Lindsey Buckingham mixes the old and new

Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham mixes the old and new
Timesonline.com

Lindsey Buckingham tells our correspondent how he found happiness after the madness of Fleetwood Mac

Miles beyond Sunset Strip, beyond the Hollywood sign and Laurel Canyon, a familiar sound is coming from a rehearsal stage.

The opening couplet of Go Your Own Way wafts across the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California: “Loving you/ Isn’t the right thing to do . . .” The Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham is in final rehearsals for a six-week solo tour. A tour de force of Californian angst, the song first appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album – whose smooth curves masked a partner-swapping, drug-snorting epic of dysfunction. Those songs still resonate today – in recent months both Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes have covered Mac songs.

“Our first show is in two days, but I don’t feel like we’re quite ready,” he says, but that’s just the perfectionist in him speaking. In truth the show is an exhilarating mix of the old and new, reworked Mac classics combined with lost solo singles and tracks from his new album Gift of Screws. It’s a career-spanning set at a time when Buckingham is, he declares, “the happiest I’ve ever been”.

Buckingham today is a far cry from the hirsute, heartbroken pin-up of 1970s Fleetwood Mac, or even the lone, studio-bound experimental egg-head of the 1980s. He is married to the photographer and LA society belle Kristen Messner (with whom he has three children) and domestic contentment has reinvigorated his erratic solo career. Fourteen years had elapsed between Out of the Cradle (1992) and Under the Skin, and now Gift of Screws appears. His fifth solo album is as dense and engrossing as you would expect.

The best bits are classic Buckingham – mixing arch LA pop with avant-garde touches. The results are even more impressive live. Good Day channels Radiohead’s Idioteque with bluesy licks direct from The Chain, while Love Runs Deeper bops about joyfully, like a reconstructed new wave hit from 1982. His state of mind is reflected in the banter with band-mates. The vibe among the group, he says with a grin, is “camaraderie central”.

We go to chat in his office, which is feng shui-tidy – three identical white shirts are lined up next to three identical black leather jackets. A vintage Beach Boys poster hangs behind his see-through wardrobe. Through the door the bassline of FloRida’s Elevator can be heard.

“Is thatus?” he asks, half-joking, as the track blasts from the adjacent sound stage where the high-octane reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance? is being shot.

He is impressively well preserved for a 58-year-old rock survivor. The “blue-grey” eyes that his former paramour Stevie Nicks longingly sang about in Blue Denim radiate a fresh Californian glow. In conversation he’s forthright and relaxed. Interviews in the past have reflected the self-help books that saw him through the turmoil of Fleetwood Mac. But there is no trace of that now.

A Californian boy through and through, Buckingham was born in Palo Alto. There were early ambitions to be a professional swimmer (his brother Greg won a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics) but he was galvanised by music after hearing his brother Jeff’s copy of Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel.

“I was eight when I first started playing guitar,” he recalls, “because Jeff would bring home all these records. Not much later I got into acoustic, finger pickings, but I couldn’t read music.”

After meeting Stevie Nicks at high school (“I was playing California Dreamin’ and she came along and harmonised”), the two formed a duo, first with the band Fritz (“We opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin”) and then on their own as Buckingham Nicks.

A chance encounter with Mick Fleetwood followed and he asked them to join his faltering British blues band, with Buckingham as lead guitarist. His predecessors had either fallen into drug-induced schizophrenia (Peter Green), left to join cults (Jeremy Spencer) or became violent alcoholics (Danny Kirwan). Was he worried about being afflicted with the “Curse of the Fleetwood Mac Guitarist”?

“I knew about it, it was almost a joke,” he laughs. “I loved Peter’s work but when I met him . . . Well, let’s just say that he was less nice than he could have been. As for me? I’m still here – I didn’t join a cult and I didn’t go crazy. At least I think I didn’t . . .” His solo work has always been an escape from the debauched, multi-platinum madness that Fleetwood Mac involved. He cites Tusk, the eccentric follow-up to Rumours in 1979, as the “lightning bolt” moment.

“I consider it to be my first solo album – I recorded things at my home and brought them in to the band,” including, he says, percussion parts banged out on Kleenex boxes.

“With that album I was trying to accomplish stuff to the left of what Fleetwood Mac had become.”

Today, there is no tension between his solo work and working with Fleetwood Mac. “Being a father and a husband I realised that there are more important things than music. Solo work is a boutique effort for me; it’s a labour of love. I long ago gave up the idea that it would be appreciated on a commercial level. Fleetwood Mac is the golden carrot and my solo work is kind of indulged by the record company.”

And, he says, unlike Nicks, the needs of Fleetwood Mac always came before his solo records. “Stevie was always able to pull back from the Fleetwood Mac machine and say ‘OK, now I’m doing my solo stuff.’ But I wasn’t in a position to do that, nor would I have felt comfortable to do that and call myself a band member – possibly because of my role as an arranger in the band.”

Indeed, Buckingham was twice poised to do albums that became Fleetwood Mac projects instead. “It happened with Tango in the Night [1987] and in 2000 with Say You Will. But this time I put my foot down and said I wanted three years when I’ll make a solo album, tour, then make another solo album.”

So after this six-week solo tour, he is due to reunite with his main band for a tour in 2009 and then possibly an album. “In Fleetwood Mac nothing is certain until you actually see it,” he notes wryly. “But it’s up to us to not shoot ourselves in the foot.” The band is still very much a “work in progress”, by which he means both emotionally and musically.

“Happily they are still part of the fabric of my life,” he says. “I’ve known Stevie since I was 17, which is something to cherish – and why it’s still worth working on getting rid of all the bulls*** between us. Because there still is after all this time, would you believe.”

Bel Air Rain, a song from Gift of Screws, looks back at the decadence of Fleetwood Mac and contrasts it with the relatively calm life he is living now. “I lived in Bel Air for a number of years as a bachelor with some crazy girlfriends. I also built a house there when I started my family. Fame is really funny, it gives you lots of freedom but then at the same time it takes away a lot of yourself.”

After all the madness, it’s good to see that he has managed to retain what made him so special in the first place.

Gift of Screws is released by Warners on Monday 15 September 2008

How Fleetwood Mac can save Obama

[too funny]

by demiowa

Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 01:25:04 PM PDT

In 1992 Bill Clinton had a secret weapon. It wasn't a stagnant economy. It wasn't an inept response to a major hurricane. It wasn't a press that treated him fairly.

It was Fleetwood Mac. In 30 seconds they reminded America about how we as a nation always move forward because we "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."

The stars have aligned again for Fleetwood Mac to save America....

demiowa's diary :: ::
Music has the ability to break down the most complicated issues into an easily understandable refrain. I believe Fleetwood Mac would once again be able to explain what is at stake in this year's election.

John McCain says Obama is Sexist.."Tell me lies"
Sarah Palin says No to Earmarks..."Tell me lies"
Palin says no the Bridge to Nowhere..."Tell me sweet little lies"
McCain says Palin is experienced..."Tell me lies"
Palin scoffs at rape kits..."Tell me lies"

By now you get the idea. If Obama doesn't want to do this, we are destined to lose. While he may have the ground game. While he may have historical indicators on his side. While he may have the enthusiasm of his historic campaign. He needs the Mac so we make sure America remembers...

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!

Gift of Screws Tour - Tour Stop #1 (Saratoga)

Lindsey Buckingham opened his Gift of Screws Tour at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on September 7th (pictured right).

20 song set:

Great Day
Love Runs Deep
Trouble
Go Insane
Tusk
I Know I'm Not Wrong
Gift of Screws
Never Going Back Again
Big Love
Shut Us Down
Under The Skin
Did You Miss Me
Come
World Turning
So Afraid
Go Your Own Way

Encore:

Second Hand News
Don't Look Down
Treason
Time Precious Time

Lindsey Buckingham Q&A

by Michael Senft - Sept. 8, 2008
The Arizona Republic

Stevie Nicks may be the most recognizable face in Fleetwood Mac, but the mad genius behind the band’s massive hits is Lindsey Buckingham. Since he and Nicks joined Mac in 1975, Buckingham has placed an indelible stamp on the group’s pop sound, from hits like Go Your Own Way to guitar workouts like I’m So Afraid and the acoustic Big Love. But right now the gifted singer-songwriter, who visits the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 18, is concentrating on his solo career. After his critically acclaimed 2006 album, the subdued Under the Skin, Buckingham has returned with Gift of Screws, which hits stores on Sept. 16.

We recently spoke with Buckingham about his solo career, as well as the future of Fleetwood Mac:

QUESTION: Gift of Screws seems to encapsulate your entire career into a single album. Some parts echo the sound of older Fleetwood Mac albums like Tusk or Rumours , while others have the acoustic feel of your last album, Under the Skin. Can you talk about the recording process for the disc?

ANSWER: When I did Under the Skin, I was planning on doing a bit more fuller arranged second album, although not necessarily as rocking as Gift of Screws turned out to be. I just started recording with my road band from the last tour and Gift of Screws came naturally. There are also a few tracks on it that go back a few years, like the title track and Wait for You. They were songs that I had cut with Mick Fleetwood and John MacVie that were intended for a solo album that I had planned for 2001. I looked back at some of those straggler tunes that were looking for a home and they fit perfectly. There was no method to it, but everything seemed to come together.

Q: The disc does sound remarkably cohesive considering its diverse sources.

A: Especially spanning such a long time period. I probably wouldn’t write a song like Wait for You with the mindset I have now. But even more interesting is that there are songs that are new like Love Runs Deeper that somehow reference back to familiar Fleetwood Mac songs and styles from the ’70s. And I think that’s why the record company is so excited about it as well. They liked Under the Skin but they were scratching their heads about how to market it - it’s sort of a boutique, artsy album.

Q: In the past there have been decade-long waits between your solo albums. Did the positive response to Under the Skin lead to the short period between it and Gift of Screws?

A: I was happy with the way the album turned out, as well as the response for it. The tour was one of the best experiences I had, as well. And it left us in a really positive, creative space. But there were other reasons.

The pattern in the past has been when I get started working on a solo album, Fleetwood Mac swoops in and takes the songs. It’s happened three or four times. The bulk of the songs for that planned 2001 album ended up getting turned into the last Fleetwood Mac album, Say You Will. And I don’t really object to that - I’m a member of the band and have responsibilities to the group

But this time I put a three-year boundary around my time and asked Fleetwood Mac not to come knocking. That was how I was able to get the two albums out in a relatively short time. Had I not done that in all likelihood Fleetwood Mac would’ve come in and said let’s do something.

Q: So what is the status of Fleetwood Mac right now?

A: We’re getting together in the middle of January to start rehearsals. We’re planning on doing some dates starting in April. We decided it would be better to go out and do some dates, to hang and get to know each other again, rather than just go into the studio cold. I think the mantra this time is to relax and enjoy ourselves and see what comes naturally. It will give us a chance not only to get to know each other again, but also to shoot some ideas around in anticipation of going in the studio.

Q: Is the band going for more collaborative songwriting? In the past, Mac’s albums have had the Nicks songs and the Buckingham songs, and it was easy to tell who wrote what.

A: Well I don’t think we’ve really defined it on a musical level. Right now we’re really looking at the personal level. For a long time, Stevie’s and my dynamic was somewhat guarded, but we’ve been having a lot of positive conversations lately. I can only define it on those terms. I don’t know how it will play out in the studio yet.

In the past, there have been a multitude of agendas going into every Fleetwood Mac album. The politics tend to be pretty convoluted. We want to cut through that and acknowledge that we’ve been down a rather profound road together and we do actually care about each other.

Mick Fleetwood - New Album - European Tour - Lodging at Christines House

Back to Blues

EADT24.com

He's one of the founders of the biggest selling rock'n'roll bands of all time now Mick Fleetwood is hitting the road to retrace some of his musical roots. He spoke to Arts Editor Andrew Clarke about his musical legacy.

Mick Fleetwood, the powerhouse co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, one of the world's most successful bands, is on the phone from his home in Hawaii, reminiscing fondly about life on the road. This isn't a road that leads to Wembley Stadium or Madison Square Garden but rather one that takes in the county towns of Britain and some of its smaller cities.

Mick Fleetwood, a man famed for his crowd-pleasing, wild-eyed drumming style, is in a nostalgic mood; which is not surprising considering that he has just finished recording a new album and is preparing for a new European tour which will see him not only return to his blues roots but find him performing some of the Peter Green-penned material that shot Fleetwood Mac to fame in the late sixties.

This was Fleetwood Mac blues band rather than Fleetwood Mac pop-rock chart band. This was the group that gave us Albatross, Black Magic Woman and The Green Mannalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown).

Mick maintains that one of the joys of Fleetwood Mac was that it was able to morph itself into at least three distinct musical variations of itself and despite some emotional ups and downs, which would put your average soap opera to shame, the band is still together, is still recording and is planning a major world tour next year.

It is clear, even after just a few minutes of conversation, that Mick Fleetwood is still incredibly proud of the band that bares his name. Their 1977 album Rumours remains one of the best-selling records of all time - only out-sold by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell.

But, in the lull before the storm, before Fleetwood Mac head off on their next circumnavigation of the globe, Mick has decided that

it is time that he revisits his past. He has just finished recording a new album Blue Again which features such original Fleetwood Mac staples as Rattlesnake Shake, Looking For Somebody and Love That Burns as well as Rick Vito blues originals.

Whether this new CD and tour has anything to do with a recent jam-session with former band member Jeremy Spencer is hard to say but the timing was propitious and certainly Mick is thrilled that Jeremy has resurfaced once again having left the band in such a dramatic fashion.

Jeremy's departure followed less than 12 months after former front-man Peter Green's self-imposed retirement in 1970 at the height of the band's first flush of fame.

According to Mick, one night in Los Angeles, in the middle of a US tour, Spencer stepped out to visit a nearby bookshop he knew and he never returned. Appeals to police, searches of the surrounding streets revealed nothing. It later transpired that the very religious Jeremy Spencer was recruited by The Children of God cult and whisked away to their isolated compound where he was to be “born again”

Nothing much was heard from him for two decades before he resurfaced in the mid 1990s and then made contact with Mick Fleetwood earlier this year. “John McVie lives close by in Hawaii and Jeremy Spencer was coming over to do a documentary and I said why don't we just get together and jam, just get to know one another again.

“Rick Vito my band mate (and later Fleetwood Mac member) joined us and in truth there was me, John, Rick and Jeremy playing for a couple of afternoons while we filmed a documentary for Peter Green. It was great.”

He said that he is pleased that Peter is slowly conquering his demons and would love to take to the stage again with his former band mate but realises that it would be wrong to place any pressure on him.

Peter suffered a mental collapse during the 1970s when he confronted a record company employee with a shotgun after the man tried to give him a royalties cheque. In recent years Peter has been on recovery programme and as part of Splinter Group with Nigel Watson been making a limited return to recording and live performances.

Splinter Group has since split up and Peter is currently living the quiet life in Sweden but Mick is hoping that like Jeremy Spencer, Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac's first prodigal son will return to the fold.

“I do everything I can to help Peter, to help his recovery and to make people aware what a fabulous musician he is. He was and is my mentor. He and I started this crazy band together. I would love to play with Peter again but I won't put any pressure on him. That's not what he needs right now. But when he feels like he wants to do it, then I'll be there.

“His days with Splinter Group are over now. I know that from time to time he still enjoys playing. He has so much love and respect from his fans - people who know that it has been hard for him to get back before an audience with his illness. I would love to see Peter, I would love to play with Peter but I am not planning on it. If it happens, it happens. Peter doesn't want to know about tours and itineraries, it puts too much pressure on him. My selfish needs to see him and play with him again don't really come into it.”

He said that he was delighted to see that Jeremy Spencer has been remarkably unscarred by the passing of the years. “He made an album for an American blues label last year and he is playing as sweetly as he ever did. He's totally intact. He's tiny as he ever was, bald as a coot like me - those famous Spencer curls have gone - but he's playing his ass off. He's still got those Elmore licks and he still loves his rockabilly and it was just great to see him again and play with him.”

Mick said that his new album and the accompanying tour allows him to revisit the music that launched his career. “It's great to play the music that I love - that first got me into this crazy business. It's great having someone like Rick Vito in the band - someone who truly understands where this music all came from. Not only is he a blues man himself but he really has a tremendous amount of love and respect for that early band.”

Rick Vito first came to Mick Fleetwood's attention when he was looking for a replacement for Lindsey Buckingham on 1987's Tango In The Night tour and even after Lindsey Buckingham returned to the band in the late 1990s Rick Vito kept in touch with Mick Fleetwood and the pair continued to jam and play the blues together. “Three years ago sent me a new blues album that he recorded and that sparked a real connection with me. It was a great album and I played it all the time - in the house and in the car. Rick was living in Nashville at the time and he flew over to Hawaii and we got back together again.”

He said that as gaps between Fleetwood Mac tours now stretched to five years, he liked to keep busy. “I'm a musician I like playing music and this is a great way to keep busy and play the music I love. I don't feel comfortable sitting round and doing nothing.”

Considering that even before Fleetwood Mac was created Mick Fleetwood played alongside bass player John McVie in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, was it a temptation to invite John McVie to join The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band?

“John lives close to me in Hawaii and the truth is he is a really keen sailor and next year we are planning a really big world tour with Fleetwood Mac and he is gearing up for that. For now he wants to spend time with his family and his boat. But, he has played with us before and you will see him on a stage with us before long I am quite sure.”

He added that on this tour they will be playing in Canterbury and are being put up for the night by former band member Christine McVie. “I know Chris will love the band. She played for years with Chicken Shack, playing material just like this, and she played piano with Peter and the guys in the early days on Fleetwood Mac, before she officially joined the band. Chris is a real blueswoman, who had a number one hit with the Etta James song I'd Rather Go Blind, and this is all connected with what Rick and I are trying to do. This is pay tribute to those early days on the road, playing the music of our heroes.”

Mick said that playing smaller venues allows him and the band to really make contact with an audience. He said that playing smaller gigs was different, not necessarily better, than the big stadium gigs he was used to.

But, he said that he is looking forward to getting up close and personal with audiences again rather than having them cheering at a distance. Indeed he remembers playing Ipswich during those early days with Peter, being put up in the town by Ron and Nanda Lesley and they were real advocates for the blues and they used to take care of all us crazy bands who were touring the country. They took a chance on us and booked us in the very early days.

“They were very organised, we always knew we would get paid. They even put us up. We didn't stay in hotels, we slept in the van and if we came down from an all-nighter they would grab us before we went on and feed us. Nanda would look after us like an old mother hen. If we looked a bit rough she would go, 'all right cheese sandwich all round.' And in the morning we'd come down to bacon and egg. She'd feed us like ducklings.

“I remember them absolutely. Ipswich was one of our strongholds. They always had an amazing line-up.”

During the late sixties blues boom Bluesville, Ron and Nada's agency booked The New Yardbirds and their offspring Led Zeppelin, Cream (in their early days) and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers complete with guest vocalist John Lee Hooker.

“I knew John Lee quite well in his later years, and I know that until the end he remembered that tour of England. He was such a cool guy and he was way older than anyone knew. But, he kept going on about the funny English breakfasts he had when he was over here. He also stayed and slept with John McVie at his parents' house in Ealing. He slept on the family couch in the front room. But these guys were really pleased that we got the music because at the time they were being largely ignored at home.

“BB King is the same. He to this day rates Peter Green's guitar playing. He says he's the dude - the guy that really got it absolutely right. He remembers the tour we did together and the fact that we played The Royal Albert Hall and we insisted that he was the headline act. And like Hooker he remembers the food - in BB's case the tiny little salmon and cucumber sandwiches they fed him.”

But Mick said that whoever they played with they were always sure to show these great musicians the proper respect. These were their heroes and the real deal when it came to playing blues.

“Today I am blessed that I don't have to reinvent the wheel. It's about honouring the past, honouring the roots of our music and hopefully some people will want to hear the music that Fleetwood Mac used to play. If you look back at the history of Fleetwood Mac, all the way back to 1967, it has been an extraordinary journey and it's an opportunity for me to revisit material that we rarely get to play these days.”

The Mick Fleetwood Blues band is playing Ipswich Regent on November 1. Tickets can be booked on https://online.ipswich.gov.uk/PEO/

Lindsey Buckingham still rocks

Rollingstone Magazine

(3.5 stars out of 5)

WILL HERMES

On this album's opener, "Great Day," there's an electric-guitar solo so blowtorch-hot, it seems specifically designed to bitch-slap anyone with the nerve to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham still rocks.

Buckingham's 2006 comeback, Under the Skin, was largely a reflective, parlor-room affair, full of self-doubt and dazzling acoustic playing, and here, the mood is still darkly introspective: "Suicide days, suicide, suicide nights/In the wheelchair almost blind," he sings on "Wait for You." But the sound under him is a wild roadhouse blues with the signature groove of old bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Fleetwood's drumming also powers "The Right Place to Fade," a classic Mac-style hook barrage with a strummy "Go Your Own Way" gallop and a head-kicking harmony chorus.

Elsewhere, things are more subdued: "Time Precious Time" is a spiraling incantation that's nearly psych folk. Old rubberneckers may ponder whether songs like "Did You Miss Me" address Buckingham's former paramour Stevie Nicks. But who cares? What matters here isn't that he used to be in Fleetwood Mac — it's that he can still make music nearly as bright.

Gift of Screws Song Sampler

Amazon has posted 30 second clips of the 10 tracks on Gift of Screws... Sounds Great!!

Click here... or the Amazon link: Amazon

Lindsey Buckingham Interview with Don Sanchez

By Don Sanchez
BURBANK, CA (KGO)

Hall of Fame musician Lindsey Buckingham is celebrating the release of his new CD, Gift of Screws next week by launching a national tour that kicks off at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga Sunday night.

For Buckingham, it's coming back home.

ABC7's entertainment reporter Don Sanchez sat down with Buckingham at the Warner Brothers studios in Burbank.

Download the interview - it's about 18 minutes or so, and click this link to watch the video interview.

The Backstory: Meeting Lindsey Buckingham

Beautifully Crafted, Just a Touch of Experimentation (Review)

Lindsey Buckingham
Bloomberg.com

Another musician who defined the sound of West Coast rock is Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

His latest solo release is beautifully crafted, with just a touch of the experimentation he showed on group efforts such as ``Rumours'' and ``Tusk,'' which he called his first solo LP.

Buckingham, now 58, has gone his own way musically for a long time -- the new CD is titled ``Gift of Screws,'' a recherche reference to an Emily Dickinson poem that shows up in its chorus. At the same time, he has always retained enough of a mainstream sound to keep Fleetwood Mac fans on board.

I had the review copy a month ago: It won't be released until Sept. 16, but give it an early mention for the Wilson comparison. There's a lot of Californian contemplation, echoes of the author's main band and one of the best tracks is called ``Bel Air Rain.''

This is a mid-pace collection, with lots of guitar flourishes and layered vocals. It retains a mellow feel, as if Buckingham went into his home studio after a long meditation and with mature determination to do exactly what he wanted to.

Rating: ** 1/2.

(Mark Beech writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this review: Mark Beech in London at mbeech@bloomberg.net.

Got Some Good News... And Got Some Bad News!!

The Bad News... The release of Stevie's Soundstage DVD (according to Amazon) has been pushed back to December 31, 2008... This is the 5th push back of the release since July... Not Good!

The Good News.. Strike that! The GREAT News is that PBS is finally starting to ship the orders that were placed for the Soundstage show after it aired in July. Fans are already starting to receive their DVD's. So if you haven't ordered, I'd order through the Soundstage website (click the Soundstage banner to the right of the page, it will take you to the order site at PBS). It's cheap, $19.99plus shipping!

Couple of notes about the tracklisting. It's exactly the same as what was aired on PBS over the two nights in July. There is one disc in the package, with no booklet inside... and there is no bonus footage like PBS described in their ad at the end of each airing of the show. Most of the tunes are here from the actual show, a couple of notable songs missing are Dreams and Beauty and The Beast, which were both performed that night.

Couple of pics courtesy of LiamMcConville over at Seven Wonders... Two screen caps of the DVD Menu and the front and back covers courtesy of Stevie-Nicks.INFO.

ON STAGE | MOORE THEATRE | LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

Buckingham Moves in a Rock Direction
By Alan Sculley - For Kitsap A&E - Friday, August 29, 2008

There's one place Lindsey Buckingham wishes he could have snuck into after finishing the controversial 1979 Fleetwood Mac album, "Tusk."

"I make the joke that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the board meeting when they first put 'Tusk' on and started listening to that thing over at Warner Brothers," Buckingham said in a recent phone interview.

The reasons for Buckingham's curiosity are obvious enough. "Tusk" was the follow-up album to Fleetwood Mac's blockbuster 1977 album "Rumours." Rather than filling "Tusk" with the kind of finely crafted and accessible pop of "Rumours," Buckingham steered Fleetwood Mac in a quirkier, more adventurous direction. What's more, "Tusk" was a double album that would have to carry a higher-than-usual retail price.

Buckingham can only imagine the uneasy atmosphere that must have filled the room as the Warner Bros. executives realized their expectations for eight-digit sales of the next Fleetwood Mac album had gone up in smoke.

The topic of "Tusk" is appropriate now because Buckingham recently once again has shown his willingness to not play things safe with his music. In 2006, he released a stripped back, primarily acoustic CD, "Under The Skin," that prompted words of caution from the Warner Bros. camp.

"It's almost kind of a 'Tusk' in miniature," Buckingham said.

At the time, Buckingham also had begun work on a plugged-in, more commercially viable studio album, which came to be the newly released CD "Gift Of Screws." Buckingham said the label asked him to consider putting a few of the full-band songs planned for "Gift Of Screws" on "Under The Skin" to make the album more palatable to radio, retailers and fans.

Buckingham, though, stuck to his vision of keeping "Under The Skin" in its acoustic-centric form, and Warner Bros. didn't push the issue, although the label indicated it wouldn't put a big push behind "Under The Skin."

The reaction to "Gift Of Screws" at Warner Bros. Records has been markedly different. And Buckingham said the CD he gave the label might be more musically accessible than even he expected.

"I was actually surprised because on the one hand I didn't really expect to make this as rock and roll as it turned out," Buckingham said. "But once I got my road band down and we started cutting some tracks in my studio downstairs, it just wanted to go that way.

"I'm fairly used to a conservative response, shall we say, from the record company as regards to my work," he said. "But they're pretty excited about this record."

Warner Bros. has good reason for its enthusiasm. "Gift Of Screws" sounds like a CD that could enjoy considerable popularity.

The album is not without its edgy moments. It opens with a pair of quirky (but also attention-grabbing) songs, "Great Day" and "Time Precious Time," before shifting more toward the kind of finely crafted, melodic pop that made Fleetwood Mac multi-platinum superstars.

Buckingham is featuring several songs from "Gift Of Screws" on his tour this fall. The shows find him joined by the same musicians that played on his tour to support "Under The Skin" — Neale Heywood (guitar), Taku Hirano (drums) and Brett Tuggle (bass, keyboards). The character of the evening, though, will be different.

"Last time I was spending a lot of time out there by myself doing single guitar pieces," Buckingham said. "I'm still doing some of that, obviously, but we're going to hit the ground running this time and rock a bit more. That seems to be what the ("Gift Of Screws") album is doing."

Buckingham's tour will run well into the fall. After that, he plans to turn his attention to Fleetwood Mac, the group he joined in 1975 along with his then-girlfriend, singer Stevie Nicks.

The band recently announced that it will tour the United States next year. But this outing will feature the four core band members — Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie and Nicks, a change from earlier this year when Sheryl Crow announced that she was likely to join Fleetwood Mac for the tour and possibly an album.

Buckingham said Crow's statements caught the band members off guard, and the idea of inviting Crow into the band never went beyond the discussion stage. The whole issue, Buckingham noted, grew out of the fact that Nicks, who is good friends with Crow, was interested in adding a woman to Fleetwood Mac to replace retired singer-keyboardist Christine McVie.

On the tour supporting the group's 2003 CD, "Say You Will," Nicks missed the male-female balance that Christine McVie brought to Fleetwood Mac, and floated the idea of adding Crow.

"I think she (Nicks) missed Christine's presence," Buckingham said "She missed that kind of mitigating force that sort of glued (things) together. And consequently when it came down to us contemplating touring next year, I think Stevie was possibly looking for some sort of a comrade on stage.

"The whole thing was a complete hypothetical," Buckingham said. "There had been no real, anything set in stone at all. It was just something we were considering, period."

Lindsey Buckingham delivers "Gift" to fans

By Gary Graff

Reuters

DETROIT (Billboard) - Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is getting ready to hit the road to promote a new album he considers "a little more accessible and familiar" than some of his other solo releases.

"Gift of Screws" (Reprise/Warner Bros.) comes out on September 16, while Buckingham begins a six-week tour on September 7 in Saratoga, Calif. A special promotion bundles a copy of the album with ticket purchases for the tour.

The album marks the followup to 2005's acoustic-oriented "Under the Skin," which peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard 200. But the new set has an interesting history that dates back to the beginning of the decade.

Buckingham was making a solo album with the "Gift of Screws" title in 2001 when Fleetwood Mac decided to reconvene for sessions that led to the band's 2003 album "Say You Will" and subsequent world tour. Buckingham allowed the group to use several of the songs intended for his album -- with, he hastens to explain, no regrets on his part.

"It's happened maybe five other times in the past that the machinery or the politics of Fleetwood Mac moved in, intervened and something was put on the shelf," says Buckingham, who joined the group with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks in 1974, left in 1987 and rejoined for "The Dance" in 1997.

"So that's been a pattern. It's always seemed to me that's the right thing to do. 'Gift of Screws' as an album wasn't really finished, so I was trying to do the right thing for the good of the whole."

Buckingham's initial "Gift of Screws" recordings have been widely bootlegged, and the current version includes several of those songs, among them the title track, "Right Place to Fade" and "Wait for You." The first single is "Did You Miss Me."

"I didn't really go in there and plan to make a rocking album," says Buckingham, who produced all but two of the 10 songs. "For whatever reason, this seems to hearken back to earlier work, Fleetwood Mac in particular. I think that's something the record company recognizes and feels good about."

The Fleetwood Mac rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, who helped out during the original sessions, still appear on the album. Also on the disc are the musicians who accompanied Buckingham on his "Under the Skin" tour and appear on the "Live at the Bass Performance Hall" CD/DVD that was released earlier this year.

As for Fleetwood Mac, a tour and possibly some new recording loom in early 2009.