REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Nashville, TN February 27, 2019

The new Fleetwood Mac finds its groove at Nashville concert
Dave Paulson, Nashville Tennessean
Photos Larry McCormack - view more at The Tennessean

If you attended Fleetwood Mac’s last concert in Nashville back in 2015, there’s at least one moment that probably stuck with you.

In the middle of performing “Landslide,” Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham paused for a moment and held hands. The crowd roared at the gesture, knowing these two had weathered more than 40 years of ups and downs together, both personal and professional.

That audience would have cheered even more loudly if they'd known how the next few years were going to go.

Ahead of the legendary rock band’s latest tour — which stopped at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday — Buckingham and the rest of the band acrimoniously parted ways.

In concert, his absence is impossible to ignore (unless you’re the members of Fleetwood Mac, who didn’t so much as hint at his existence on Wednesday).

On the other hand, it’s a challenge that has reinvigorated the band as a live act, more than 50 years after it formed.

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.