Stevie Nicks... Vamping it up!

via Flourish Public Relations - Melbourne

Lindsey Buckingham... Q&A on Seeds We Sow, Fleetwood Mac, Touring, Stevie Nicks & More...

Q&A with Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham keeps making his own music, but Fleetwood Mac is always there, too.

By Heather Lovejoy - Sept 30, 2011
The Florida Times Union

There aren't many rock musicians who have performed to packed houses in the largest venues in the world. Lindsey Buckingham is one of them.  As part of Fleetwood Mac, the singer/songwriter/guitarist has experienced the pinnacle of popularity.  But when he plays at 8 p.m. Monday at the Florida Theatre, fans will see and hear a slighty different side of him.

Buckingham spoke to the Times-Union recently by phone about his solo work, Fleetwood Mac and more. Here are excerpts from the conversation:

How was your flight?

It was fine. You know, we're doing some commercial flights and some bus trips this time, [laughs] because I'm kind of spoiled.  The shows are going well, though. And I'm very happy with the way things are going.

Where are you now?

In Minneapolis.

You'll be in Jacksonville on Oct. 3; your birthday, isn't it?

That is my birthday.

What's the best present a fan could bring you?

That's a good question. [laughs] I don't know. Did you have something in mind?

No, no. It's just that when fans find out it's your birthday, they are probably going to at least make a poster or something.

Ah, well, we don't want to make a big deal of it. You know, I'm from one of those families that used to just give a Hallmark card. It's not a big deal, really.

What can the audience expect to hear at the show?

Well, we are doing a healthy amount of the new album, which is great, and I'm very happy with the way the songs turned out live and the way they've been received, too.... I am opening the show with something I love to do more and more, which is just get up with a guitar and play by myself, so I'm doing about five songs, sort of opening for myself in a way. ... That approach has become more and more important to me.... There's a nice healthy amount of material from previous solo work, and of course, you've got to throw in a few Fleetwood Mac jams. There will be those.

About the new album, "Seeds We Sow," what prompted the title?

I wasn't planning on making an album, and the time opened up and I filled it. ... It seemed like the songs were sort of arising out of nowhere or out of very vague notions while I was recording. The same is probably true of the subject matter. There was no preconceived idea of what I was going to write about. But at the end, I realized ... there was all this stuff about choices and changes.... It's the good or ill that exists in anything, whether it's the world or in something as small as relationships.... It turned out to be a lot about choices. Much of the album had to do with that kind of karmic thing. ...

[As a guitarist,] you mostly fingerpick. Over the years, has that been hard on your hand? 

... I can't keep nails and if I do they start to get sheared off. ... Before a tour, I basically cut my nails as short as possible. ... No, I don't think so. ... I've been playing since I was about 7. I never really used a pick very much. I mean, once in a while, if you're in a festive mood, you might draw a little blood, but nothing significant. ... But my hands aren't abused, really.

You've never been big on music theory, and you don't read music. Is that right?

I do not read music. I never had lessons. I basically taught myself by listening to my brother's records, the 45s he bought.... It's always been based around the song, and guitar-playing in the service of the song. ... The sensibility is about songs.  I like to think of it as kind of "refined primitive."

How do you think that has affected your songwriting?

That's a very good question, because there are a lot of things that I don't know. ... That is something that you have to let go of, because you can only aspire to be what you are on your own terms. You work with your strengths, your limitations. If I had some amount of schooling, maybe I'd be writing with more sophistication in the European sense.

The other way of looking at it, I think of myself as much as a stylist as a writer. I think of myself as somebody with something he can call his own. A lot of people who have gone to music school have gotten their individuality stomped out of them. It becomes harder to find those instincts. Really, it could go either way.

At this point, it's a little too late to worry about it. [laughs]

How does being on stage with your solo band compare to performing with Fleetwood Mac?

There are certain aspects that are similar. Certainly, whatever I learn while I'm out solo, I bring back to Fleetwood Mac. ... Clearly, the big machine and the small machine support each other creatively - although, that may not have always been the case, but it has become that now.... The last time Fleetwood Mac went out on the road, without an album, it was kind of a freeing experience. Generally speaking, the Fleetwood Mac audience isn't really that interested in hearing anything new. ... You get to a point when your body of work speaks for itself, and you can be down with that and just put it out there.  Obviously, in Fleetwood Mac, as a band, there's always going to be more chaos, more politics. We're people who maybe shouldn't even be in a band together, but the synergy is what makes it interesting, I guess. It also makes it more difficult sometimes.... Working with the solo situation, it's a little more brainier, I think. It's more academic, a more meticulous process. And I love that. I also love figuring out how to make it work on stage. ...

So a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour is in the works for next year.

Well, we never really use the word "reunion," since we never really broke up. We're just a band that takes breaks. People are always of doing other things ... but we come back together. There is talk of doing that; that would follow the pattern of the last 10 years. There is nothing on the books, certainly. But I would be surprised if there was nothing going on with Fleetwood Mac next year.

Of course, what everyone wants to know is, how do you get along with Stevie Nicks these days?

Oh great, great. I spent quite a bit of time with her when she was finishing up her solo album and helped her out with that. I've known her since I was in high school, you know. And somehow we're still evolving; it's hard to believe, but we are.

Fleetwood Mac take a GIANT leap up the Billboard Top 200 + Lindsey Buckingham Tour Stats

Billboard Magazine 

Week ending September 25th, issue date October 8th:

The big news this week isn't the fact that both Lindsey and Stevie drop off the Top 200 Albums Chart this week with Seeds We Sow and In Your Dreams, but that Fleetwood Mac's 1977 Rumours album continues to sell so well 34 years after it's initial release.  Again this week the album re-enters multiple Billboard charts, most notibly the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart where it re-enters at # 74 on a 328% sales increase or 6,293 total units sold vs 1,470 units sold the week prior.  The massive increase is likely due to Amazon's deeply discounted mp3 album download that saw the title being sold for as little as $3.99 last week.  Even today the album can be bought for $5.99 as an mp3 download on Amazon.  To date Rumours has sold 2,891,943 albums in the US since November, 1991 when Soundscan began tracking over the counter sales.

No such luck for Lindsey's Seeds We Sow on the Top 200, even though Amazon had the album for most of last week discounted down to as little as $4.99 the album drops off the Top 200 this week.  Seeds We Sow in it's 3rd week of release remains on the Top 200 Current Albums Chart falling from # 132 last week to # 177 this week.  On the Top Independent Albums Chart, the album remains in the Top 40 at # 38 down from # 32 last week.

Back to Rumours:  On the Top Digital Albums Chart, Rumours re-enters at # 24 this week while on the Top Catalogue Albums Chart the album re-enters at the # 4 place right behind The Beatles at # 1, Adele and Amy Winehouse.

Stevie's In Your Dreams drops out of the Top 200 Albums chart this week along with the Top 200 Current Albums Chart and the Top 50 Rock Albums Chart.  Her new single "For What It's Worth" remains on the Top 30 AC Charts holding steady at # 26 for a second week.

Complete charts below.  Previous week in parenthesis.

USA ALBUM CHARTS

Billboard Top 200 Current Albums Chart
# 177 (132) Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow

Billboard Top Independent Albums Chart
# 38 (32) Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow

Billboard Top Digital Albums
# 24 (-) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Re-entry)

Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart
# 74 (-) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Re-entry)

Billboard Top Catalogue Albums Chart
# 4 (-) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Re-entry)

Billboard Top 30 AC Charts
# 26 (26) Stevie Nicks - For What It's Worth

On the tour front, Seeds We Sow Tour attendance to the first 3 shows reported by promoters to Boxscore have been published.  Attendance average based on these first 3 is at 73% which is higher so far then his last two tours ended up after a majority of the dates had been published... It's early yet so provided more stats are published on more dates, this will change.

Video: Watch Lindsey Buckingham on Morning Joe MSNBC

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Photos by Drew Katchen - Morning Joe Blog

Fleetwood Mac guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham joined the show today to discuss his new record "Seeds We Sow" and actress Goldie Hawn stopped by to discuss her new book "10 Mindful Minutes."

Old Grey Whistle Test 40 with Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham & Mick Fleetwood

Old Grey Whistle Test 40

Bob Harris celebrates the 40th anniversary of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Remembering each series with archive recordings, plus new interviews and exclusively recorded sessions.

Series 1 - Episode 6:

Episode aired last night September 28, 2011 on BBC Radio 2.  

Mick Fleetwood & Lindsey Buckingham appear in this weeks episode via old 1976 interview footage that was recorded about a year and a half after Lindsey and Stevie joined the band & during rehearsals in 1976 prior to an upcoming tour. With Rhiannon on the charts at the time, Mick and Lindsey talk about finishing up the recording of Rumours, how the album compares to the white Fleetwood Mac album that was released the year before and how Lindsey and Stevie joined the band.

Stevie Nicks is then interviewed, which was recorded when she was in the UK in June.  She comments on the video footage of Mick and Lindsey being interviewed in 1976 and on the Rhiannon video that was filmed during the rehearsals that day...  Stevie describes how innocent the guys look and that those were the men she fell in love with, that innocence... Then she proceeds to annalyse the 1976 Rhiannon video footage and it's lasting legacy.

Overall this section of the show is about 8 minutes long.  Listen again on the BBC Radio 2 website.  If you don't want to listen to the full hour long show, the Fleetwood Mac section starts at about the 51:30 mark.

Picture it! You Meeting Stevie Nicks at The Fillmore... KFOG Contest

MEET STEVIE NICKS 

Rock goddess Stevie Nicks will be in town for a couple of intimate shows at The Historic Fillmore October 8-9, and KFOG has a free pair of tickets for you as well as a chance to meet Stevie at the 10/9 show!

You must be a registered FOGHEAD and be logged in to enter.  Entries must be submitted on KFOG by 9am on Monday, October 3, 2011. They will select one winner at random and contact him or her via email. One runner up will receive a free pair of tickets to the 10/9 show.

KFOG Website

Stevie also plays the Mountain Winery 10/5.  Tickets for all of her Bay Area shows are on sale now at LiveNation.com.

Lindsey Buckingham on "Morning Joe" MSNBC - Tomorrow

Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., serves as host of “Morning Joe” - On the show Thursday
Pat Buchanan, Donny Deutsch, Gillian Tett, Politico, Ken Burns, Goldie Hawn, Lindsey Buckingham, Simon Hobbs.

Website

Ron & Fez Show - SiriusXM
Also... Lindsey is apparently going to be on the Ron & Fez Show tomorrow... Not sure what time he's on or even what time the Ron & Fez show is on I can't find any info on either... Going by a couple of Tweets.

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

Mick Fleetwood channels musical legacy of Fleetwood Mac into his new namesake Maui restaurant

Fleetwood celebrates musical legacy, new eatery

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Long before the success of Fleetwood Mac, when band founder Mick Fleetwood was a kid in the U.K. learning how to play the drums, he dreamed of having his own restaurant. His parents entrusted the then 9-year-old with the stable of the old farmhouse they lived in, and young Fleetwood turned it into something of a children's speakeasy that he called Club Keller. Instead of booze, he poured Coca-Cola.

"I used to serve up Smith's crisps and fish and chips and stuff for other children to come round," the bearded rocker recalled during a recent interview, his eyes twinkling at the memory. "I had my radiogram and my drums in there and it was my world."

Now, five and a half decades later, Fleetwood is creating a new world for himself and his music: He's opening a restaurant in his adopted hometown of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Fleetwood's on Front St. is set to open early next year, and its namesake sees it as the next professional chapter in his life: A place where he can indulge his taste for fine food and drink (including his own Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar wines), perform with his friends and run the whole show. He plans to showcase local musicians and artists and invite the occasional famous rock star. The new establishment is essentially a large-scale, souped-up version of his old Club Keller.

"I've always wanted to do this," Fleetwood said on a visit to his manager's office in Beverly Hills. "I'm like one of those weird Chinese creatures where you see something 30 years ahead. It's petrifying and exciting and fulfilling, because... if you keep focused, and it's a corny thing, but if you visualize and visualize and visualize, a lot of stuff really does come to you."

Club Keller itself may actually be resurrected, said Fleetwood's business partner, Jonathan Todd. "We have an option on a smaller place downstairs and, if we get it, I swear we're going to call it Club Keller," Todd said.

Developing the restaurant is dominating Fleetwood's time. He helped choose the site (a historic building dating back to 1916 – the year his mother was born), select the décor and create the menu, but he insists "it's not a shrine to Mick Fleetwood."

"You'll know that it's my place but it will be very tastefully done," the 64-year-old said. "It's not a museum for Mick Fleetwood. This is a real working restaurant."

He says he'll draw on the "heritage of Fleetwood Mac" to inform its atmosphere.

"All of this is a responsibility to do it properly, and selfishly a responsibility to something that's very precious to me, which is everything I've done with Fleetwood Mac and my partners and the music," he said.

The restaurant has taken him away from music a bit, and he expects that to continue, but that's fine with him: "Now I will have a place to play when I want to or need to."

Besides Fleetwood Mac, the musician has two other bands, the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band and Mick Fleetwood's Island Rumours Band. With or without his bandmates, Fleetwood plans to play at the restaurant often – and there's at least one more Fleetwood Mac tour planned.

"We're going out next year," he said. "We're all creatures of habit and we love what we do.... Whatever has happened, we are together.

"The whole thing is powerful, and all of that is somehow resonating into what I'm doing with the restaurant, Fleetwood's," he continued. "It can't help but have that filtering through it. It's my place."

But as his beloved band slows down ("Within the next five to seven years, I sort of doubt that Fleetwood Mac is going to be horribly active"), Fleetwood said he's excited to devote himself to his new endeavor.

"It's a sense of plugging who I am and what I am into something," he said, "and for me it's the perfect vehicle."

SANDY COHEN AP Entertainment Writer

Fleetwood's on Front Street - Facebook Page

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

Sneak Peek: Cabo Wabo's Off The Record starring Mick Fleetwood and Nicole Atkins

Well!  This looks interesting!

The first look at Cabo Wabo's Off The Record video series starring Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac, and Nicole Atkins. Check back on October 11th for the full length video including tales of legendary nights on stage, epic songwriting sessions, tour secrets, and performance moments from Mick and Nicole.

Youtube Channel

Off  The Record is a music conversation video series presented by Cabo Wabo Tequila, the original rock 'n roll tequila. It shares tales of legendary nights on stage, epic songwriting sessions, tour secrets, as well as performance moments from featured artists. Off  The Record gives music fans a chance to get on the inside track of the biggest and emerging names in music.

Download or Stream today's WNYC Lindsey Buckingham Interview

By wnyc

If you missed Lindsey earlier today on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC in NYC, you can stream the interview above or download the podcast on the WNYC site HERE