Mick Fleetwood hopes Stevie Nicks will find time to contribute to new Fleetwood Mac music

Mick Fleetwood says new Fleetwood Mac music 'profound,' hopes Nicks contributes
By Nick Patch - Canadian Press

TORONTO - Mick Fleetwood says he hopes Stevie Nicks will ultimately find time to contribute to the new music Fleetwood Mac is recording — which could ultimately form the band's first album in nearly 30 years with its entire principal lineup intact.

Chris Young,The Canadian Press

The newly reformed rock titans — who welcomed keyboardist Christine McVie back into the fold for a tour that hits Toronto on Saturday and other Canadian cities in the coming months — went into the studio "many months ago now" to work on new material, Fleetwood said.

Lindsey Buckingham has called the new material "profound," an adjective that Fleetwood agreed with enthusiastically.

"It is profound. It's great," said the 67-year-old drummer Thursday in an interview in Toronto. "The four of us went in ... and had a lot of fun — for Chris, just reconnecting, playing music, with no particular thought in mind.

"I hope it becomes part of something that will make sense. But (bassist) John (McVie), Lindsey and me and Chris, we were all participating. So it's exciting."

The band's last album of new material was 2003's "Say You Will," but the last to feature the band's most successful five-piece lineup was 1987's "Tango in the Night."

Asked whether Nicks would eventually be involved in the recording, Fleetwood replied: "We hope so."

"Right now we've got this tour to do and it's very time-consuming so we'll see," he added. "It will come out one way or another."

Mick Fleetwood Talks Fleetwood Mac Tour, His New Book And Photography Exhibit

Mick Fleetwood is in Toronto ahead of Fleetwood Mac's show on Saturday night. He spent some time today at the Liss Gallery for interviews to promote his REFLECTIONS: THE MICK FLEETWOOD COLLECTION. This is an exhibition of original photographs taken by Mick himself.  The exhibit runs until October 31st.  So if you are in the area of 140 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto... Check it out!

CANADA AM 

In Canada, Mick will be on CTV's Canada AM on Friday October 16th where the rock legend opens up about Stevie, the tour, his art and everything in between. Tune in at 8:30ET.

 Photos by: Liss Gallery, Courtney Miceli, Kevin Sweet, Genevieve Peters

Mick Fleetwood Talks Fleetwood Mac Tour, His New Book And Photography Exhibit
By Sarah Kurchak
Huffington Post Canada

"I'm what is known as a very busy bee," Mick Fleetwood says as he ponders his multidisciplinary schedule over the phone from New York City.

In the few short breaks that Fleetwood Mac's current tour – which features the newly returned and much-missed vocalist and keyboardist Christine McVie – offers, the drummer and backbone of the legendary rock group will be keeping his dance card full with a series of book store appearances to promote his recently released autobiography, "Play On."

And when he’s not doing that, he’ll be exhibiting his photography in a series of gallery shows across the continent. "Reflections: The Mick Fleetwood Collection" is currently showing at Toronto’s Liss Gallery. Fleetwood will be appearing at a private reception for collectors on October 17, the night before Fleetwood Mac’s Air Canada Centre show.

It would be a punishing schedule for a musician half his age, but the 67-year old Fleetwood isn't daunted by the prospect. Other than the current cold he's nursing, he figures he's in great shape.

"Outside of today, I think I'm blessed with being fairly fit and I take care of myself. And I don't like hanging around. I’m not good with it. I'm always twiddling my thumbs. So, in, theory I got what I asked for."

Besides, the work is keeping him happy as well as busy. Having the beloved McVie back with the group after a 15-year absence is as magical for Fleetwood and his bandmates as it is for their fans.

According to Mick, the tour is going "brilliantly. Totally Brilliantly. And with huge amounts of emotional gratitude. It's pretty amazing, the whole accumulation of all of these things that one could have never imagined a year and a half ago. It's been going just beyond anything one could have really wished for. The audience, you can tell, feel like a huge extended version of the way we're all functioning. Which is a state of just really genuine excitement as to what really is all happened here.”

Fleetwood is also thrilled to be taking his photography on the road with him. He's been taking pictures for decades. In fact, he was first turned onto the art form by fellow Fleetwood Mac member John McVie when the pair shared a house together in England. But it's only within the past few years that he's felt confident and accomplished enough to show his work.

"It took me a while to say 'I'm OK at doing this,'" he admits. But he was also like that when he started drumming. "Which is all probably to do with childhood and not being confident about presenting things. I was terrible at school, so I found things that I loved to do and started one step at a time. And that’s how I've approached this."

At one point, Fleetwood wasn't even particularly confident talking about his musical skills. "And then I realized that I was actually pretty good at drumming," he laughs.

He started showing his photography in his adopted home of Maui, and then branched out with a show in LA. Now he's jumping in with his current gallery tour, which he says will hit "about 10 or 12" different cities along the way.

The primary focus of his work, which blends more traditional photography with textural hand-painted enhancements, is nature. He’s willing to entertain the notion there’s a touch of environmental activism in his work, influenced by his life and friends in Maui.

"There’s a lot of work done on the island to keep it beautiful. And it really affected me. I do my best to go and surround myself with people who, quite frankly, were far more aware of ecology and all of those things while I was rocking and rolling my life out here."

There's also a deeply personal aspect to many of the photos, which he shot in England before his mother permanently left her home to join him in Maui.

"It was memories of something my mother was moving away from, at the grand old age of 90," he recalls. His mother is now 97, and can't see as well as she used to, but she still proudly displays some of his photos in her new home.

While the musician is touched by the response his work has received so far, from both his mom and others, he doesn't expect – or want – people to like his work just because of who he is in the musical world. He’s actually welcoming the fresh and unbiased response that comes with starting from scratch in a new medium.

"We know people love our music and we never take it for granted, but the risk factor with presenting something personal that you've done really put your nuts on the line, and I enjoy that part of it," he says. "The whole artistic creative process is about that, it’s about sharing and getting something out in the open. And the person who's presenting it, it actually gives them a new perspective on a lot of things. That you can function in a different world is exciting."

Fleetwood expects that his bandmate Stevie Nicks will get a similar level of enjoyment out of her 24 Karat Gold exhibit of Polaroid self-portraits, which will also be running during their tour.

"In the old days, me and Stevie were Polaroid freaks and she got really, really good at doing these time delay, funky, personal shots," he recalls. "And we would sometimes spend hours setting up a room with what she was going to wear or photographing a pair of ballet shoes. Back then it was weird, fun stuff we did on the road and now, to see it coming out so beautifully presented is so cool. I think she's going to have a lot of fun with it, as am I, to sort of be in another world. It’s a really nice thing."

Fleetwood says he's trying to talk Nicks into showing her paintings in the future. He'd also like to see some of McVie’s old shots from their roommate days in a gallery at some point.

And when he's not busy trying to talk his colleagues into joining him in the art world, he’ll be continuing to work on his own gallery shows. The current tour is, he's hoping, is only the beginning.

"I didn't know there would be such enthusiasm to tell you the truth. It's quite flattering. So we're just getting our feet wet, to see how it goes and apparently it’s going incredibly well.”

'Reflections: The Mick Fleetwood Collection' is at the Liss Gallery in Toronto until October 31. For more information, visit www.lissgallery.com

Review | Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac Live in Philadephia, PA October 15, 2014

Fleetwood Mac Live in Philadephia, PA
October 15, 2014
Wells Fargo Center

 Photos by Lori M. Nichols - View Gallery

Fleetwood Mac at Wells Fargo Center: What you missed
by Lori M. Nichols - South Jersey Times

PHILADELPHIA — Fleetwood Mac returned to Philadelphia Wednesday night, touring together as a full band for the first time in 16 years.

Christine McVie re-joined band mates Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks for their On With The Show tour.

The crowd at the Wells Fargo Center was excited to hear the multi-Grammy Award®-winning band perform together once again, and while nearly everyone was standing as the band took the stage, Christine McVie received a special welcome from not only the concert-goers, but each band member throughout the night.

WHAT YOU MISSED

• Singer-songwriter and vocalist Christine McVie's return to Fleetwood Mac after retiring from the band following The Dance tour in the late '90s. The crowd gave her an overwhelming welcome when she performed the second song of the show, "You Make Loving Fun," and despite a 15-year absence from the stage, her warm vocals really shined in "Little Lies." 

• The distinctive voice of Stevie Nicks isn't what it used to be, but that's not to say it's a bad thing; it's just different. At 66 years old, she stills delivers powerful performances in "Seven Wonders," "Gold Dust Woman" and "Silver Springs." The simplicity of "Landslide," with Nicks joined onstage by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, was almost haunting with her raspy voice.

• While it was definitely Christine McVie's night, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham stole the show. His solos, "Big Love" and "Never Going Back Again," were full of energy, and it was entrancing to watch his finger-picking throughout the night. But Buckingham seemed to mesmerize the crowd with his guitar solo in the 9-minute long "I'm So Afraid" and belted out the lyrics with such a strong voice you couldn't help but stop and just take it all in. 

• The band paid homage to McVie's return by beginning the show with "The Chain," a rousing song about unbreakable bonds that would've had the crowd quickly on their feet if they hadn't been already.

NOTES AND MUSINGS

• Stevie Nicks definitely got into character during "Gold Dust Woman," seemingly in a trance as she slowly danced across the stage. At the end of the song, she raised her arms like a bird spreading its wings, showing her silhouette through her shimmering gold shawl as the spotlight shone down on her at center-stage.

• While it would be nearly impossible to replicate the high-intensity, full-volumed "Tusk" without the benefit of the USC Marching Band playing alongside Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham led the group in a pretty energizing version of the song. The group wasn't remiss about tipping their caps to the marching band however, as videos of the tuba-carrying and trumpet-toting collegiate band played on the large screen behind them.

• Drummer Mick Fleetwood couldn't stop smiling all night long, and seemed as happy to be onstage as a kid in a candy store. He really impressed concert-goers as he performed the majority of his drum solo during "World Turning" with his eyes closed.

• The entire band put their all into "Go Your Own Way," the last song before a duo of encores. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks really worked the stage, and the crowd absolutely loved it.

Concert review: Fleetwood Mac wows boomers in marathon Philly show with Christie McVie
by Ed Condran
Mcall.com

After kicking off a two-and-half-hour tour de force of a concert aptly with "The Chain"’ a song about unbreakable bonds, Lindsey Buckingham beamed and looked to his right.

“And now the beautiful Christine is back,” the vocalist-guitarist said just before Fleetwood Mac delivered “You Make Loving Fun.”

The capacity crowd at the Wells Fargo Center Monday night roared as the band kicked into the tune’s opening notes. The classic configuration of Fleetwood Mac, which will return to the South Philly venue Oct. 29, was back performing in the area for the first time since it played what was known as the Tweeter Center in Camden in September of 1997.

Vocally McVie and her counterpart, the beguiling Stevie Nicks, have to dial it down. The former is 71 and the latter is 66. What they lack in range, they make up for in character. Fleetwood Mac still has it. It’s just different than it was in ‘97 and especially than it was during the summer of ‘77 when the band’s breakthrough album, "Rumours," was ubiquitous.

Fleetwood Mac wowed the enthusiastic crowd with cuts from the emotional "Rumours,"the second biggest selling album of all-time, and a plethora of other hits.

"Go Your Own Way," "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" sated the boomers.

Buckingham, the young buck in the band at a mere 65, stole the show. The thin as a rail fingerpicker riveted the crowd with an emotional "Big Love." His fiery solo and his electric play in general impressed.

“I think he’s been off stage for 30 seconds tonight,” drummer Mick Fleetwood declared.

That’s not much of an exaggeration as the rest of the veteran group took considerable time off during the marathon show. But Buckingham looked like an old school punk pogoing across the stage and grunting, groaning and screaming throughout the night.

McVie, who was MIA since ‘97 due to her fear of flying, was rough around the edges vocally but she’s been out of the game for nearly 20-years.

Nicks and her unique husky voice and subtle gestures made songs such as "Seven Wonders" and "Gold Dust Woman" haunting and compelling. Whenever Nicks would spin like she did a generation ago, fans shrieked.

Fleetwood made like it was 1977 with a wild drum solo.

But it was the hits and the charm of the band that made the night. Nicks, who has always been a great storyteller, often stopped to drop anecdotes. “In the beginning Lindsey and I lived in San Francisco and there was this amazing store (the Velvet Underground) which had incredible clothes and all of the rock and roll women with money shopped there like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick. I remember thinking that when I make it, I’ll shop at that store and I did. If you do believe in your dreams, they can come true.”

The wild success of Fleetwood Mac enables Nicks to shop anywhere and it also gave the band considerable creative freedom to craft some of the most enduring songs from a generation ago.

"We’ve started a new and poetic chapter with Christine,” Buckingham said. “It’ll bear much fruit.”

Mick Fleetwood's Hat Trick... Fleetwood Mac Drummer in town for show and show of photos

Fleetwood Mac’s Drummer in town for show — and show of photos

Toronto Star
by Trish Crawford

Drummer juggling photo show, autobiography and world tour.

At 67, Mick Fleetwood has lived through what he calls “a whirlwind world”: the ups and downs of being in a famous band, drug and alcohol addictions, three divorces.

But he’s come out the other side and, in the case of the band, been given a second chance. Fleetwood Mac, which Fleetwood founded alongside John McVie in 1967, has just launched a world tour that includes the 1975 Rumours- era lineup of Fleetwood, McVie, his ex-wife Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. It brings them to the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.

“Once that door opened, it was like a fairy tale,” Fleetwood said in an interview. “The shows have been beyond anything. To be in the house with that atmosphere, it is a whole new level of enthusiasm.”

The tour is just one of the good things happening to Fleetwood right now.

In Toronto, he will also visit Yorkville’s Liss Gallery, which is showing his photographs until Oct. 31. There is an invitation-only reception with Fleetwood on Friday evening.

Titled Reflections, the photos are landscapes that have special meaning to Fleetwood, either from England, where he was born, or Hawaii, where he now lives with his mother, who is 98.

Available October 28, 2014
Mickfleetwoodofficial.com

And then there’s his autobiography, Play On, whose title refers to a line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “If music be the food of love, play on,” which is also advice he gives to fans about pursuing their musical passions. It’s being released Oct. 28. Writing the book, which took 21⁄ years, was a so 2 bering experience, he said. “I have lived a crazy life with mucho grando amounts of alcohol pouring through my veins, but I don’t do that anymore. Oh, I have a glass of wine. But I’m not the Mad Hatter.” When he was writing the book with Anthony Bozza, he asked his first wife, Jenny, with whom he still has a close friendship, to help him edit it and provide her account of their time together.

“I went through a whirlwind world, you went with it all. But I had no malice, I never had that. In spite of the end result, I meant no harm,” he said of his three divorces. There was no proper work/life balance and spouses were neglected, he said.

“I was a guy on a mission in a Walter Mitty world, naive truly.”

His photography, inspired by the work of American photographer Ansel Adams, has allowed him to be “calm, thoughtful.”

All of the photos are personal, said Fleetwood: “selfishly, they mean a damn to me.”

One, a road vanishing in the distance, causes him to ponder: “What are you doing with your life?”

Another photo, titled Medusa, is of a twisted tree outside his mother’s home in England that looks like “a lady’s body.”

“These are my songs,” said the drummer, who didn’t write songs for the band.

He connects one particular photograph to the revival of Fleetwood Mac, a picture of two swans. “Swans live for a long time, they are a lifelong pairing. Do you know how precious that is? My father and mother had a lifelong relationship. It’s a massive accomplishment,” he said. Being able to stand onstage again with Nicks, Buckingham and the McVies, “We had a second chance and we got it right, like those swans. It is a state of grace.” Their current concerts end with Christine McVie at a piano playing “Songbird,” the songbird returned. The group has been performing to sellout crowds and rave reviews. Despite past comings and goings, some of them rancorous, the band members have made their peace with the past, Fleetwood said, and are family again. “How cool is this?” laughed Fleetwood. “We got a second chance to have a higher form of friendship.”

Fleetwood Mac Ticket Pre-Sale Begins Today

Fleetwood Mac: On With The Show Presale Passwords

New Interactive Fleetwood Mac eBook Biography Available Now

A new eBook based on a long-out-of-print authorized biography of Fleetwood Mac was recently 

released via Apple's iBooks store and iTunes.  Before the Beginning: A Personal and Opinionated History of Fleetwood Mac , by author Sam Graham , tells the band's story from its late-'60s origins as a U.K.-based blues outfit through its Rumours -era heyday as one of the world's most popular pop-rock acts.

In putting together the eBook, Graham revisited his 1978 publication Fleetwood Mac -- The Authorized History , and added multimedia content with help from artist and illustrator Kirsten Huntley .  The eBook includes 30 digitized audio clips from cassette-tape interviews the writer conducted with Mick Fleetwood , Stevie Nicks , Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie ; former Fleetwood Mac members Jeremy Spencer and the late Bob Welch ; and early producer Mike Vernon .

Before the Beginning also offers scanned images of letters sent between Graham and ex-Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis , autographed photos, notes from conversations Sam had with Mac bassist John McVie and founding lead guitarist Peter Green , and a timeline of the band's history from 1967 to 1983.

With regard to what's included in the text of the eBook, Graham notes, "The Lindsey-Stevie era is by far the longest and most productive, but they had an inspiring and tumultuous prior history, so that's in there too.  We tried to satisfy both those who knew there was a Fleetwood Mac before 'Rhiannon' or Rumours and those who didn't."

Before the Beginning is available on iTunes for $4.99.

Congrats to Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold enters Billboard Top 200 at No.7 (6th Top 10 Album)

Rock legend Stevie Nicks nets her sixth top 10 solo album, as her quasi-archival release 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault set starts at No. 7 (33,000). It’s her 13th top 10 album (combining Fleetwood Mac and solo releases). The set consists of newly-recorded material that was written and recorded in demo versions in earlier years. 24 Karat Gold follows Nicks' In Your Dreams, which debuted (and peaked) at No. 6 back in 2011 (52,000 sold in its first week).

Full article at Billboard

Billboard have published their charts for October 25th... Here's where Stevie and Fleetwood Mac fair on the latest U.S Charts.  Big move for Rumours up to No.83 from No.164.  On the Catalogue albums chart Rumours is back in the Top 5 at No.4.

BILLBOARD TOP 200 - October 25, 2014
#     7 (New) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault
#   83 (164)  Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 121 (177) Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 148 (175) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of

TOP 25 DIGITAL ALBUMS CHART
# 10 (New) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault

TOP 50 CATALOGUE ALBUMS CHART
#   4 (30)   Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 12 (36)   Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 22 (34)   Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of
# 50 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

TOP 25 ROCK ALBUMS CHART
#  3  (NEW) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Out Now! Order from Stevienicksofficial.com

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham On The Group’s New Album Plans

by Jim Fusilli
The Wall Street Journal

Extending their tour into 2015 won’t deter Fleetwood Mac from recording what might become their first album in almost three decades of new songs composed by Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks.

During a telephone conversation last week, Buckingham said McVie had presented him with demos of her new compositions. “Piano and voice,” he said. He brought them back to his studio in Los Angeles. With McVie’s approval, he added, “I took massive liberties with them.”

Nicks was “otherwise engaged. A running commentary these days,” he said, perhaps referring to preparations for her exhibition of her self-portrait photography now ongoing at the Morrison Hotel galleries in Los Angeles and New York as well as the release last week of “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault,” her album of new versions of old, mostly unfamiliar compositions. “Christine and I were able to concentrate on each other,” Buckingham said. “We were exploring some new turf. That became enlightening to me.”

With Christine McVie back in the band for the first time in 16 years, Fleetwood Mac will be on the road through next March. “We never envisioned finishing the album in the short term,” he said. “We set it aside. Stevie will come in and participate. I have material I had been working on. There’s no danger that it will slip between the tracks. It’s too profound to.”

Buckingham hinted the band might tour behind new material. The current “On With The Show” concert tour features only songs from Fleetwood Mac’s hit-making era from 1975 through 1987’s “Tango in the Night,” the last album to feature Buckingham, McVie and Nicks with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

“Once we finish it,” Buckingham said, “we can think about going out and trying something new.”

As for the vibe now among the quintet with Christine McVie back on board, he said, “It’s a very interesting thing when someone who helped to define the interaction leaves for that amount of time. You don’t know how it’s going to play out. But this something that feels really good. It feels really circular.”

Article from The Wall Street Journal

Reviews | Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac Live in Pittsburgh October 14, 2014

Review: Return of McVie gives Fleetwood Mac show a nostalgic boost

By Kellie B. Gormly
Triblive
October 15, 2014

Photos: Jack Fordyce - View More at Triblive

Watching Fleetwood Mac on Tuesday night at Consol Energy Center felt like a high school reunion.

Christine McVie — after a 16-year absence — rejoined her former bandmates, providing her unique voice to songs from the 1970s and ‘80s that she helped to define.

McVie joined Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and other band members for a 2 1⁄2-hour “One With the Show” tour stop. McVie, a British singer and songwriter, filled the void that had been left in Fleetwood Mac for the past decade and a half.

The audience gave McVie a warm ovation, and it got to hear some Fleetwood Mac hits the band just couldn't do without her, like “Everywhere,” “Say You Love Me” and “You Make Loving Fun.” The added songs eliminated some of those Nicks' solos that had filled much of the setlist on recent tours.

Both McVie and Nicks, 60-something blonde beauties, still look glamorous and sound great, and their voices have not changed much. Both still have that highly distinctive and opposing sound.

Nicks still does her trademark shtick, as she stretches out her arms and twirls during “Gypsy.” At other points in the show, she wore a black magic hat and a glittery gold shawl. Nicks thumped her tambourine, with streaming pieces of decorative fabric, as McVie shook her maracas and played the piano.

Nicks also let the crowd in on some background stories about the origins of the songs and Fleetwood Mac's history.

With his guitar, Buckingham tore through songs like “Big Love” and “I'm So Afraid” with an in-your-face intensity that left him breathless, but energized the audience.

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Newark, NJ Oct 11, 2014

Don’t Stop: Fleetwood Mac Bring The Classics to Newark, N.J.
By Brian Ives
Radio.com
October 13, 2014

“Why don’t they just retire?” It’s a question often posed by cynics about legendary rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s who continue to tour, and are able to charge hundreds of dollars per ticket. Obviously, that cynical question doesn’t take into account the system of capitalism and the rules of supply and demand: if people want to pay for something, the market isn’t wrong to provide it for them. If people want to see a rock band — enough people, say, to fill three arena shows in the New York area in less than a week — why should a band call it quits?

Of course, music fans see music as more than just business, it’s art. And most fans have probably experienced at least a few band’s concerts, concerts that take place long after the magic is gone, the performances perfunctory. Many genre-specific bands — heavy metal groups, goth bands, punk rockers — may have a hard time convincingly performing angst-ridden anthems that they in their 20s, many decades and royalty checks ago.

Fleetwood Mac is not one of those bands.

Fleetwood Mac’s Oct. 6 concert was a robust recitation of familiar tunes from the group’s commercial glory days

New Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll

By Jim Fusilli
The Wall Street Journal
October 14, 2014

Veteran rock artists are left with two honorable choices on how to extend their concert careers: play old music with renewed vigor, or perform new music with a sprinkling of old hits in the mix. Last week Fleetwood Mac took the first approach at Madison Square Garden, while Robert Plant—who could have filled an arena—took the second approach at a much more intimate venue, Brooklyn Bowl.

Fleetwood Mac’s Oct. 6 concert was a robust recitation of familiar tunes from the group’s commercial glory days of 1975-87. Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass remain the supple spine of their namesake band, founded in 1967. With Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks out front and the return of Christine McVie after a 16-year absence, the lineup from the act’s years of pop stardom was together again.

Playing material it hadn’t touched since her departure, the core quintet, backed by five musicians and singers, appeared energized. In a phone conversation on Friday, Mr. Buckingham, who at 65 is the youngest member of Fleetwood Mac, said working again with Ms. McVie has revitalized the band.

At the Garden, Ms. McVie’s songs retained their feathery center, and her burnished-by-the-blues voice was flawless on a dreamy “Over My Head.” Mr. Buckingham’s guitar snaked around her as she sang “You Make Loving Fun,” a bit of mid-1970s funk.

A fan favorite, Ms. Nicks seemed by turns delighted and detached, but her “Seven Wonders” was a highlight. Her compositions “Rhiannon” and “Gold Dust Woman” provided the springboard for some of the evening’s best instrumental exchanges, in which Mr. McVie was a revelation. A busy bassist who never intrudes, throughout the evening he provided buoyant support for the vocalists. In “I’m So Afraid,” the lone song in the set that nodded toward the group’s early days as a blues-based dynamo, he and Mr. Fleetwood rumbled in tandem, reviving one of rock’s sweetest sounds while Mr. Buckingham soloed furiously.

From the Garden stage, Mr. Buckingham spoke of Fleetwood Mac as a “band that continues to evolve.” There wasn’t much evolution on display during the 24-song performance, but he was looking ahead. He and Ms. McVie have recorded new material; when the tour concludes at the end of March 2015, he expects Ms. Nicks will bring songs to the studio and a new Fleetwood Mac album will emerge. Then, he added, the band can think about performing its latest songs in concert. Though the rabid audience at Madison Square Garden would probably disagree, Fleetwood Mac could use a touch of the new to avoid the perception that mining the past is all it can do.

REVIEWS: Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold "A beguiling collection of songs"

Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault
by Brian Boyd
Irish Times
★★★★ out of 5 stars

A selection of old demos, some stretching back to the 1960s, the eighth studio album by one of the voices of Fleetwood Mac is one of the best things she has ever done. With perspective, she sings these songs with a lovelorn resignation, imbuing them with a rare sense of pathos and philosophical regret. Lady is a rueful, self-doubting ballad while Starshine is turbo-charged FM rock. Nicks’ voice is always a thing of wonder; from easy-listening Laurel Canyon-type stylings to fuzzed-out rock and electrified folk, she can handle anything. On the standout Blue Water, she sounds as forlorn as early Gram Parsons, while I Don’t Care is blues rock perfection. Contemporary retrospection this may be, but she gets to the emotional core of almost everything here. A beguiling collection of songs.

Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music
★★★★ 1/2 stars out of 5

With the subtitle "Songs from the Vault," you'd be forgiven if you thought 24 Karat Gold was an archival collection of unreleased material and, in a way, you'd be right. 24 Karat Gold does indeed unearth songs Nicks wrote during her heyday -- the earliest dates from 1969, the latest from 1995, with most coming from her late-'70s/early-'80s peak; the ringer is a cover of Vanessa Carlton's 2011 tune "Carousel," which could easily be mistaken for Stevie -- but these aren't the original demos, they're new versions recorded with producer Dave Stewart. Running away from his ornate track record -- his production for Stevie's 2011 record In Your Dreams was typically florid -- Stewart pays respect to Nicks' original songs and period style by keeping things relatively simple while drafting in sympathetic supporting players including guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Davey Johnstone and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell. It's certainly not an exacting re-creation of Sound City but Stewart adheres to the slick, hazy feel of supremely well-appointed professional studios, so 24 Karat Gold has a tactile allure. Sonically, it's bewitching -- the best-sounding record she's made since 1983's The Wild Heart but, substance-wise, it's her best since that album, too. If there aren't many remnants of the flinty, sexy rocker of "Stand Back" (the opening "Starshine" is an exception to the rule), there's enough seductive, shimmering soft rock and the emphasis on Laurel Canyon hippie folk-rock feels right and natural. Retrospectively, it's a surprise that Nicks sat on these songs for years, but that only indicates just how purple a patch she had during Fleetwood Mac's glory days. It's a good thing she dug through her back pages and finished these songs, as she's wound up with one of her strongest albums.

Album review: 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault by Stevie Nicks
Yorkshireeveningpost
by James Nuttall

Fleetwood Mac may have just started a mammoth tour of the United States, their first with songbird Christine McVie in 17 years, but Stevie Nicks has still managed to release a new solo album, this month.

24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, is a collection of 14 songs from Nicks’ enormous back catalogue of demos that never made it onto her records- songs which were written between 1969 and 1995.

Recorded over a three-month period, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart was once again on production duties. After producing her last album, In Your Dreams, which was something of a let-down both musically and lyrically compared to 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, 24 Karat Gold makes much more of a statement than both of the aforementioned releases.

This may be, in part, due to Nicks herself also producing the record, with the help of long-time collaborator Waddy Watchel, who featured heavily on her early solo albums.

The reason this record has much more of an impact than her more recent albums, is possibly because each of the 14 tracks follow the same theme. In the liner notes, Nicks states: “ Each song is a lifetime. Each song has a soul. Each song has a purpose. Each song is a love story… They represent my life behind the scenes, the secrets, the broken hearts, the broken hearted and the survivors.”

Kicking off with the Rolling Stones-esque Starshine, Nicks’ unmistakeable nasal voice remains as constant as her chiffon scarves and platform boots.

Next up is The Dealer, which was demoed for both her first solo album, Bella Donna, and her third, Rock A Little. Finally making it onto 24 Karat Gold, it is very similar to the superior first version, demoed for Bella Donna.

Other fine up-tempo tracks include I Don’t Care, the token snarling ‘rock-out’ moment, which features at least once on most of Nicks’ solo records; and Cathouse Blues, more honky tonk in flavour.

That being said, this album’s finest moments take shape in the form of its darkest tracks. The title track begins with a pounding bassline, and goes into a haunting piano rhythm and jarring guitar part from Mr Watchell, as Ms Nicks sings about the chains of love.

Mabel Normand is another highlight on the record. Originally demoed for the Rock A Little album in 1985 – a time when Nicks was paying the price for her years of cocaine abuse – it documents the life of the silent film actress it is named after, who had the same substance battle several decades before. It becomes clear that Nicks is writing about Normand and herself in the song, as she sings: “She did her work, but her heart was quietly crying. I guess she even felt guilty about even dying.”

Gorgeously simple ballads, such as If You Were My Love and Hard Advice, nicely juxtapose the rockier material on the album.

24 Karat Gold is probably the most consistently fine selection of Nicks’ self-penned material since her 1983 album, The Wild Heart. A fine selection of similar yet different songs, each holding their own within this album, which is not something that could be said for Nicks’ last solo effort.

This is a real insight into the last 45 years of the life of one of the most unique and mystical talents there has ever been. Nicks has held nothing back, this time.

Check out more reviews on 24 Karat Gold HERE

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Out Now! Order from Stevienicksofficial.com