Former Fleetwood Mac leader goes his own way

by JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
9/24/2008

Tulsa World

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is warming up for a worldwide tour. He's unleashed his second solo album in as many years, "Gift of Screws," and is polishing up a canon of Fleetwood Mac favorites for this Tulsa tour stop.

None of his solo work sold anything approaching the level of Mac's "Rumours," but they are distinguished and layered pop albums. His contribution to the movie National Lampoon's Vacation, the infectious "Holiday Road," has become an indelible cult classic.

Buckingham's solo albums

"GIFT OF SCREWS"

Release date: Sept. 16, 2008. Including: "Great Day," "Wait for You," "Gift of Screws," "Bel Air Rain." Features Fleetwood Mac band mates John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

Said Buckingham in a recent interview: "This is probably the most rock 'n' roll album I've ever made. It probably sounds like I'm getting ready to break a string here and there."

Billboard magazine agrees, saying of the album (and of his current tour), "It's a louder, sunnier affair than 2006's intense, partly acoustic 'Under the Skin,' with a more rock 'n' roll vibe that su0used the entire show." Parts of an untitled album he was working

on were "pilfered" for Fleetwood Mac's 2003 release, "Say You Will."

"LIVE AT THE BASS PERFORMANCE HALL"

ReleasedMarch 2008. CD + DVD set was recorded in January 2007, in Fort Worth.

That stellar concert included songs from "Under The Skin" and "Holiday Road" as well as FleetwoodMac favorites such as "Go Your Own Way."

"UNDER THE SKIN"

Released 2006. Including: "To Try for the Sun," "Under the Skin," "Down on Rodeo."

It peaked at No. 7 on the Top Internet Albums chart in 2006. It was anointed in Uncut magazine's "50 Definitive Albums" and MOJO magazine's "50 Best Albums."

Wrote Rolling Stone: " 'Under The Skin' is a mesmerizing return to the side of Buckingham that birthed the proto-indie-pop strangeness of 1979's 'Tusk.' "

"OUT OF THE CRADLE"

Released 1992. Including: "Spoken Introduction," "Surrender the Rain," "All My Sorrows."

Crooned Rolling Stone: "Lindsey Buckingham lives in a wonderful world of sound, an aural playground where guitars shimmer and shriek, voices chirp and flutter and almost anything is possible for those who understand the magic of the recording studio."

"GO INSANE"

Released 1984. Including: "IWant You," "Slow Dancing," "Bang the Drum."

Often referred to as one of the most underrated albums in modern pop history, again Rolling Stone sang, " 'Go Insane,' Buckingham's second solo album, is a singular mix of '70s sheen and '80s edge, enormously inventive in every respect."

"LAW AND ORDER"

Released 1981. Including: "Mary Lee Jones," "Shadow of the West," "I'll Tell You Now."

The critics at Rolling Stone are unanimous: "Based on the evidence of 'Law and Order,' however, Lindsey Buckingham's biggest contribution to Fleetwood Mac has been his unabashed fondness for pop music at its most hokey and hooky – not just sculpting vocal harmonies but carefully designing each phrase to tickle some pleasure center, no matter what the lyrics happen to say."

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady St.

Tickets: start at $50, available at tulsaworld.com/GetTix or by calling (866) 443-8849. Each pair of tickets also wins a free "Gift of Screws" CD. Details at tulsaworld.com/LindseyBuckingham

Gift of Screws - LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM (Billboard Review)

Gift of Screws - LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM (Billboard Review)

 

Billboard Magazine

 

Lindsey Buckingham once sang about "Never Going Back Again," but he's backtracked—sort of—on his fifth solo album. "Gift of Screws" picks up where the rock auteur left off in the early days of this decade, before he was lured back into the Fleetwood Mac fold for 2003's "Say You Will." Mac minions will find this electric-flavored, band-sounding album pleasing, but there's also the avant ambience that's Buckingham's stock in trade. So while something like "The Right Place to Fade" knocks off Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" and the title cut (one of three recorded with the Mick Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section) is charging garage rock, "Great Day" sports the stark and primitive sonics of "Tusk" and Buckingham's early solo albums. —Gary

 

Graff

Chart Activity

Charts This week

Australia:

Fleetwood Mac's "The Very Best Of"

Re-enters the Top 50 at #50 (Sept 22nd)

United Kingdom:

Lindsey Buckingham's "Gift of Screws"

enters the Top 75 at #59 (Sept 21st)

Norway:

Lindsey Buckingham's "Gift of Screws"

enters the Top 40 at #17 (Sept 23rd)

The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band

Maui Weekly

A benefit concert for The MACC—plus dancing!

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center announces a special “MACC Benefit Concert” with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band in the Castle Theater, this Friday, Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m. This is a great opportunity for the Maui audience to catch the famous drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac with his talented blues-band members before the band heads off on a 20-city European tour in October!

The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band is comprised of Mick Fleetwood on drums, former Fleetwood Mac bandmate Rick Vito on guitar and vocals, Lenny Castellanos on bass and vocals, and Mark Johnstone on keyboards and vocals. The band was formed in 2007 as an ultimate homage to “the originators” of Fleetwood Mac. Mick wanted to build a band worthy of recreating the sound and emotions he recalled from the first days and first songs of Fleetwood Mac. Always an innovator, Mick wasn’t seeking to copy his original band, but rather pay it tribute by creating something both historically respectful yet new and reinvigorated. The result of this quest reaching back to the beginning and forward to today is the album Blue Again, representing the full circle of Mick’s love and contribution to the blues and the band that launched his career, while making him an iconic figure in music and pop culture.

In August 2008, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band headlined the Nottodden Blues Festival in Norway. With 40,000 attendees, the band was the instant favorite and received glowing press. This Friday’s benefit concert at The MACC is your chance to catch the band before they leave for their European tour!

Tickets for this special concert are just $25, with all proceeds to benefit the Maui Arts & Cultural Center arts and education programs. All seats are reserved in the orchestra level, and there will be a dance floor in front of the stage! Tickets are available at The MACC Box Office and online, or call 242-SHOW (7469) to charge by phone, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For patron convenience 24 hours a day, purchase tickets online at http://www.mauiarts.org/.

Lindsey Buckingham The Joint Las Vegas, NV September 20, 2008

Lindsey Buckingham
The Joint

Las Vegas, NV
September 20, 2008

The Orpheum Theatre Pics

Lindsey Buckingham
The Orpheum Theatre
Phoenix, CA
September 18, 2008
More Pics

Lindsey Buckingham Humphrey's By The Bay September 16, 2008

Lindsey Buckingham

Humphrey's By The Bay

San Diego, CA

September 16, 2008

More Pics

Fleetwood Mac’s studio mastermind fleshes out his solo sound with a band

By GEORGE A. PAUL
The OC Register

Lindsey Buckingham’s return to the Grove a strong one

Review: Two years since a solo acoustic gig there, Fleetwood Mac’s studio mastermind fleshes out his solo sound with a band.

For the Lindsey Buckingham completist, this was as good as it gets.

During an exceptional, nearly two-hour show Friday night at the Grove of Anaheim, the Fleetwood Mac singer-guitarist-studio-wiz touched upon virtually every facet of his lengthy career. Buckingham’s wife and young children were present, a likely catalyst for his relaxed and chatty demeanor.

Unlike the last tour – which arrived at the Grove in late 2006 – Buckingham indulged fewer guitar showcases alone. (See “Live at the Bass Performance Hall,” released earlier this year, for a fine example of that). His tight three-piece band this time out, including keyboardist-bassist Brett Tuggle (a veteran of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks treks) and guitarist Neale Heywood, rocked plain and simple.

Since Buckingham compositions were continually given over to the Mac, 14 years elapsed between his third solo disc, “Out of the Cradle,” and the mostly acoustic effort “Under the Skin.” But this past week the impressive “Gift of Screws” (a title based on an Emily Dickinson poem) arrived in stores – the veteran musician is definitely making up for lost time.

Buckingham employs a unique, self-taught finger-picking style on electric and acoustic guitars. The result is a distinct sound that can be a wonder to behold live.

In Anaheim, half of “Screws” comprised the 20-song set, kicking off with the churning new “Great Day,” where Heywood, Tuggle and their boss traded overlapping harmonies. (Click here for a complete set list.) Solo hits from the ’80s like “Trouble” and “Go Insane” were played back-to-back, each done in full-band mode. The former had a gorgeous rhythmic sweep; the latter, an almost country-rock vibe with cascading vocals from all three guys.

Evil Buckingham cackles, tribal drums from drummer Walfredo Reyes and ominous keyboards marked a wicked “Tusk,” with Tuggle triggering the USC Marching Band horns. That prompted the first of several standing ovations.

The evolution of 1987’s “Big Love” was described “an ensemble piece before I took leave of the band to relieve my sanity.” Buckingham, 59, said refashioning it for just voice and guitar became a template for future work. “I’d been living a narrow life” until I got married. “Now the song has taken on a sense of irony.” Watching Buckingham’s manic buildup and nimble fretwork on flamenco-styled guitar during that song never gets old.

One of the evening’s oldest tunes was “World Turning” from the Mac’s self-titled 1975 album. It’s been a frequent part of that band’s gigs ever since. The crowd didn’t have to endure Mick Fleetwood’s loony human percussion shtick here, but Reyes’ extended spotlight was clearly a tribute.

Some lighthearted moments occurred during the rarely played “It Was You,” a “rock nursery rhyme written for my kids,” as Buckingham described it. Halfway through the breezy tune, with more cascading vocals, his son and daughter tentatively strolled on stage to add percussion, proud papa beaming throughout.

Buckingham also pulled out the strange and bombastic “Come,” off the Mac’s shamefully ignored 2003 reunion effort, “Say You Will.” It was a “bathroom break” tune when I reviewed them at Verizon in ‘04, but fans at the not-quite-sold-out Grove stayed seated. (I would’ve picked something more melodic off that disc, such as “Bleed to Love Her” or “Steal Your Heart Away,” and given either one a tweak).

“Gift of Screws,” meanwhile, is chock-full of potential adult rock radio hits. The yearning first single “Did You Miss Me?,” with its memorable chorus, came across even better in concert, for instance.

Once Buckingham and company reached the home stretch, the audience was on its feet, wildly clapping along to exhilarating old “Rumours” faves “Go Your Own Way” and “Second Hand News.” All told, Buckingham proved he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Setlist:
Great Day / Love Runs Deeper / 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 / It Was You / Did You Miss Me / Come / World Turning / I’m So Afraid / Go Your Own Way

Encore: Second Hand News / Don’t Look Down / Treason

5th solo album for Buckingham

By Scott Iwasaki
Deseret News
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008

Lindsey Buckingham, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his band Fleetwood Mac back in 1998, said working on his fifth solo album was "effortless."

"When I did my last album, 'Under the Skin,' it was not a rock album," said Buckingham during a phone call from his home in Los Angeles. "There were no lead guitars, no drum and bass.

"With the new album ('Gift of Screws'), I came into it with songs that rocked," he said. "And that set the precedence."

From there, Buckingham let the music take the reins.

"While getting the songs together, there were a few other songs that I had written a few years ago that wanted to be part of the project. So I let them.

"It all came together easily, even though I was laying down tracks in hotel rooms on a little Korg mixer during my last solo tour," he said.

Making a solo album is a musical vacation for Buckingham.

"I don't have to make a CD for money," he said. "That's one of the luxuries I have with Fleetwood Mac.

"When I make a solo album, it's more to be away from Fleetwood Mac and examine the left side of my palette."

Still, Buckingham knows he will always be connected to the Fleetwood Mac machine. And he even has drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie as guests on his new album.

"They are on the recordings of some of the older songs that I had written for the album," said Buckingham. "The album is really a reflection of what I have done throughout my career. And having John and Mick on the album ties that part of my life into the project."
Still, another beauty of making a solo record is not having to answer to anyone but himself, said Buckingham.

"With a band there are politics," he said. "You have to work within a border. And that is challenging."

With that said, however, Buckingham said Fleetwood Mac will be doing some things next year.

"Stevie (Nicks) and I have been talking, and there is some good energy going through the band," he said.

"We've decided that we all need to be nice to each other," he said with a laugh.

Buckingham gets intimate at the Orpheum

by Michael Senft
Sept. 19, 2008
The Arizona Republic

With a new album in stores, Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham returned to the Valley on Thursday, Sept. 18 for an intimate, and loud, show at the Orpheum Theatre.

Although he played many of the same tunes and featured the same three-piece backup band, Thursday night was a sharp contrast from Buckingham’s recent Valley shows in ‘06 and ‘07, which were promoting his primarily acoustic Under the Skin album. This tour featured Buckingham in full guitar god mode, peppering his two-hour set with lengthy solos and plenty of rock star heroics.

The most notable difference came on his older solo tunes Trouble and Go Insane. Both songs have been deconstructed into acoustic numbers on recent solo and Mac tours, but they were given full-band electric treatments this year. And the bombastic Mac tunes which were a little subdued the last time around, blossomed into their chaotic glory - the only thing missing from Tusk was a marching band.

Even the solo acoustic Shut Us Down, from Under the Skin, seemed a bit more powerful.

Despite Buckingham’s new CD, Gift of Screws, only hitting stores on Tuesday, most of the audience was familiar with the material, including the maniacal title track and Did You Miss Me which Buckingham noted was his new radio single. He didn’t seem too confident that it would actually get any airplay, however.

Buckingham turned down the volume in the middle of the show, offering an acoustic set which covered such Fleetwood Mac faves as Never Going Back Again. Big Love - a middling Mac tune in its original full-band form on 1987’s Tango in the Night album, blossomed in the stripped-down setting.

After the acoustic interlude, Buckingham plugged back in and deafened the crowd with a brace of heavier Mac tunes. World Turning featured an intricate drum solo from Walfredo Reyes, while Come, from Mac’s 2004 album Say You Will, featured some snarling lyrics and even more vicious soloing.

But the climax was the majestic I’m So Afraid. The tune has been Buckingham’s showcase for 30 years, and he didn’t disappoint, delivering a 10-minute guitar solo that had the entire theater on its feet. The smash Go Your Own Way was almost a letdown afterwards.

After the high-decibel finale, Buckingham brought the crowd back to Earth with a low-key encore set. The Mac classic Second Hand News was performed in an acoustic band setting, similar to his last appearances, and Don’t Look Down , from Buckingham’s 1993 album Out of the Cradle, was a welcome return to his set.

He finished up the show with a final pair of new tunes, the full band Treason and the gentle Time Precious Time. Unfortunately by that point the casual fans were heading for the parking lot, having heard the Mac hits they came for.

A shame really, because those final songs provided the perfect coda to a spectacular show.

Setlist:
Great Day
Love Runs Deeper
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
I’m So Afraid
Go Your Own Way
Second Hand News
Don’t Look Down
Treason
Time Precious Time