Review: Lindsey Buckingham “Seeds We Sow” deserves to be heard

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow
(Mindkit Records)
3 ½ stars.
By Kevin O'Hare
Masslive

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham is on this list as one of the Top 10 guitarists in the game, and certainly one of the most underrated.

His solo career has included several outstanding efforts like “Go Insane” and “Out of the Cradle” that have also often flown under the radar. “Seeds We Sow” deserves to be heard.

Buckingham’s sixth solo album and first self-release, features plenty of his fretboard virtuosity, whether it’s the rippling acoustic beauty heard on the title track or the finger-picking wizardry that rises to the top of “Stars Are Crazy.”

For fans of the mighty Mac, Buckingham offers several selections that will evoke echoes of the band that brought him to fame, namely the rockin’ “Tusk” styled “One Take,” the uptempo “That’s the Way That Love Goes” and the hook-filled big throttle of “Rock Away Blind.”

Guitar aficionados will find a lot to like about the first single, “In Our Own Time,” while the disc finishes with an imaginative cover of the Rolling Stones’ “She Smiled Sweetly.”

Tracks to download: “One Take” “In Our Own Time.”

Chart Updates: UK | Australia | Netherlands - Buckingham | Nicks & Fleetwood Mac

Lindsey makes a soft landing on the UK Top 100 Albums Chart this week debuting with Seeds We Sow at # 82.  His last 3 albums on the UK charts entered at # 51 Out of The Cradle; # 154 Under The Skin; # 59 Gift of Screws.  In Australia, Fleetwood Mac continue to dominate the Catalogue Chart with 3 albums + Crystal Visions by Stevie Nicks.

UK - TOP 100 ALBUMS CHART
WEEK ENDING SEPT 17, 2011
# 82 (New) Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow" Debut

Top 40 Independent Albums Chart
# 12 (New) Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow" Debut

AUSTRALIA - TOP 50 CATALOGUE CHART
WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 (previous week in partenthesis)
# 11 (09) Fleetwood Mac "The Very Best Of"
# 14 (32) Fleetwood Mac "Greatest Hits"
# 25 (36) Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"
# 35 (35) Stevie Nicks "Crystal Visions"

AUSTRALIA - TOP 40 DVD CHART
# 32 (23) Fleetwood Mac "The Dance"

THE NETHERLANDS - TOP 50 CATALOGUE CHART 
WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 10, 2011
# 15 (16) Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"

Lindsey Buckingham Offers Up Seeds We Sow Tracks to GLEE Creator

Karma is at the center of Lindsey Buckingham's sixth solo album, Seeds We Sow. With the perspective that 40 years in the music business can give, the Fleetwood Mac guitarist feels he's still on the positive side of the karmic scale.

Excerpts from USA Today Article:

FLEETWOOD MAC

Buckingham hasn't missed "the big machine," he says. Instead, Buckingham has enjoyed splitting time between his new album and his family: wife Kristen, whom he married in 2000; son William, 13; and daughters Leelee, 11, and Stella, 7.

GLEE

A younger generation of fans was exposed to Fleetwood Mac classics on a May episode of Glee that featured six songs from the 1977 album Rumours, and fan interest sparked its re-entrance into the Billboard album chart the next week.

"The fact that all of that stuff seems to have worked its way into the fabric and crossed generational lines, obviously we've done our job properly," Buckingham says.

He says he has never seen Glee, but if show creator Ryan Murphy was in need of more material, he could have his pick of the tracks from Seeds We Sow, Buckingham says: "Just about anything on there is going to make sense for a young listener."

Rehearsal Video: Stevie Nicks NYC GMA "Landslide & "For What It's Worth"

I love this... It all seems so effortless... 

Also Available Rhiannon | Stand Back/Ghosts Are Gone

Photos: Stevie Nicks at PNC Bank Arts Center, 9/1/11

Full Gallery HERE

REVIEW: "Seeds We Sow" Lindsey Buckingham "simple melody enriched by incredible instrumentals"

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Seeds We Sow
Whitney Tolar

Fleetwood Mac fans get excited – Lindsey Buckingham’s new album, “Seeds We Sow,” is now available for download and as a whole, it is definitely praiseworthy.

Even for generations too young to remember Buckingham’s pre-solo career, the album should resonate with anyone who appreciates a simple melody enriched by incredible instrumentals on the acoustic guitar.

The overall tone of the album is nostalgic and tranquil, yet one or two songs stray slightly from Buckingham’s characteristically understated sound into a louder, fast-paced style that has a more rock 'n roll feel, which is not necessarily pleasant.

“One Take,” for example, is out of place in the otherwise calming collection of songs, but this does not detract from the quality of the album as a whole.

A few especially great songs are  “Seeds We Sow” and “End of Time.”

The album’s title track, “Seeds We Sow,” offers beautiful, intricate instrumentals on the acoustic guitar, creating a calming sound reminiscent of classic Fleetwood Mac.

This song is definitely the standout of the album, featuring subdued yet powerful vocals and touching lyrics making for a catchy melody that is sure to get stuck in your head (in the best way possible).

While the vocals and lyrics are impressive throughout, Buckingham’s awe-inspiring expertise on the acoustic guitar is what truly makes the album exceptional, unique, and definitely worth a download.

For the most part, “Seeds We Sow” maintains a refreshing folk sound few artists can achieve as well as Buckingham.

Review: New York Times - "Seeds We Sow"

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We sow
By JON PARELES

When Lindsey Buckingham sings, “I woke up in the middle of the night/with you on my mind,” it’s hard to avoid thinking he means his many guitars, acoustic and electric. Throughout his solo album “Seeds We Sow” (Buckingham Records) his fingers fly, often in layers of fast, restless finger-picking that he clearly couldn’t wait to assemble. He played, produced and mostly wrote the songs all by himself, except for one songwriting collaboration and a version of the Rolling Stones’s “She Smiled Sweetly.” While Mr. Buckingham obviously selected every buzzing or pinging guitar tone carefully, the production has the low-fi informality of a demo. He maintains the sense of pop melody he brought to Fleetwood Mac, and he sings in an expressively frayed latter-day version of his old high tenor. His lyrics philosophize about love, loss and passing time. But his guitar geekery is the album’s governing force, and it’s usually for the better.

New York Times

Lindsey Buckingham Interview Ahead of Tour Opening Night

For Lindsey Buckingham, there is the Big Machine and there is the Small Machine.

The Big Machine is Fleetwood Mac, the band he’s played with since 1975 alongside Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and, until recently, Christine McVie. The Small machine is Buckingham’s solo work, which will be thrown into the spotlight when he performs Saturday night at John Ascuaga’s Nugget.

It’s a symbiotic relationship, Buckingham said last week in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home.

“What happens with a group like Fleetwood Mac, is that it is a brand,” Buckingham said. “There’s an axiom in business where you define the brand, find the formula and you exploit the brand; then you use up that formula until it is used up and you move on, which is a great business formula.”

But, he points out, “It isn’t really a very good formula for someone aspiring to be an artist in the long term.”

Which is where the solo work comes in.

“The solo work, because it’s inherently for a smaller audience, it does sort of tap into the left side of my musical palate, because there’s nothing commercial to uphold,” he said. “It’s been the solo work that’s allowed me to maintain my ideals and to let me aspire to be the artist.”

Bukingham’s Nugget concert is the first night of more than 30 shows across the United States in support of his most recent solo album, “Seeds We Sow.”

Full Interview at Reno-Metromix

Review Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow" sheer gorgeous pop genius, highly recommended

Lindsey Buckingham
Seeds We Sow
Guy.com by Jeb Delia

"Buckingham continues to amaze with not just the technical brilliance of his guitar playing, but the sheer variety of different tones and stylings"

It’s surprising how easily Buckingham seems to slide back into the retro mode when there’s a Fleetwood Mac tour on the horizon. Yeah, the money’s good, but I doubt he needs it, and the man we meet in his solo recordings seems so content with his new life (happily married, three kids), that it feels odd to see him retreat back into the role of “touring past glories” hitmaker. Fortunately, though, neither domestic bliss or the glow of nostalgia are blunting his considerable talents as composer, producer, and guitarist.

On his third album in five years, Buckingham handles not only the writing and producing, but plays nearly every instrument himself, and self-released Seeds We Sow through his own new label. Perhaps more than any of his peers, Buckingham continues to amaze with not just the technical brilliance of his guitar playing, but the sheer variety of different tones and stylings: “One Take” is busy and blistering, “In Our Own Time” glows with shimmering harmonies, and “Rock Away Blind” recalls his clean, epic fretwork on Mac classics like “Go Your Own Way.” And while it can be argued that his old band’s turbulent times caused him to dig deeper with his songwriting than he does today, he’s still able to inhabit a song like “Stars Are Crazy” or “That’s The Way Love Goes” as though he were still burning with the flames that stoked the sexual carousel that was Mac in its heyday. For sheer gorgeous pop genius, highly recommended.