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Palm Beach Post (FL), August 29, 1994

Section: ACCENT

OLD-PRO MASON CREATES SPECIAL NEW MUSICAL CHEMISTRY


SCOTT BENARDE Palm Beach Post Music Writer

Drummer Mick Fleetwood was exasperated. It had been nearly four years since Fleetwood Mac's last album - 1990's Behind the Mask - and it was time to replace some band members.

Again.

Since Fleetwood co-founded the band as an offshoot of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1967, he had seen at least a dozen members come and go. He watched the group evolve from a London-based, Elmore James-influenced electric blues band to an L.A.-based, folk-influenced pop supergroup.

He had spent months searching for the right musician to complete the band's latest lineup and kept coming up empty. Above all, he needed someone with passion.

``Anything without passion really is a dead issue, and anyone who's ever been in the band has had a real passion,'' Fleetwood says.

One choice was easy - replacing singer Stevie Nicks, who had developed a successful solo career, with sassy, soulful Bekka Bramlett. Bramlett's blood lines (the daughter of Delaney & Bonnie) and her experience touring with Mick Fleetwood's Zoo made her the obvious choice.

But Fleetwood and band co-founder John McVie also needed someone to fill the songwriting void left by Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and to musically complement guitarist-singer Billy Burnette, who has been with the band since 1987.

``I was flummoxed,'' English-born, L.A. resident Fleetwood says during a phone call from the road. ``I couldn't find that person. The band needed someone young and funky, but that felt desperate. I said, `Screw that. We're all getting into our 50s, let's find someone we all feel comfortable with.' ''

Fleetwood, 52, was only joking when he told longtime friend Dave Mason, 47, ``If things get much worse, I'll have to put you in the band.''

Mason's response - ``Oh, Mick, I'd love to do it'' - caught Fleetwood off guard.

So he reviewed Mason's work and realized Mason and Mac made sense. Buckingham admired Mason's music, Fleetwood says, adding that Buckingham's tune Second-Hand News was structurally influenced by Mason's Only You Know and I Know. That song had also been a Top 20 hit in 1971 for, guess who, Delaney & Bonnie.

The new line up - Fleetwood, McVie, Burnette, Bramlett and Mason - is detouring from its opening act slot on the current Crosby, Stills & Nash tour to play a series of Florida shows, including a sold-out show at the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach tonight. (Though no longer a touring member, singer and keyboard player Christine McVie continues to write and record with the group.)

The group performs a few Mason chestnuts including Dear Mr. Fantasy (from his days with Traffic) and Only You Know and I Know. The band is also road-testing new songs that probably will appear on the next Mac album set for release in '95. One is a Burnette tune.

The others are Mason compositions: The Bigger the Love and Blow by Blow. The latter, double entendre-titled song (with references to cocaine and boxing) is ``a positive message song'' about turning your life around, Fleetwood says.

``Both of us have had our ups and downs and crazy times,'' Fleetwood says of Mason. ``We went through some together, from being incredibly wealthy, then broke, then OK.''

Fleetwood adds, ``We're all behaving ourselves in this day and age. These are different days. We're all sober and clean and having a ball.''

He doesn't deny that some of their music profited from being under the influence.

``Do you get flashes of brilliance when you're two sheets to the wind? Yes. But we're playing in a way we haven't played since we were youngsters. It's a joy, and you can get up in the morning.''

All this still begs this question: How do Fleetwood and McVie maintain their own passion after 27 years of lineup changes, roller coaster success and running themselves ragged trying to keep the band together?

Funny you should ask, Fleetwood seems to snicker. Actually, it's a no-brainer.

``Why on earth would you want to go and look for another job?'' Fleetwood asks as if the very thought would mark a man insane. ``Why stop? We've been playing since we were 14 years old. This is what we do. My dream is this. What else would I do, run a green grocer store?''

So what's the chance this lineup can repeat the mega-success of the Buckingham-Nicks lineup of the '70s? You know, the Mac that produced the hits Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me, Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Don't Stop, You Make Loving Fun. Many of those came from the 1977 classic album Rumours, one of the bestselling records in pop history.

``Rumours will always be a bee in our bonnet,'' Fleetwood answers. ``Will we be the massive band of the '70s? Probably not. But can we make viable music we like doing? Absolutely.''

The desire to make the best music possible is one reason the band is on the road. Opening for CS&N allows the band to integrate the new players and check fan reaction to the new songs.

The band left the studio and an unfinished album to tour.

``We're supposed to be in the studio,'' Fleetwood says. ``We were getting studio fever. This whole tour is ostensibly with CS&N. We're doing very few gigs on our own.''

In 1974, Fleetwood Mac was halfway through an album with new additions Nicks and Buckingham when Fleetwood, who also managed the band at the time, abruptly decided to tour.

``Everybody thought we were crazy. But the only real way to (see what you've got) is to get in the hot seat in front of people,'' Fleetwood says. ``Few people knew who (Nicks and Buckingham) were, but they loved them. We went back and finished the album (Fleetwood Mac) with great spirit and the rest is history.''

Will history repeat itself? Early indications are encouraging.

``I believe we have a very interesting lineup,'' Fleetwood says. ``People don't know us and two songs into the set it's all over. Halfway through the set it's really all over. And that makes me feel good - and relieved.''