mr. Buckingham’s guitar parts tore away the pop exteriors of songs he originally recorded on his solo albums and with Fleetwood Mac. They unveiled the desperation in songs like “Trouble” and “Never Going Back Again,” and they propelled him to howl, moan and shriek. Performing alone, he stretched pained moments into huge crescendos.
Continue to the full review
Lindsey Buckingham's mastery of guitar, voice and songwriting at Town Hallby: Jeff Slate, NY Rock Culture Examiner
Most of the over-55 rocker set are phoning it in these days, playing it all too safe amidst diminishing skills.  So it was a true pleasure to be blown away by a set of mostly solo material by sometime-Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham's performance at Town Hall last night.
Continue to the full review
Lindsey Buckingham Embarks on New Solo TourMatthew De Marco, Clifton Rock Music Examiner
When you get home after attending a rock concert—a good rock concert—and you sit down and go through your pictures, you’re going to think to yourself one of two things: either, “Wow, that show was so intense, my ears are still ringing,” or “That show was really good—it’s a shame more people weren’t there.” Tuesday night’s Lindsey Buckingham show is a great example of the latter.
At the Town Hall, located on 43rd St. between Broadway and 6th Ave., Lindsey Buckingham, the lead guitarist and sole male vocalist of the legendary Fleetwood Mac, played an inspiring concert, promoting his new album, Seeds We Sow…though, it seems not too many people knew about it. The small concert hall was nowhere near sold out, but those who were in attendance were in for a real treat.
Continue to the full review

Going At It His Own Way: Lindsey Buckingham Blazes New Live Trails
Fleetwood Mac's main man takes no prisoners on a solo tour tear

BY MIKE METTLER
Sound and Vision
Photo Gallery Here

Lindsey Buckingham totally owned New York's Town Hall this past Tuesday night. Though it was an early stop on a fall tour supporting his sixth solo album Seeds We Sow, Buckingham was in fine fighting form mixing his more reflective, chance-taking solo material with long-embedded Fleetwood Mac classics.

This was my seventh sojourn to an LB solo show. His first Town Hall gig, complete with a literal guitar armada, was on March 31, 1993, in support of the brilliant Out of the Cradle, still one of my system-audition benchmark discs. A decade-plus later, he hit Town Hall on October 10, 2006 to share the acoustic-driven Under the Skin. Wherever and whenever I've seen him, he's always been riveting, intense, and driven — just as he was on Tuesday, from my 10th row just-a-hair-left-of-center vantage point. And Town Hall's wonderful artist-friendly acoustics well-suited the ebb and flow of this fabulous 100-minute set.

Continue to the full review at Sound and Vision

Review: Lindsey Buckingham - Town Hall, NYC + Video and Photos

If you were not at Lindsey Buckingham‘s show at Town Hall in New York on September 27, 2011, you missed something special.  Lindsey Buckingham seems to get better with age as he still makes amazing music and when he performs live, he sets the bar a little higher for the definition of the word “amazing.”  In his nearly 2 hour set, Lindsey Buckingham ran the gamut of his career playing songs from his early days in Fleetwood Mac to his recent album “Seeds We Sow.”  He began the show with a 5 song acoustic set that included “Trouble,” “Go Insane,” “Big Love,” and “Never Going Back Again.”  The show could have ended at that point and you would have gotten your moneys’ worth, but the show was just beginning.  Lindsey Buckingham’s voice was absolutely flawless and when he sang in his whispered voice, you could hear a pin drop in the theater.  After nearly every song, Lindsey received a standing ovation.

Continue to the full review at According to G + more photos

Photo by Marla K (Click to enlarge)

"Go Insane" 9/27/11 at The Town Hall in NYC

Review: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Milwaukee 9/17/11

That recognizable curly mop of hair above the high forehead is fully gray now, and the man himself is just shy of his 62nd birthday, but Lindsey Buckingham moved about like a frenzied teenager while playing like the experienced master guitarist he is at the Pabst Theater Saturday night.

Best known for revitalizing the blues-rock sound of Fleetwood Mac starting in the '70s, along with then-partner Stevie Nicks, Buckingham has just released his sixth studio album, Seeds We Sow. The lively crowd was there to hear "the hits," and Buckingham delighted with innovative arrangements of the classics as well as stirring live versions of the new works, backed by his solid trio of band mates—Neale Heywood on guitars, Walfredo Reyes Jr. on drums and percussion and Brett Tuggle on bass, keyboards and guitar. This small lineup created a sound that easily rivaled bands with far more personnel (and far less personality).

Buckingham clearly differentiated between his big commercial successes with Fleetwood Mac, referring to that period of his career as "The Big Machine," and his solo work, which he equated to "The Small Machine." Rather than just recreate slick studio sounds, Buckingham stripped out the high production values and simply faced the audience, solo, guitar in hand, for gorgeous, passionate renderings of Mac hits like "Never Going Back Again" and "Big Love." All the more impressive were solo hits like "Go Insane" and the top-10 hit "Trouble," with Buckingham bringing out a completely different side of the songs with his ghostly, faint tenor and deft guitar work.

Continue For Full Review at Express Milwaukee
Review by Harry Cherkinian
Photo by Sierra Riesberg

Gallery of Photos on Facebook 

2 Reviews: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Chicago 9/18/11

Lindsey Buckingham goes his own way, with intensity

Fleetwood Mac's 1979 masterpiece "Tusk" features a famously unusual credit: "Special thanks from the band to Lindsey Buckingham." Buckingham, of course, had by then already been a member of the band for some time. Yet that credit emphasized that Buckingham brought something more than the mere practical merits of his singing, songwriting, production and guitar playing to the group. That ineffable something was in full effect Sunday night, when Buckingham played a modestly attended but very enthusiastic Vic in support of his album "Seeds We Sow," the latest salvo in a particularly fruitful period of his sporadic solo career.

If Buckingham's various talents mesh perfectly in the context of Fleetwood Mac, watching him on his own provided an illuminating vantage into his particular genius. For close to two hours, Buckingham -- first solo then later with a small band -- seamlessly integrated his graceful folk and manic Baroque sides, with the fusion of those two approaches resulting in songs such as "Turn It On" and "That's the Way Love Goes," rousing pop tunes delivered with an idiosyncratic sensibility. 

By Joshua Klein, Special to the Chicago Tribune
See The Full Review Here


Lindsey Buckingham live!
By Andy Argyrakis
Illinoiseentertainer  

Lindsey Buckingham’s a great, albeit underrated, guitarist and he knows it. Perhaps that’s why he opened the Chicago stop of his Seeds We Sow tour with a one-man acoustic set that amply showcased his nimble (though occasionally self-indulgent) frethand and well-persevered vocal pitch. Whether it was solo staples like “Go Insane” and “Trouble” or Fleetwood Mac’s “Never Going Back Again,” the 61-year-old was in superb form, ushering in a welcome sense of intimacy often lost on his full-time band’s arena tours.

In solo contexts, Fleetwood’s “Big Love” was rearranged as a fiery finger-picker undercut by impassioned wails, which have since replaced the hokey ’80s production and synthesizer overdose. The newer “Under The Skin” was a little less magnetic given its meandering, middling approach, though Buckingham’s vocals demonstrated additional warmth and closeness.

See The Full Review Here

Review: Lindsey Buckingham at Pantages, 9/16/11 Minneapolis

A man as obviously aware of his significance in musical history as he is of his relative obscurity as a solo artist - in comparison to his former band, and his former bandmate/partner Stevie Nicks - Lindsey Buckingham's approach to the stage just after 8 p.m. at the Pantages Friday night was an appropriate one, his lithe body popping into sight with no-nonsense aplomb before the house lights had even completely dimmed, giving a quick "Namaste" bow to the intimate audience gathered to take in the beginning of his tour in support of a new album, Seeds We Sow.

I imagine he's just as aware of his indisputable talent not only as a songwriter and producer, but also of his still-strong skills as a vocalist and guitarist, starting out his set with fiercely finger-picked guitar work matched equally by fiercely emotional vocals on "Shut Us Down," the eighth track off his 2006 album Under the Skin. His solo start to the performance was as intense as if he'd had a full band backing him.

Guitar nerds and rock fans theater-wide absolutely lost it right off the bat, and with perfectly good reason.  From the first song 'til the last, Buckingham's performance was all dynamics and emoting. Man, this man can emote, through the power with which he plucks those strings, his personal and emotional lyrics and their passion in delivery. Add these qualities to his widely-renowned abilities as one of the most gifted songwriters of our time, and his performance was just moving. And this audience moved right along with him, from start to finish.

Even on tunes popularized in their full band arrangements (think Fleetwood Mac songs like "Big Love"), Buckingham was able to carry the songs with just his acoustic, and his voice. Heavy. It takes a lot of verve to carry that sort of power onstage alone, unsupported and unbacked-up by a band as he was Friday until a third of the way through his set when a band (and a set of glitzier lights) joined him. It was impressive.

Review: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Minneapolis Sept 16th

"His self-taught fingerpicking style, with a clean and bright tone, creates a distinctive sound that unites his work from his 1970s records with Fleetwood Mac to the present."

Sometimes rock stars seem to regard their job as a chore, or a sacred duty—but the best performances come from people who just seem to love what they do, and consider themselves lucky to be doing it. When the performer has talent, charisma, and restless creativity, those of us offstage are lucky too. Such was the case with both of the performers I saw on Friday night: 23-year-old local singer-songwriter Caroline Smith, and 62-year-old rock legend Lindsey Buckingham. Both have just released strong new albums, and both seemed to be having the times of their respective lives.

Buckingham was first, taking the stage at the Pantages just a few minutes after 8:00. It was my first time seeing Buckingham perform—with or without his band Fleetwood Mac—and while I certainly didn't expect a bad show, I was surprised by the energy, focus, and bounding enthusiasm Buckingham brought to the stage with his three-piece touring band. Like David Byrne of the Talking Heads does, Buckingham worked his old band's big hits into a solo set with inventiveness and intelligence, shedding new light on both bodies of work.

Fleetwood Mac's astounding commercial success—the band still gets together every once in a while for tours during which, as Buckingham put it on Friday, "commerce is robust"—has bought Buckingham the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants, when he wants as a solo artist. What he wants to do right now, it seems, is to keep making new music.

Full Review and more photos by Jay Gabler at Twin Cities Daily Planet

Review: Lindsey Buckingham should have shut up & let his guitar do the talking

Lindsey Buckingham may be more in touch with his feminine side than any other male guitar hero.

"Most of the night, Buckingham’s guitar work was heavy on mesmerizingly swirling repetition but he cut loose and soared with rock ‘n’ roll abandon on "Go Your Own Way" to the delight of the Mac-loving fans, who offered several standing ovations during the concert."

He manifested his considerable guitar prowess Friday night at the packed Pantages Theatre. And he also talked about his feelings. His life. His philosophies. His career. His new album. Himself. Too much.

Buckingham is a piece of work. No need to critique and psychoanalyze your songs before you play them, dude. Just shut up and play.

He did play. Plenty. It was a mix of stuff from his solo career and from the Fleetwood Mac catalog. He didn’t say much at all about the Big Mac except after some guy shouted out something about where’s Stevie Nicks, Buckingham said, "Unfortunately for that one gentleman, Stevie’s not in [this band]. What show is he at?"

Full review at Star Tribune
by Jon Bream

Review: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Denver 09/14

Live review: Lindsey Buckingham @ the Newman Center

Touring in support of his third solo album in five years, the excellent, self-released, “Seeds We Sow,” Lindsey Buckingham brought lush pop to the Newman Center at Denver University on Wednesday night.

The venue, a beautiful theater with stunning acoustics, was an ideal setting, particularly for Buckingham’s first section of the show. The first five songs were performed solo, voice and guitar only, each utilizing a different acoustic guitar. Buckingham’s stellar picking created a lot of sound over slower, dramatic interpretations of “Go Insane” and “Trouble,” two early ’80s solo tracks. Despite the lack of additional players, the acoustic set was anything but sparse; Buckingham’s voice was in fine form and his playing was riveting.

Get the rest of the review PLUS a gallery of 24 photos from last night at heyreverb.com

Concert Review: Lindsey Buckingham reaps benefit of ‘Seeds We Sow’ at the Depot

There was a telling moment near the end of Lindsey Buckingham’s set Tuesday night at the Depot.

“We make a lot of noise for a four-piece,” Buckingham glowingly said during band introductions. “We’re really rocking up here.”

Buckingham and his band were in the final stretch of a three-song suite from the Fleetwood Mac guitarist’s brand new solo album -- “Seeds We Sow,” released last week -- and as is often the case when presented with fresh material in a live setting, the crowd was sitting down, simply taking in the performance. But when Buckingham launched into the guitar solo of the tune, “That’s the Way That Love Goes,” audience members immediately stood as one despite their obvious unfamiliarity with the piece.

It was a fittingly unforced show of appreciation for Buckingham’s undeniable guitar majesty.

Buckingham is one of those rare players that must be seen live to truly appreciate what he is accomplishing on guitar. On record, one may never be quite sure how many backing tracks and overdubs are in play, but watching Buckingham in concert, you can’t escape the shake-your-head wonder of realizing just how much sound he is squeezing out of one instrument. And there was plenty of opportunity to experience that sensation Tuesday as Buckingham opened the show by himself with five acoustic songs before he was joined by the rest of his band.

“I’m looking for the lady who made everybody sit down,” Buckingham said between songs, playfully scanning the audience with one hand across his forehead to dim the glare of the spotlights. “Sorry, but that really bummed me out

Full Review at  Herald Extra

by Doug Fox
Photos by JAMES ROH