REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Charlotte, NC February 25, 2019

At Fleetwood Mac show, Stevie Nicks confuses North and South Carolina. Or... something.
BY THÉODEN JANES | PHOTOS JEFF SINER
Charlotte Observer

Stevie Nicks was threatening to steal the evening, as can tend to happen when Stevie Nicks is in your band.

Not that there’s anything wrong with what the rest of Fleetwood Mac was doing on Sunday night at Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

It’s just that, well, Christie McVie — as remarkably velvety as her voice still sounds, relatively speaking, at 75 — isn’t much of a showwoman; and Mick Fleetwood — while he still seems to be having oodles of fun beating on the drums and shouting “WoooOOOOOOOooooo!,” at 71 — is perhaps too much of a showman, so that his manic persona almost feels like a schtick; and John McVie — I mean, he still can tickle the bass authoritatively, at 73 — but he now blends into the scenery as much as the band’s lesser-known seventh, eighth, and ninth men.

As for Lindsey Buckingham replacements Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, I’ll get to them in a minute.

But for now, like I was saying, it’s kind of hard to take your eyes off of Stevie Nicks. Or your ears.

Something about the way she drifts around the stage, twirling 360 degrees on her toes, shaking her tambourine to what seems like the beat of her own drum, waving her hands like a madwoman — it’s almost like everyone else is performing a show for middle-aged couples in button-down shirts and dressy blouses while Nicks is at Burning Man riding a pot-brownie high.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Columbia, SC February 22, 2019

Without Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac Offered as Many Gems as Duds
Fleetwood Mac ripped the bandaid right off.

By Jordan Lawrence
Free-times

The bass drum started that familiar thump, keying one of classic rock’s most recognizable slow builds, forming into the bittersweet anthem “The Chain.” But on this night, it wasn’t guitarist Lindsey Buckingham yowling out the opening number’s searing rejoinder — “And if you don't love me now / You will never love me again / I can still hear you saying / You would never break the chain.”

Friday in Columbia, New Zealander Neil Finn, best known for his time fronting Crowded House, took lead vocal duties. He and former Tom Petty backer Mike Campbell joined Fleetwood Mac following Buckingham’s dismissal last year. Finn never quite mustered the frenzied indignation that gives the song its spark, making for an uneven start to an equally uneven concert, one that offered stirring highs and frustrating missteps in equal measure.

Regardless of whether they feel they were justified in firing Buckingham, Mac’s remaining core of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie broke the chain. And while their new hires brought impressive skills to the table, their insistence — displayed during “The Chain” — that they could sub Finn and Campbell in without losing anything marred some of the band’s best songs. It also made them seem like entitled jerks.

Stevie Nicks Stand Back Collections Available This Spring From Rhino

Release Date Fri, 03/29/2019

STEVIE NICKS STAND BACK 
ULTIMATE COLLECTION CELEBRATES ICON'S SECOND ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION

Career-Spanning Collections Outlining Nicks' Entire Solo Catalog Available On 3-CD, 1-CD, 6-LP Vinyl, And Digital Versions This Spring From Rhino

PRE - ORDER HERE: STAND BACK

LOS ANGELES - Stevie Nicks makes history in March when the beloved singer-songwriter becomes the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice - first as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 1998, and this year for an extraordinary solo career that spans nearly 40 years.

To honor Nicks' groundbreaking achievement, Rhino has assembled a variety of new releases that celebrate her solo career with essential recordings chosen from studio albums, live performances, and soundtrack contributions, plus several of her most-celebrated collaborations with artists including Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Don Henley, Lana Del Rey, and Lady Antebellum.

STAND BACK will be available on March 29 from Rhino as an 18-track, single-CD ($14.98) collection. Accompanying versions will be released through digital download and streaming services on the same day. STAND BACK: 1981-2017, a 50-track, 3-CD version ($34.98) will then be released on April 19, followed by a 6-LP vinyl version ($109.98) on June 28.

In 1981, six years after joining Fleetwood Mac, Nicks went solo for the first time with her debut Bella Donna. A massive success, it sold more than five million copies in the U.S., topped the album charts and produced four hit singles, including her signature anthem, "Edge Of Seventeen." More platinum albums followed - The Wild Heart (1983), Rock A Little (1985), and The Other Side Of The Mirror (1989). Music from all eight of Nicks' studio albums are included in the set, from Top 10 hits like "Stand Back" and "Talk To Me" to "The Dealer" from her latest, 2014's 24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault.

On STAND BACK, those solo tracks are joined by Nicks' memorable collaborations with other artists, including "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, "Leather And Lace" with Don Henley, "You're Not The One" with Sheryl Crow, and "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems" with Lana Del Rey.

Beyond Nicks' work as a recording artist, STAND BACK also explores her career on stage with outstanding live recordings, including performances from her 1981 Bella Donna tour ("Dreams" and "Rhiannon"), and her 2009 live album The Soundstage Sessions ("Sara" and a cover of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me.") Rounding out the collection are several of her contributions to film soundtracks, like "Blue Lamp" from Heavy Metal and "If You Ever Did Believe" from Practical Magic.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live at Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL February 18, 2019

Review: Fleetwood Mac, remade and re-energized, salutes Tom Petty at Tampa's Amalie Arena
It was a homecoming of sorts for Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, who along with Neil Finn replaced Lindsey Buckingham in the band.

Review and Photo by Jay Cridlin
Tampa Bay Times

Most reviews of a legendary rock band that’s been around half a century don’t lead with the replacement guitarist who joined last year.

But this is Florida, and the heck if we’re not kicking it off with Mike Campbell.

"I gotta say, for myself personally, it’s so good to be back in the state of Florida where I grew up," the Fleetwood Mac guitarist -- man, that still sounds so weird -- told 17,000 fans midway through Monday's sold-out concert at Amalie Arena in Tampa. "Orlando, Jacksonville and of course Gainesville, where I started my band many years ago with my friend Tom."

And with the ovation that followed, the Heartbreaker hero removed his hat, bowed, and, in his first Florida show since Tom Petty’s death, ripped through a version of the vintage Mac cut (and Heartbreaker favorite) Oh Well that would’ve made his late bandmate proud.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Tampa, FL February 18, 2019

In Tampa, Fleetwood Mac survives a slow start and hypnotizes a sold-out Amalie Arena
Gold dust and rust can coexist, right?

BY RAY ROA | PHOTOS KAMRAN MALIK
Creative Loafing View Photos

Forty-five minutes. That’s approximately how long many Fleetwood Mac fans waited before heading to the facilities during the band’s sold-out, Monday night show at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.

The exodus happened as Christine McVie and Crowded House’s Neil Finn (one of two newly minted Mac-ers) dusted off an old Fleetwood Mac cut from Kiln House. The band rarely played the song until last year. In fact, it’s been nearly half a century since the album it was pulled from was released.

But last night was as good a time as any to find new levels of nostalgia.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in New Orleans February 16, 2019

A reborn Fleetwood Mac showed all its strengths during sold-out New Orleans concert
BY KEITH SPERA
The Advocate | Photos: Jeff Strout

Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks had just concluded “Gypsy” on Saturday at the Smoothie King Center when guitarist Mike Campbell stepped to the microphone.

“She is our gypsy!” Campbell enthused.

He didn’t say, “She is Fleetwood Mac’s gypsy.” Instead, he used the first-person plural possessive, “our.”

That Campbell felt comfortable enough and empowered enough to count himself in that "our" spoke volumes about his status in Fleetwood Mac. The Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers alumnus, as well as Crowded House singer/guitarist Neil Finn, joined the band last year to replace the fired Lindsey Buckingham.

But as Campbell’s comment illustrated, and as the whole of the two-plus hour performance demonstrated, he and Finn are not simply stand-ins. They are fully ingrained members of a new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, the latest of many roster re-configurations.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in NOLA February 16, 2019

Fleetwood Mac’s New Orleans gig proves yesterday’s not gone at all
By Doug MacCash | Nola.com
Photo Dinah L. Rogers

Fleetwood Mac summoned the magic of the 1970s at the Smoothie King Center on Saturday (Feb. 16) with a string of hits that are wound into the musical DNA of multiple generations.

I was late to Saturday’s concert, but it didn’t take long for Stevie Nicks to put the squeeze on my heart yet again with her fragile, girlish voice, as she sang “Landslide." Nicks' melancholy contemplation of the passage of time probably seemed more profound than ever to her audience, many of whom had silver hair that shone like snow-covered hills. 

Before the song, Nicks had congratulated guitarist Neil Finn (a newcomer to the band) on the imminent arrival of a grandchild. 

But, as anyone in attendance will tell you, the years have not dimmed the band’s passion or musicianship. Mick Fleetwood attacked his array of drums and cymbals as athletically as in days of old, Christine McVie’s understated vocals still poured from beneath her shaggy bangs as unwaveringly as ever and Mike Campbell (an alumnus of the late Tom Petty’s band who is replacing Lindsey Buckingham on the current tour) provided the soaring symphonic leads the band’s classics demanded.

The group closed the concert with “Go Your Own Way,” Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow,” a trio of anthems that seemed to capture the sweep of the band’s tumultuous half-century career (the group’s personal and professional ups and downs are legendary).  

Fleetwood Mac (whose original members have all entered their eighth decades) ended their New Orleans show with a wistful duet by Nicks and McVie called “All Over Again,” that left no doubt that they wouldn't trade their long experience together. “Let's stop before it's too late,” the venerable rockers sang, “and leave it all up to the fates, ‘cause in spite of the heartaches and troubles in love, I'd do it all over, I’d do it all over again.”

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Birmingham, AL February 13, 2019

What happens when Fleetwood Mac says bye-bye Buckingham?
By Mary Colurso
AL.com

Photos: By Joe Songer

Fact: It takes two people to replace Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac.

Opinion: Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did a fine job of it on Wednesday night at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena in Birmingham.

Confession: It’s difficult to evaluate the current incarnation of Fleetwood Mac without taking note of Buckingham’s absence. He made an indelible mark on the classic rock band during its heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, defining much of the music as a guitarist, songwriter and singer. That’s not to diminish the contributions of the other band members -- Fleetwood Mac made its fame as a complex and multi-faceted piece of machinery -- but to say that Buckingham mattered. He definitely mattered.

Now that Buckingham is absent from the roster -- he was fired by the other band members, filed a lawsuit, settled it and recently underwent emergency heart surgery -- Fleetwood Mac is a less thorny outfit. That can be regarded as a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. Creative tension fueled the band at its peak, and Buckingham was a key instigator of it.

At Wednesday’s performance, the four remaining principals -- singer Stevie Nicks, singer and keyboard player Christine McVie, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood -- collaborated on stage in a polished, congenial, ultra-professional way. Nostalgia ran high during their 8:15 p.m. set, which featured 22 songs and lasted for more than two hours.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Austin, TX February 9, 2019

Fleetwood Mac Goes a New Way at Frank Erwin Center
Slow start aside, don’t dream it’s over

The Austin Chronicle
By Doug Freeman | Photos David Brendan Hall

When Fleetwood Mac rolled through Austin in 2015, Lindsey Buckingham provided the spark for the now half-century-old institution. With the longtime guitarist now unceremoniously fired, the double-axe add of Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty mainstay Mike Campbell has received mixed reviews.

As irreplaceable as Buckingham, 69, may be, Fleetwood Mac’s new lineup ultimately proved a worthy evolution over the two-and-a-quarter-hour, 22-song showing this past Saturday night – even after a far from stellar beginning.

Working through a heavy dose of Rumours to start, hits “The Chain,” “Dreams,” and “Second Hand News” all spun out lethargically. Granted, nearly every song from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers struck familiar to the rafters-packed Erwin Center. Nevertheless, the kickoff run churned rote and uninspired.

The switch flipped six songs deep, as the core sextet – Mick Fleetwood, 71; John McVie, 73; Stevie Nicks, 70; Christine McVie, 75; Finn, 60; and Campbell, 69 – reclaimed founding F-Mac guitarist Peter Green’s “Black Magic Woman.” Nicks enchanted on lead with one hand gloved in lace and the other leather, but Campbell lit the fire as he worked the stage and guitar throughout the jam, ultimately pulling up next to Christine McVie’s keys, hat reverentially in hand.

REVIEW FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN AUSTIN FEBRUARY 9, 2019

Fleetwood Mac makes way without Buckingham at Erwin Center
By Peter Blackstock | Photos Photos: Ana Ramirez
Austin360

Last year’s trademark Fleetwood Mac drama that led up to the group’s current tour had already been plenty: the dismissal a year ago of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who then took legal action that was settled out of court. But the day before the tour pulled into Austin for Saturday’s Erwin Center show, word circulated that Buckingham had undergone emergency open heart surgery a week ago.

Buckingham’s reportedly recovering, though there’s concern about possibly permanent vocal cord damage. At 69, he’s the youngest of the five musicians who recorded the mid-1970s classic “Rumours” and “Fleetwood Mac,” which together sold more than 25 million copies and eventually put the band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Recasting Fleetwood Mac without him was a challenge, though he’d been absent from the group for an extended stretch before, and Fleetwood Mac’s 52-year history is interwoven with significant lineup changes. Drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, keyboardist Christine McVie and singer Stevie Nicks welcomed Crowded House leader Neil Finn and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell into the fold for this tour, which began last fall and continues through September of this year.

How’d it work? Well, mixed results. There are moments when they clearly miss Buckingham. Finn’s a fine singer and did his best on indelible Buckingham imprints such as “Second Hand News” and “Monday Morning,” though it was hard not to think of them as a Buckingham cover band in those moments. Finn couldn’t hit Lindsey’s high notes on “World Turning” (a Buckingham/Christine McVie co-write), though he seemed fully up to speed on “The Chain” and “Go Your Own Way,” definitive Fleetwood Mac numbers that bookended the main set.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Dallas, TX February 7, 2019

Fleetwood Mac played a landslide of greatest hits at Dallas concert, sans mention of Lindsey Buckingham
Guidelive.com
By Tiney Ricciardi

Fleetwood Mac's split with Lindsey Buckingham marked one of the biggest breakups of 2018. But if the iconic rock band's longtime guitarist and vocalist was missed Thursday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas, it wasn't obvious. 

Fans packed the venue, floor to rafters, for a two-hour journey through a collection of Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits. Throughout the show, the group proved to be an indomitable and engaging force, despite missing one of its core members.

Guitarist Mike Campbell (Tom Petty's Heartbreakers) and vocalist Neil Finn (Crowded House) joined singer Stevie Nicks, keyboardist Christine McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitar player John McVie, expertly filling in the musical spaces left behind by Buckingham, who is said to have left over creative differences. Only once did any of the members seem to acknowledge their former bandmate, though they stopped short of mentioning of him by name. 

"What a crazy, magical ride it is, this band Fleetwood Mac," said namesake drummer Fleetwood about halfway through Thursday's set, addressing the crowd before turning to Campbell and Finn. "We're absolutely overjoyed to welcome you to the band."

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Dallas, TX February 7, 2019

Yesterday’s Gone, But Fleetwood Mac is Still Here
CODY STARR | Photo: Mike Brooks
Dallas Observer

If you were to make a short list of bands that shaped music during the post-Vietnam era of the 1970s, Fleetwood Mac is arguably in the top five. While Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles and a host of others were easily holding down the rock ‘n’ roll, Fleetwood Mac found massive success on the pop end of the spectrum.

Having just acquired the romantically involved duo of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood’s band hit pay dirt with their 1975 self-titled album and topped it with 1977’s Rumours, which is one of the best-selling records of all time. Despite the commercial success, the band’s 50-year history of strife and dysfunctional behavior has resulted in numerous lineup changes. That tradition continued last year when Buckingham was fired just before the group embarked on their tour. With big shoes to fill, Fleetwood and company went big by enlisting the help of Mike Campbell (lead guitar of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and Neil Finn (lead vocals/guitar of Crowded House).

Thursday night, the newly revamped Fleetwood Mac lineup played to a sold-out American Airlines Center. Mac kicked off the show with longtime opener “The Chain.” Mick Fleetwood’s kick drum thumping in the darkness, joined by that signature guitar intro and reaching a crescendo with those big Fleetwood Mac harmonies belting, “Listen to the wind blow…” started the night off perfectly.