Review: Lindsey Buckingham obliterates the concept of what a solo acoustic concert can be

The first is Lindsey Buckingham's One Man Show, a near-exact replica, right down to the between-song banter, of the program that the Fleetwood Mac frontman gave at the Lexington Opera House in November. Regardless of such a steadfast repertoire, this is a blistering set mostly because Buckingham obliterates the concept of what a solo acoustic concert can be.

One Man Show is not some folkie reinvention of Buckingham's music in and out of Fleetwood Mac. It is, rather, what its title implies: an unaccompanied rock parade that just happens to acoustic. From Buckingham's ageless vocal howl to guitar work that exerts itself with dizzying exactness, the record is steeped in frenzy.

It doesn't matter whether the music stews in the brooding intensity of Go Insane, Never Going Back Again and So Afraid or boils over with the hopped-up drive of Big Love, where the guitar runs sound positively caffeinated. Either way, Buckingham presents One Man Show as a restless joyride.

Big Mac faves make up roughly half the album, and Buckingham fleshes out the remainder with some genuine surprises. From the early '70s comes the pre-Fleetwood Mac instrumental Stephanie, One Man Show's lone statement of solace. But the real treats come by way of three tunes from Buckingham's underrated 2007 solo album, Under the Skin, highlighted by the bittersweet departure meditation Cast Away Dreams.

As of now, One Man Show is available only through iTunes.

by Walter Tunis at Kentucky.com

Warner Bros. releases Fleetwood Mac masterpiece 'TUSK' on 180-gram audiophile 2xLP vinyl

Fleetwood Mac – Tusk – Warner Brothers (1979)/ Reprise Records (2012) 531909- 180-gram audiophile.

In 1979, Fleetwood Mac recorded Tusk. At a cost exceeding 1 million dollars, and taking up two years in studio time, this double album was a significant departure. Under the artistic direction of Buckingham, the twenty-song project mixes a variety of musical styles in a fragmented technical whirlwind. Surrounding the concise songwriting of McVie and Nicks is the spontaneity of Buckingham. However, the anchor to this music is the inimitable rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. It is hard to think of another bass/drum partnership that is so fluent and cohesive. Side 1 opens with a subtle atmospheric number (“Over And Over”) that showcases McVie’s soulful alto, and the blended backup vocals. The next song is more experimental with Buckingham adding some New Wave guitar jaggedness. The juxtaposition continues with a buoyant love song (with impeccable harmonies) arranged in a joyful, British folk romp (“Save Me A Place”). The side concludes with Nicks’ ruminative “Sara”. Her deep-throated singing is compelling and the ethereal backup singing on the bridge is exquisite.

Full Review by Robbie Gerson at audaud.com

The 2 LP set is available on Amazon - $39.99

Now 64, Stevie Nicks still loves billowing skirts and spinning around in a shawl. For that, we admire her even more.

Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame. 

No other woman has so successfully managed to have a life in one of the best bands of all time, and go on to impress as a soloist with hits including Bella Donna and Rooms On Fire. All that, and she’s still the queen of rock ’n’ roll, 40 years after it all began in the early ’70s.

Read the full article in the Fabulous e-magazine. Also found free each Sunday in The Sun (UK)

New Interview: Stevie Nicks: the return of Fleetwood Mac

Stevie Nicks's tumultuous life as a rock queen led her to addiction, heartbreak and "insanity". As Fleetwood Mac reunites, she tells Caspar Llewellyn Smith why she's going back for more

by: Caspar Llewellyn Smith
The Guardian

Before I meet Stevie Nicks, I hear her. She is downstairs somewhere in the house she's renting on the beach in Malibu – a short drive, traffic allowing, up the Californian coastline from the two homes she owns in LA – and looking for her dark glasses. It's early evening in December and has long since turned dark outside, but if you're the ultimate rock goddess – NME's recent description, testament to an ongoing revaluation of interest in Fleetwood Mac among the younger generation – wearing shades at night goes with the territory.

Scented candles are spaced throughout the room and there's a well-thumbed copy of the first book in The Twilight Saga on a side table – signs that suggest that the 64-year-old singer is comfortably in residence. Plus there's her Yorkshire terrier, getting stuck continuously under my feet. But, as Nicks says, when all five feet one-and-a-half inches of her does emerge at the top of the stairs, she can't seem to settle.

In fact she shouldn't be here at all (and wasn't planning any interviews), but on holiday in the Florida Keys she was getting bitten to death by bugs and, besides, felt bored. Going home to either of her places in the city wasn't an option because right now she's "making a molecular change": parking her solo career, which saw her tour the world with her solo album In Your Dreams for the past two years, and getting ready for the return of the Mac.

Instead she asked to see if this place, which she'd rented previously, was available. "I'm trying to rest and it's really hard to rest because in either one of my own houses I feel like I should be working," she explains. "I've been coming here off and on for nearly 10 years and there's absolutely nothing for me to do except draw or sit and write poetry or bring the electric piano down." Problem is, "I've been here since Tuesday and I haven't managed yet to actually come up here at three in the afternoon and go sit on that miserable couch and draw for a few hours – because that's when I know I've made a change."

Despite the homely touches, the house looks perfectly nondescript from the outside, and it's modestly apportioned by the standards of LA rock aristocracy. But then Nicks doesn't play the diva either – kooky fan of fantasy, yes (her fondness for the oeuvre of Stephenie Meyer and liking for US fantasy TV series Game of Thrones fits right into that), but not the figure who insisted during Fleetwood Mac's Tusk tour that every hotel room she stayed in be painted pink and must house a white piano.

It is now 40 years since her first album, Buckingham Nicks – the fruit of her relationship, both musical and romantic, with Lindsey Buckingham – and life is coming full circle. Later this month, the most classic of all Fleetwood Mac albums, Rumours, gets the full reissue treatment, and the band will hit the road again for a US tour that will also likely come to Europe. (Of the rumours that they'll headline Glastonbury, Nicks is noncommittal, though she does say she'd love to do it.)

There is also the likelihood of the first new Fleetwood Mac record in 10 years – and even the prospect of a second Buckingham-Nicks album. For fans, this news is as exciting as it might sound improbable. Nicks once said herself that "to be in Fleetwood Mac is to live in a soap opera. And it has been pretty scandalous and incestuous…" And of all relationships, it's been that between her and Buckingham that has provided the richest story lines of all.

See @soundcitymovie in theatres One Night Only! feat. Stevie Nicks Lindsey Buckingham & Mick Fleetwood

See Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood on the big screen beginning January 31st.

"... Sound City is a film about American's Greatest unsung-recording studio. Deep in California's Sun Burnt San Fernando Valley, tucked away behind the train tracks and dilapidated warehouses, it was the birthplace of legend.  It was witness to history, it was home to a special few, intent on preserving an ideal. An analog church, a time capsule.  The last bastion of a craft defied by technology. It was Rock and Roll hallowed ground. And it was our best keep secret.  Sound City is a film about the truth, the craft, and the integrity of Rock and Roll." - Dave Grohl

Pre-order the movie through; soundcitymovie.com or iTunes - Release date Feb 1st.

US and Canadian Theatre Screenings for Sound City

In Theatres for On Night Only!  Check out Sound City for a listing of cities and theatres in the US and Canada to see the film.

Trailer:
Lindsey Buckingham:
Mick Fleetwood:


Sound City Soundtrack 'Real to Reel' 
Scheduled for release March 12, 2013, the sound track includes "You Can't Fix This" with Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins & Rami Jaffee

Pre-order the soundtrack on Amazon or iTunes

15 Years Ago Today in 1998 Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Fleetwood Mac is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the thirteenth annual induction dinner held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Sheryl Crow introduced the group.  The band played Landslide, Big Love and Say You Love Me.

INDUCTEES: Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Jeremy Spencer.

The Fleetwood Mac story is an episodic saga that spans more than 45 years. It is the saga of a British blues band formed in 1967 that became a California-based pop group in the mid-Seventies. In between came a period where Fleetwood Mac shuffled personnel and experimented with styles, all the while releasing solid albums that found a loyal core audience. Despite all the changes, two members have remained constant over the years: drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, whose surnames provided the group name Fleetwood Mac. Although most rock fans are familiar with the lineup that includes Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks – by far the longest-running edition of the band, responsible for the classic albums Fleetwood Mac and Rumours – the group possesses a rich and storied history that predates those epics. Earlier Fleetwood Mac lineups included guitarists Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Dave Walker, Bob Weston and Bob Welch. - Rockhall.com