Monterey Herald By Beth Peerless, Monterey Herald
POSTED: 09/21/16, 2:36 PM PDT | UPDATED:
http://www.montereyherald.com/arts-a...-fleetwood-mac
Where It’s At: Mick Fleetwood taps into the blues vibe that first created Fleetwood Mac
By Beth Peerless, Monterey Herald
POSTED: 09/21/16, 2:36 PM PDT | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO 0 COMMENTS
Blues fans! Whether you’re aware of drummer Mick Fleetwood’s deep history in the blues or not, having the chance to come out and hear blues done authentically and soulfully is an opportunity not to be missed. We’re lucky to have the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band appearing here in Monterey at the Golden State Theatre this Saturday night, playing original blues as well as performing music from the early form of Fleetwood Mac, before the group moved to the U.S. and brought Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham into the mix.
Formed in 1967 in London, England, Fleetwood Mac was an integral part of the blossoming blues music scene there that included John Mayall, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon and the Animals and, later on, Led Zeppelin. There are more big names in British Blues of course, but all of these artists went on to become big stars in the rock and pop world with their revolutionary take on the original Delta and Chicago blues performed by their idols such as Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and John Lee Hooker, among others.
“Well, there was a huge sociological shift in fashions any which way,” Fleetwood, 69, said in a phone interview from his Maui home in the hills. “It was so creative. It was like when people talk about Paris in the 1920s when just everything was alive in art and fashion and wild lifestyle. It was all about change. It was all about not conforming to what had been before. It was truly a renaissance vibration going on. And blues music was a boutique area in a huge landscape of creativity.”
There he hooked up with guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, and bassist Bob Bruning, before the eventual inclusion of bassist John McVie, to form a blues band that would achieve a United Kingdom No. 1 song in “Albatross.” Preceding Fleetwood Mac’s formation, Green played guitar with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, having replaced Clapton. McVie was also a member and Green, who had been in bands with Fleetwood before, lobbied to have him join, which he soon did. The nucleus of Fleetwood Mac began with Mayall, eventually splitting off and creating the foundation for the band’s long and convoluted history.
“It was perfect for me,” Fleetwood said. “I’m not a very complicated technician as a player. So I was perfectly suited to find a way to express myself in really more of a guttural level than a technical level. Which really, really was a perfect fit for me as a person and thus as a musician. London was ablaze with an exchange of information with musicians. We were so in the genre that I ended up blundering into, which was being around people with huge knowledge, enthusiasm, dreams of aspiring to go see some of the blues players. That’s the world I was brought up in when I was 16 years old.”
leetwood’s current blues band formed in Hawaii about 12 years ago. He invited former Fleetwood Mac guitarist/vocalist Rick Vito on board as musical director, and invited musician friends he had met when he moved to the islands about 17 years ago, bassist Lenny Castellanos and keyboardist Mark Johnstone. This is the core lineup that gets together to play when Fleetwood is not too busy with his “other band” Fleetwood Mac. Early on it was a neighborhood band, with all the players living on Maui. But Vito returned to live in Nashville for personal and professional reasons, although the band continues to perform live on the road.
A live recording titled “Blue Again,” was released in 2010, featuring a performance recorded at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri in February of 2008. The record earned a 2010 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. Fleetwood said the band is putting out another live album in the near future, recorded at the Belly Up in Solano Beach, near San Diego. Other than that, Fleetwood keeps busy with his restaurant, photographic art gallery and store in Lahaina.
“We did a short tour about three months ago,” he said. “We played the Bayou on the Bay Blues Festival in Brisbane, Australia. We put in about eight or ten shows, some in Australia, some in New Zealand. So we’ve been out there not too long ago for about three weeks. This tour is about a month, on and off, five shows a week. We’re busy. We’ve got 18 shows. So we do get out from time to time. This band mainly works here in Hawaii.”
Songs he said the band is sure to perform includes the classic Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac tune “Oh Well,” a powerful composition that veers in and out of talking blues and driving rock interludes. I consider this one of the all time blues rock gems that heralded what was to come from Led Zeppelin and other blues rock bands of the time. Also on the set list is “Rattlesnake Shake,” “Love That Burns,” and “Black Magic Woman,” later made famous by Santana, another rocker who originally played the blues. Other blues classics included are “Shake Your Money Maker,” and “When the Levee Breaks,” made famous by Led Zeppelin.
To wit, it’s important to remember how important the British Blues movement was to the growth in mainstream appreciation of the blues in America. It was fascinating to discuss with Fleetwood the zeitgeist of that era, and how the blues was an underground African American art form here until it was brought back “over the pond” by the Brits.
“Being connected, I don’t want any medals or anything,” Fleetwood said. “But it is true, and ironic, these funny little white dudes in Europe that saved an American art form almost entirely. And it actually is true. Sounds like an awfully aggrandized statement. But I’ve heard it from the best. B.B. King would often say, ‘Hey the reality is the black community itself and I get it.’”
While the name Fleetwood will most likely be recognized as a founding member of the mega huge rock band today still known as Fleetwood Mac, this show will hopefully illustrate the original side to the story that many are not familiar with. Long live the blues!