Soundstage Release Date Pushed Back 3 Weeks

There seems to be a bit of a set-back on the release date for Stevie's Soundstage DVD. Initially it was to be released in August (I believe), then it was pushed back to September 9th, now Amazon is showing a release date of September 30th.

No details have surfaced as to the reason for the push back.

Christine McVie / Fleetwood Mac Mention by Bob Lefsetz

Bob Lefsetz is the author of "The Lefsetz Letter." Famous for being beholden to no one and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself.


1. Sugarland "Love On The Inside"

Sales this week: 171,383
Percentage change: -45
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 485,117

You could say this is the power of a number one single, the positively inane "All I Want To Do".

You could say that country fans haven’t learned how to download.

You could say that this is the power of the Nashville barons over their format.

I’ll say it’s the power of rock and roll.

Sugarland is a real band, with real songs. Not manufactured by some men behind the curtain, pulling the strings. One thinks of Fleetwood Mac… A bunch of journeymen who finally found the right formula. Christine McVie wasn’t the best-looking girl on the block, but her understated emotionality got under your skin and made you want to get closer to her, not to fuck her, but to be her boyfriend. Similarly, there’s something about Jennifer Nettles that give you the impression she’s been rode hard and put up wet. But it’s just those miles that intrigue us. She’s had to use more than her looks to get by, her feminine wiles.

People want songs played by real musicians that they can sing along with. Never forget that. Everything else is a fad.

Alternate Promo Pic

Alternate take to one of Stevie's 07/08 promo pics appears on Margi Kent's website. Margi has been making Stevie's stage clothes since the mid to late 70's.

"Did You Miss Me" Streaming at Lindsey's Site

Lindseybuckingham.com front page over haul that includes a stream of the first single
"Did You Miss Me".

Uncut's Gift of Screws Review

"Gift Of Screws" Review
by: John Mulvey
Wild Mercury Sound
2008-08-05

As previously reported, Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham has enlisted the help of band members Mick Fleetwood and drummer John McVie on at least two of the tracks for his forthcoming fifth 'solo' album 'Gift of Screws.'

The three of them have worked on tracks, including the album's title track and one called "Wanna Wait For You" and John Mulvey has just filed his first preview of the album:

Residual indie prejudices can be tough to shake off and, for me, one lingered longer than most: a profound distrust of Fleetwood Mac. I read all the essays about them – and especially about Lindsey Buckingham – where they were extolled as great emotional confessors and discreet musical radicals. But their records always seemed to me the epitome of hollow decadence, redolent of a certain air-conditioned, blow-dried Hollywood vulgarity, the criticism of which is now every bit as clichéd as the original material.

Not for the first time, of course, I was wrong.

Interestingly, though, the record which provided me with a gateway into Fleetwood Mac was the last Lindsey Buckingham solo album, 2006’s “Under The Skin”. Mainly solo and acoustic, it foregrounded both the meticulous and slightly odd way in which Buckingham constructed songs out of pristine guitar flurries, and the emotional heft which he could still locate, even as a contented, middle-aged family man.

The opening “Not Too Late”, for instance, might be one of the more moving instances of a mulit-millionaire superstar grumbling about his lack of credibility I can recall, as he begins, “Reading the paper saw a review / Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew.” You would’ve thought that selling more records than virtually anyone else on the planet in the past 30 years might have provided some kind of consolation. But I suppose one of the reasons Buckingham is so interesting is the way he manages to juggle a desire for artistic integrity with an innate commercial imperative, and how a very heartfelt lyrical character can co-exist with an incredibly fastidious musical style that can so easily sound bloodless.

“Gift Of Screws” sees all these diverse aspects of Buckingham in full effect. The title, my little Wiki helpers inform me, was originally given to a Buckingham solo album from the late ‘90s which was never released. Songs from that have been dispersed across the last solo album and Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Will”, as well, presumably, as this one, though I’m not clear on whether they’re re-recordings.

I’m not clear because, of course, I know comparatively little about this whole business, but also because Buckingham’s music exists in such a glorious vacuum. What I can tell is that “Gift Of Screws” is the perfect next step for neophytes like me drawn in by “Under The Skin”. There are some gorgeous minimalist pieces that would have sat perfectly on that last record, most notably the rippling, systems-like acoustics and yelps of “Time Precious Time”, which presents Buckingham as an unlikely father figure to the Animal Collective.

Then there are a bunch of tracks where he’s backed up by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, that sound, by his standards huge but relatively unfussy, and betray a desire to re-engage commercially and reassert himself as a serious rocker. Consequently, “The Right Place To Fade” and “Love Runs Deeper” have big swirling Fleetwood Mac-like choruses, and also a weirdly aggressive punch, characterised by Buckingham’s flash and excitable soloing on the latter: not out of control, exactly, but at once fiery and – perhaps more menacing – utterly precise.

“Wait For You” is a sort of hygienised but still compelling cousin to “Gimme Shelter”. And the title track is a supercharged, vigorously-focused rocker – with Fleetwood and McVie again onboard – which features Buckingham repeatedly cackling like a deranged rooster. It’s very odd, and very good, too.

So anyway: I have a bunch of old Fleetwood Mac albums, I’ve a soft spot for “Tusk”, but does anyone fancy guiding me straight to the stuff I might like best?

John Mulvey

Bumping Into Geniuses (Danny Goldberg on Stevie Nicks)

Danny Goldberg who started Modern Records with Paul Fishkin and Stevie Nicks back in the early 80's has a new Tell-All Book coming out....

Goldberg worked with Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Warren Zevon and Bonnie Raitt, among others, and tells stories about working with Stevie Nicks, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Hanson.

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A giant of the music industry grants an all-access pass to the world of rock and roll, with mesmerizing stories of thirty-five years spent working with legends from Led Zeppelin, to Stevie Nicks, to Nirvana.

Danny Goldberg has been a hugely influential figure in the world of rock and roll. He did PR for Led Zeppelin; he managed the career of Nirvana; he ran Atlantic Records, Mercury Records, and Warner Bros. Records; he launched Stevie Nicks’s solo career. In Bumping into Geniuses, Goldberg shares his stories about performers who represent a broad and powerful portion of the psychic real estate of the rock and roll kingdom: Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, KISS, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Hole, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Led Zeppelin, and more.

But there’s more to this story than just Goldberg’s varied career. It’s also a look at the industry itself: a business that was neither the romantic vehicle for self-expression that its most naive fans imagined, nor the purely crass money machine depicted by its most cynical critics. It was complex and chaotic—a mixture of art and commerce, idealism and selfishness—and sometimes, rock’s most gifted and influential musicians were able to transcend it all.

For anyone interested in the rock and roll industry, or simply the mores and temperaments of the musicians themselves, Bumping into Geniuses is an incredible insider’s tale that only Goldberg could tell.

About the Author

Danny Goldberg is president of Gold Village Entertainment. He has worked in the music industry since 1969, including his years as chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records and Mercury Records.