2012 tour reviews

[wondergirl9847]

I cannot believe there are no Fort Worth reviews. I've looked at the Star Telegram site and nada.

[michelej1]

Review Tue Aug 28 2012, Gapers Block
http://gapersblock.com/transmission/...s_city_winery/

Review: Lindsey Buckingham @ Chicago's City Winery (and a Look at the New Venue)

By Dan Snedigar

The Chicago outpost of New York's City Winery has sort of been slowly rolling out the welcome mat over the past three weeks with a flurry of soft-opening and press events, a week's worth of Lewis Black shows, and a few musical acts to break in the venue. Last night, the second of two sold-out shows by legendary guitarist Lindsey Buckingham provided a great opportunity to really see how the new venue is settling into Chicago's musical landscape.

First, the venue itself. Chicago's iteration of City Winery represents the "2.0" version of New York's City Winery, the creation of Michael Dorf, founder and long-time CEO of legendary jazz and rock venue The Knitting Factory. Building on the success of the New York outpost, Dorf brought the concept to Chicago, where it has been fully realized in a very heavily re-purposed warehouse space on Randolph Street, just west of that area's burgeoning restaurant zone. Intended to be something of a one-stop shop for your nightlife needs, City Winery incorporates a large restaurant, several informal lounge areas, various spaces that are intended to serve as flexible private areas, and a functioning winery that will soon take its first delivery of grapes and begin serving its own house wines early next year. Attached to the attractive public spaces is a roughly 300-seat well designed "listening room" that will feature mostly musical acts, booked by Old Town School alum Colleen Miller. While the restaurant, lounge, and winery spaces are perfectly nice, it is the venue that makes City Winery unique in Chicago, and in this way, it is less filling a niche in a town with an already vibrant musical scene, than finding its own way.

The venue is in some ways a throwback to cabaret style, with relatively low seating density and full food and beverage service at tables that radiate and extend out from a small semi-circular stage in the front of the room. Sight lines are excellent, with all paying customers afforded a reasonably clear view of the stage. Production has been kept reasonably simple, with ample front lighting and some colored LED wash lighting providing simple and effective lighting of the stage. The sound system is, again, reasonably simple, yet ample and well-designed, providing excellent coverage throughout the room. While the sound for the jazz combo the evening of their soft-opening press event was somewhat mushy towards the middle and back of the room, the sound for Lindsey Buckingham's paying crowd was excellent. Overall, City Winery ought to prove perfect for a certain kind of show; The Empty Bottle it ain't, but with an already interesting slate of shows booked, it can probably find a home, as last night's show proved.

Buckingham, who will always be inextricably known for his contributions to Fleetwood Mac, opened his show talking about balance, and the contrast between what he called "the big machine" (Fleetwood Mac) and "the small machine", that being his solo efforts, and ultimately, this truly solo tour with just him and guitar in the stage lights. While it's easy to roll your eyes at a "small machine" that still apparently needs to employ no less than a dozen guitars, nine amps and cabinets and a dedicated guitar tech, ultimately, Buckingham has a point. Buckingham is responsible for many of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits, and his solo performances offer a chance to see these songs, as well as those from other periods of his musical life, in an elemental state, absent most of Fleetwood Mac's accumulated baggage and any stadium bombast. Buckingham can rightfully claim to be one of rock's greatest guitarists, employing a truly singular finger-picking technique that gives him an extremely unique sound. On most of the night's songs, such as "Bleed to Love Her" and "Go Your Own Way," Buckingham's finger picking-style drove the songs, offering well-crafted, straightforward takes. Only occasionally did he seem the arena rock star, as on "Come" where he created an extended loop, then deftly segued into a solo over the playback, or on "I'm So Afraid" where he employed a backing track and launched into a lengthy jam. Clearly, there were some die-hard fans in attendance, and the hushed and reasonably sedate crowd proved the perfect audience, and Buckingham's solo show the perfect act, for City Winery's set up.

[redtulip]

City Winery, Lindsey Buckingham highlight both sides
By Thomas Conner on August 28, 2012 12:00 PM

http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2012...qssU8.facebook


There are two ways of looking at Chicago's new West Loop restaurant and music venue, City Winery, just as there are two ways of looking at the fact that Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham performed there this week.

City Winery is a swank, Sonoma-esque spot, all open air and exposed blond brick, with bottles and casks and tanks of wine in nearly every sight line. A series of connected spaces -- restaurant, bar, patio and the 300-seat listening room -- it buzzes with attentive staff and golf-shirted suburbanites. The tony décor and upscale menu (including dozens of superb wines on tap) intend to align themselves with similarly upscale artistry on stage, with upcoming singer-songwritery bookings building on the venue's original New York acclaim (below).

Which means it's easy to walk around the place and say, "Jeez, this place isn't very Chicago." And just as easy to exclaim, "Wow, it's like I'm not even in Chicago!"

Seeing Buckingham in this setting was similarly both worrying and revelatory.

At first, it screamed cautionary tale. As he himself admitted Monday, the second of a two-night stand at City Winery, his now-lengthy chain of solo tours have whittled down from a 10-piece band to just this current incarnation: Lindsey alone, with just a rack of guitars, a few occasional backing tracks and his many O-faces for company. Watching this mega-selling mega-talent take such an intimate stage -- surrounded by people eating paella balls and sipping cab franc -- was at first like discovering a great actor reduced to doing dinner theater in Florida.

But, as in our interview last year, Buckingham on Monday sermonized from the stage about the relative virtues of the "big machine" (Fleetwood Mac, which is making noise about another reunion next year) and the "small machine" (the eponymous albums and tours). He referred to the latter as a "strange little experiment," despite the fact he's managed to produce three solo albums (plus two live sets) in the last six years -- without the band's trademark hijacking of his material. He still worries about "feeling unseen" ("Not Too Late"), but he's determined to keep powering the little machine until it makes a noise that can at least be heard above the grinding gears of his bread-and-butter factory.

Monday's performance, like last year's show at the Vic, certainly buttresses his individual artistry. Buckingham talks of big and small machines, and they are each within him. The wide dynamic swings he makes in concert -- if he brings it down to a murmur, get ready, because it's about to get very loud, and vice versa -- stretch and pull even his simplest tunes into diffusions of grandeur. Especially on his flat-faced guitar, his whisper-to-a-scream approach to vocals and guitar transformed "Shut Us Down," "Never Going Back Again" and "Big Love," whose rearrangement in 1997 Buckingham said turned into the template for much that followed.

The intimacy of a venue like City Winery is divine for fans of a player like Buckingham, even though the sound in that reverberating brick-and-stone room still faces some challenges. The up-close-and-personal view of this man's extraordinary right hand -- which I would enshrine alongside those of, say, Franz Liszt or Satchel Paige -- made watching the workouts of the edgy solo in "Come" and the all-too-brief instrumental "Stephanie" (from the pre-Mac Buckingham Nicks LP) a semi-religious experience. As he said during the encore-demanding ovation, "Small but mighty!"

As is that City Winery room. Constant on-the-feet ovations, hearty guffaws, shouted song requests -- Monday's show at least felt like Chicago. That feisty local spirit added to City Winery's tiny food plates and big talents should help it steer clear of the living taxidermy of some high-brow venues. There's definitely space for another S.P.A.C.E. in this market.

Lindsey Buckingham's set list Monday night:

"Cast Away Dreams"
"Bleed to Love Her"
"Not Too Late"
"Stephanie"
"Come"
"Shut Us Down"
"Go Insane"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Big Love"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"
Encore:
"Trouble"
"Walk a Thin Line" (partial)
"Rock Away Blind"
"Seeds We Sow"

[elle]

Originally Posted by redtulip

Lindsey Buckingham's set list Monday night:

"Cast Away Dreams"
"Bleed to Love Her"
"Not Too Late"
"Stephanie"
"Come"
"Shut Us Down"
"Go Insane"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Big Love"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"
Encore:
"Trouble"
"Walk a Thin Line" (partial)
"Rock Away Blind"
"Seeds We Sow"

ha - they got the setlist right!

[michelej1]

[I wonder if Lindsey really eats flank steak, red meat in general]

Chicago Now, August 28, 2012

Concert and Venue Review: Lindsey Buckingham Live at City Winery (Sunday, 8/26/12 in Chicago)


In town for a pair of sold out shows at Chicago's newest venue, Lindsey Buckingham brought his one-man show to City Winery on the west side Sunday night...

Restaurant. Winery. Concert hall. Performance venue. There's a lot going at City Winery, Chicago's newest venue.

Snuggled amidst the combination of vintage industry and bustling nightlife that is Randolph St. at Racine, City Winery was bigger than I expected. It holds between 175 and 350 depending on the concert (seated vs. standing) but it feels larger. Seats are spread out at tables to give patrons plenty of room to eat, drink... and rock.

It's a classy venue. In fact, one of two concerns that I had going in was that it could be too classy. Granted, at thirty-two I'm probably low end at best of the demographic they're going after. I like my rock in dark, dank clubs. But I have to say, City Winery offered me a pleasant change of pace amidst a bright, lively room.

I also worried a bit that clanging plates, glasses and the like, at a venue with a full menu, could hurt the acoustic concert experience. But plates were collected prior to the start of Sunday's set and clatter was never an issue. In fact, credit City Winery for sporting a killer sound system. Sunday's Lindsey Buckingham set was solo acoustic. But the show was loud. Very loud. Loud enough that you weren't going to hear glasses clank.

Sunday's crowd remained seated for the majority of the show (save for multiple standing ovations) but it was nevertheless a good crowd. I feared the crowd could potentially be in attendance at a hot new venue more to be seen and less to see live music. But Sunday night, the crowd knew the material, remained respectful (refraining from yelling the type of pablum that's often tempting when seeing a big star in a small venue) and at the end of the night reflected the motif set forth by the evening's stripped down vibe (and they managed all that despite being revved up on plenty of good booze).

So while I can't speak to the food because I didn't eat, the wine list was good (something for everyone at a variety of price points without being at all intimidating) and the beer list was solid too (it wasn't immense but did feature great crafts from a variety of regional brewers like 3 Floyds and Half Acre that weren't overpriced).

If you're thinking about catching a show, get your tickets in advance because these shows are selling out (and with an impressive innaugural list of performers including Lewis Black, Sam Moore, Patterson Hood, Mavis Staples and more they should sell out). I flew solo on Sunday but was struck by the fact that City Winery has got to be a fantastic date place.

It will be interesting to see what effect the new hall has on area venues that book a similar range of artists. Rooms like the Old Town School of Folk Music, SPACE in Evanston and Fitzgerald's in Berwyn are the first that come to my mind. In fact, City Winery hired former Old Town School talent buyer Colleen Miller as its program director. But when it comes to live music, Chicago has always been capable of accomodating all types. Besides, a little competition is generally good for the consumer and quite frankly, when all was said and done Sunday night (and despite a few initial reservations that I had going in), City Winery was the perfect venue for this particular Lindsey Buckingham set.

"I hope you're enjoying your flank steaks." joked Buckingham in one of the evening's rare light moments. "I know I did mine."

Starting out the show, Buckingham took a moment to offer a few words on why this show would be different from what he dubbed "The Big Machine" (AKA Fleetwood Mac). On Sunday, "The Small Machine" consisted of Buckingham, a bevy of guitars, the occasional drum machine loop and a tech that earned his keep tuning guitars at a frantic pace at the foot of the stage, trading them off to Buckingham following literally every song of the seventy-five minute set. I lost track of whether Lindsey actually played a different guitar on every song... But he definitely switched guitars following every song. Solid body acoustics, electric acoustics... you name it and it was probably played by Lindsey Buckingham Sunday night.

As what I've always considered to be the true creative force behind Fleetwood Mac's finest moments, Buckingham somehow remains an extremely underrated guitarist. He's one of my all-time favorite players and his finger-picking skills were on full display at City Winery.

There are times during a solo Lindsey Buckingham set where you could close your eyes and envision about three guitarists performing in front of you. And yet, you open them to find only one man responsible for the rhythm, melody and notes enveloping your senses.

"Never Going Back Again" was the perfect example. Buckingham is clearly still incredibly passionate about his music and that's what struck me immediately in this solo acoustic setting. The song started out slightly slower than you're used to, continued into a soaring solo and ended in a scream. The expression on Buckingham's face as he plucked every note and uttered every breathy vocal (building eventually to near hysterics) was something to behold. It's clear he still remembers every ounce of pain that he felt when he wrote that song for Rumours in 1976.

"Go Your Own Way" closed the main set and is a more impressive tour-de-force when performed solo by Buckingham than it is amidst "The Big Machine" that is Fleetwood Mac.

Lindsey returned to the concept of "The Big Machine vs. The Small Machine" following "Trouble" to open the encore. "Trouble" was never amongst my favorite solo Buckingham tracks. But free of eighties production value, the spotlight was placed squarely on songwriting and guitar playing Sunday night and it shined in a way that only "The Small Machine" was capable of making it.

While the crowd might have gone craziest for the Fleetwood Mac material, they were certainly into the solo material. Buckingham thanked the crowd for allowing him to take risks. But at the end of the night Sunday, it was truly a pleasure to watch an artist of Lindsey Buckingham's magnitude care enough for his art and his audience to even want to take those risks this far in.

Chicago's west side, Randolph Street in particular, still features prominently the warehouses and other features that used to denote a city of industry. And amidst a city of industry, big machines are designed to make things easier.

Onstage Sunday at City Winery, Lindsey Buckingham was free of anything resembling "The Big Machine" trappings and crutches of the typical Fleetwood Mac arena tour (video screens, bandmates, pyro, and other distractions) with the spotlight placed instead solely on himself: as a songwriter, as a singer and as a guitarist free of frills and without a net.

Lindsey Buckingham closed the show Sunday night with the title track of his stellar 2011 solo album Seeds We Sow. And at sixty-two years of age, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, it was an apropos closer as Buckingham continues to plant seeds forty years into a career that continue to result in an incredible musical harvest.

[michelej1]

Time Out Chicago
http://timeoutchicago.com/music-nigh...iew-and-photos
Lindsey Buckingham at City Winery Chicago | Review and photos

Posted in Audio File blog by Joshua Klein on Aug 29, 2012 at 1:22pm

With the massive success of Fleetwood Mac hovering over his head, it took a couple of decades for Lindsey Buckingham’s status as an honest to goodness grade-A auteur to sink in. Sure, he always earned and deserved credit for revitalizing the British blues band as a Cali rock force, but despite the considerable talents of his cohorts, somewhere along the line Buckingham became the least expendable member of the bunch, his vision vital to keeping the group focused even when it sometimes seemed to be sending it off track. That’s one reason why the wayward but wondrous Tusk (with its curious “special thanks from the band to Lindsey Buckingham” credit) has become many fans’ dark horse favorite: What was once misread as indulgence turned out to be innovation, and Buckingham hasn’t really taken the safe route since.

Admittedly, Buckingham’s perfectionist tendencies do a great job disguising, if not suppressing, the strange, which is why catching him live is a unique opportunity to see his numerous hits, misses and never-had-a-shots stripped down to their essence, often remodulated by the master outside of their more familiar studio contexts. Indeed, watching Lindsey Buckingham—tan, fit and in strong voice at 62—perform a solo set at the City Winery Sunday night, the first of two shows, it was remarkable how much he was able to bring across with just his voice and guitar, minus most of the fussy (albeit cool) Baroque ornamentation that has marked Buckingham’s work both within and without Fleetwood Mac.

As a matter of fact, three of Buckingham’s six solo albums arrived in the last few years alone, revealing not just a guy still operating at the peak of his creative powers but increasingly comfortable and confident in his position: The former high-strung control freak is apparently now content, which in Buckingham’s case means a renewed dedication to writing, recording and live performance, embracing what he calls the symbiotic "small machine” of his solo career to Fleetwood Mac’s “big machine.”

Buckingham’s evolution as a solo artist may best be encapsulated by the frantic rendition of “Big Love” he debuted back during Fleetwood Mac’s 90s reunion and continues to play, a speedy showcase full of precise filigrees that not only never fails to impress, but also underscores the power of one man in perfect tune with his instrument of choice. Likewise Buckingham’s favored arrangements of his neo-hits from the ‘80s “Go Insane” and “Trouble” jettisoned the trappings of the era for a starker effect that highlighted their insidious paranoia and introspective beauty, respectively. And when Buckingham did dip into the Mac well, he was as surprisingly effective doing justice to such ensemble works as “Go Your Own Way” and “Come” as he was performing the spare “Never Going Back Again” and “Stephanie,” the latter an instrumental from the inexplicably out-of-print 1973 Buckingham/Nicks LP.

With his fingers dancing across countless open tunings that bridged classical tropes with folk, his guitar ringing like a harpsichord one moment and raging the next, Buckingham drew a diverse array of sounds from his instrument, some ugly enough to be completely at odds with the classy dine-and-wine venue he was playing. And that’s Buckingham’s gift in a nutshell: He’s smooth enough to convince you to let him in, but there’s a mischievous glint that appears in his eyes when he inevitably drops the front and starts going nuts.

[PenguinHead]

I'm amazed to find out that Lindsey performed "Stephanie" from Buckingham Nicks. It really impresses me that he is getting more nimble - changing up his set lists a bit and revisiting material he has rarely or never performed before. Oh, and, "Walk a Thin Line!" I always thought that this song could be a killer slow-burner performed live.

Was this show recorded? I'd love to hear/have it.

[elle]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

I'm amazed to find out that Lindsey performed "Stephanie" from Buckingham Nicks. It really impresses me that he is getting more nimble - changing up his set lists a bit and revisiting material he has rarely or never performed before. Oh, and, "Walk a Thin Line!" I always thought that this song could be a killer slow-burner performed live.

Was this show recorded? I'd love to hear/have it.

WATL (few lines he did) -

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showpo...55&postcount=3
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCCWd5zks10

i don't know whether anybody recorded the whole show.

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by redtulip

City Winery, Lindsey Buckingham highlight both sides
By Thomas Conner on August 28, 2012 12:00 PM

http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2012...qssU8.facebook


There are two ways of looking at Chicago's new West Loop restaurant and music venue, City Winery, just as there are two ways of looking at the fact that Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham performed there this week.

City Winery is a swank, Sonoma-esque spot, all open air and exposed blond brick, with bottles and casks and tanks of wine in nearly every sight line. A series of connected spaces -- restaurant, bar, patio and the 300-seat listening room -- it buzzes with attentive staff and golf-shirted suburbanites. The tony décor and upscale menu (including dozens of superb wines on tap) intend to align themselves with similarly upscale artistry on stage, with upcoming singer-songwritery bookings building on the venue's original New York acclaim (below).

Which means it's easy to walk around the place and say, "Jeez, this place isn't very Chicago." And just as easy to exclaim, "Wow, it's like I'm not even in Chicago!"

Seeing Buckingham in this setting was similarly both worrying and revelatory.

At first, it screamed cautionary tale. As he himself admitted Monday, the second of a two-night stand at City Winery, his now-lengthy chain of solo tours have whittled down from a 10-piece band to just this current incarnation: Lindsey alone, with just a rack of guitars, a few occasional backing tracks and his many O-faces for company. Watching this mega-selling mega-talent take such an intimate stage -- surrounded by people eating paella balls and sipping cab franc -- was at first like discovering a great actor reduced to doing dinner theater in Florida.

But, as in our interview last year, Buckingham on Monday sermonized from the stage about the relative virtues of the "big machine" (Fleetwood Mac, which is making noise about another reunion next year) and the "small machine" (the eponymous albums and tours). He referred to the latter as a "strange little experiment," despite the fact he's managed to produce three solo albums (plus two live sets) in the last six years -- without the band's trademark hijacking of his material. He still worries about "feeling unseen" ("Not Too Late"), but he's determined to keep powering the little machine until it makes a noise that can at least be heard above the grinding gears of his bread-and-butter factory.

Monday's performance, like last year's show at the Vic, certainly buttresses his individual artistry. Buckingham talks of big and small machines, and they are each within him. The wide dynamic swings he makes in concert -- if he brings it down to a murmur, get ready, because it's about to get very loud, and vice versa -- stretch and pull even his simplest tunes into diffusions of grandeur. Especially on his flat-faced guitar, his whisper-to-a-scream approach to vocals and guitar transformed "Shut Us Down," "Never Going Back Again" and "Big Love," whose rearrangement in 1997 Buckingham said turned into the template for much that followed.

The intimacy of a venue like City Winery is divine for fans of a player like Buckingham, even though the sound in that reverberating brick-and-stone room still faces some challenges. The up-close-and-personal view of this man's extraordinary right hand -- which I would enshrine alongside those of, say, Franz Liszt or Satchel Paige -- made watching the workouts of the edgy solo in "Come" and the all-too-brief instrumental "Stephanie" (from the pre-Mac Buckingham Nicks LP) a semi-religious experience. As he said during the encore-demanding ovation, "Small but mighty!"

As is that City Winery room. Constant on-the-feet ovations, hearty guffaws, shouted song requests -- Monday's show at least felt like Chicago. That feisty local spirit added to City Winery's tiny food plates and big talents should help it steer clear of the living taxidermy of some high-brow venues. There's definitely space for another S.P.A.C.E. in this market.

Lindsey Buckingham's set list Monday night:

"Cast Away Dreams"
"Bleed to Love Her"
"Not Too Late"
"Stephanie"
"Come"
"Shut Us Down"
"Go Insane"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Big Love"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"
Encore:
"Trouble"
"Walk a Thin Line" (partial)
"Rock Away Blind"
"Seeds We Sow"

There is just so much savor in this great review

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Clearly, there were some die-hard fans in attendance, and the hushed and reasonably sedate crowd proved the perfect audience, and Buckingham's solo show the perfect act, for City Winery's set up.

Originally Posted by redtulip

Constant on-the-feet ovations, hearty guffaws, shouted song requests -- Monday's show at least felt like Chicago. That feisty local spirit added to City Winery's tiny food plates and big talents should help it steer clear of the living taxidermy of some high-brow venues. There's definitely space for another S.P.A.C.E. in this market.

Lindsey Buckingham's set list Monday night:

"Cast Away Dreams"
"Bleed to Love Her"
"Not Too Late"
"Stephanie"
"Come"
"Shut Us Down"
"Go Insane"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Big Love"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"
Encore:
"Trouble"
"Walk a Thin Line" (partial)
"Rock Away Blind"
"Seeds We Sow"

it's like these 2 reviews are not even talking about the same show. and although yeah, there were clearly some hard-core fans there , the rest of the crowd was definitely NOT sedate. if we splice pieces of these 2 reviews maybe you'd get the more accurate picture of the atmosphere on monday.

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by elle

it's like these 2 reviews are not even talking about the same show. and although yeah, there were clearly some hard-core fans there , the rest of the crowd was definitely NOT sedate. if we splice pieces of these 2 reviews maybe you'd get the more accurate picture of the atmosphere on monday.

That first reviewer must have passed out from too much wine Or maybe he was talking about being respectful and enthralled during the actual songs? But then, why not say that. In reality, it was way louder and way more lively than I expected. In fact, it was just plain fun!

[elle]

← Don’t miss Lindsey Buckingham this Saturday at Hoyt Sherman

http://dsmvibe.com/2012/09/04/lindse...an-show-recap/

Lindsey Buckingham at Hoyt Sherman – Show Recap
Posted on September 4, 2012

This past Saturday night, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist/singer/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham was in town for an intimate show at Hoyt Sherman Place. I would describe myself as someone who was familiar with Fleetwood Mac, but haven’t really followed Buckinghams solo career in recent years. Apparently, I was in the minority.

I was sort of expecting a laid back, standard acoustic show….but instead, Buckingham proceeded to let it rip, and the crowd was loving every second of it. No joke, I think he got a standing ovation after every song.

One of the refreshing things about Buckingham is that you can tell he is still really passionate about the tunes. So many times with older artists it becomes painfully obvious they are just doing it for the paycheck, but Buckingham still hangs on every note. While I am sure there were some in the audience who just wanted to hear Fleetwood Mac songs, it was refreshing that he doesn’t rely on those songs every show, and only sprinkles them in on occasion.

The cool thing about watching Buckingham is his stage presence. There were lots of songs played at the show that I had never heard before, but because he put on such a show (musically, and with his stage presence) he was able to keep my attention the whole time, and I even found myself tapping my foot once or twice. Being a guitar player myself, I really enjoyed his playing. Whether he was delicately finger picking on an acoustic tune, or wailing away on an electric guitar, Buckingham seemed to do it very well.

Overall, it was a great show. The only complaint I heard was that he didn’t play long enough (which is always better than playing too long). Once again, special thanks to Hoyt Sherman Place for bringing great music to Des Moines!

[Lindsfan]

Originally Posted by elle

← Don’t miss Lindsey Buckingham this Saturday at Hoyt Sherman

http://dsmvibe.com/2012/09/04/lindse...an-show-recap/

Lindsey Buckingham at Hoyt Sherman – Show Recap
Posted on September 4, 2012

This past Saturday night, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist/singer/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham was in town for an intimate show at Hoyt Sherman Place. I would describe myself as someone who was familiar with Fleetwood Mac, but haven’t really followed Buckinghams solo career in recent years. Apparently, I was in the minority.

I was sort of expecting a laid back, standard acoustic show….but instead, Buckingham proceeded to let it rip, and the crowd was loving every second of it. No joke, I think he got a standing ovation after every song.

One of the refreshing things about Buckingham is that you can tell he is still really passionate about the tunes. So many times with older artists it becomes painfully obvious they are just doing it for the paycheck, but Buckingham still hangs on every note. While I am sure there were some in the audience who just wanted to hear Fleetwood Mac songs, it was refreshing that he doesn’t rely on those songs every show, and only sprinkles them in on occasion.

The cool thing about watching Buckingham is his stage presence. There were lots of songs played at the show that I had never heard before, but because he put on such a show (musically, and with his stage presence) he was able to keep my attention the whole time, and I even found myself tapping my foot once or twice. Being a guitar player myself, I really enjoyed his playing. Whether he was delicately finger picking on an acoustic tune, or wailing away on an electric guitar, Buckingham seemed to do it very well.Overall, it was a great show. The only complaint I heard was that he didn’t play long enough (which is always better than playing too long). Once again, special thanks to Hoyt Sherman Place for bringing great music to Des Moines!

Ya think?? Give this reviewer the Understatement Award

Otherwise, a good review

[michelej1]

The Ottawa Citizen

Review: Edwards delivers big-hearted show; Buckingham stands alone

By lynn saxberg, Ottawa Citizen September 7, 2012


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/enterta...#ixzz25u5SzwoF


Some people offer flowers or a bottle of wine as a gesture of thanks. Kathleen Edwards gave us her heart as part of a sublime concert at the Ottawa Folk Festival on Friday.

“I’m so appreciative of all the love and support my hometown as given me as I go out in the world,” said the red-haired beauty at one point, and you could tell she was genuinely grateful.

After all, the Ottawa-born singer-songwriter has been through a difficult period since the release of her latest disc, Voyageur, early this year, an album that was written after her divorce and recorded with her now ex-boyfriend, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

It’s a great album, shortlisted for the Polaris Prize and widely considered her best yet, but she admits it was difficult to expose so much of herself. To make things even more challenging, she was stressed and exhausted from a heavy tour schedule. And after she missed the birth of her niece earlier this year, she went into a funk, she said during a particularly candid part of Friday’s concert.

What helped her snap out of it, Edwards noted, was spending time with her family this summer at her parents’ country home near Perth. “This wonderful thing happened around the time of my birthday,” said the July baby, who is now 34. “The dark clouds parted.”

All of this emotion came out just before she sang one of her most powerful songs, Soft Place To Land, adding a lovely violin lament to the mix of band instruments.

Until then, Edwards hadn’t said much between songs, instead focusing on the performance, which was fantastic. Singing sweeter and stronger than ever, Edwards is also blessed with a band that allows her to blossom. Her bandmates include fellow Ottawan Jim Bryson on guitar and keyboards, Julie Fader on ethereal backing vocals and Gord Tough, who supplies those ripping guitar solos.

Edwards was performing before the night’s headliner, singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham who is best known for his work in Fleetwood Mac, an entity he described as the “big machine” during his show Friday night.

However, the purpose of his current tour is to show off the “small machine” of his solo work. His most recent solo album, Seeds We Sow, came out last year.

“The big machine and the small machine have come to inform each other and find each other and balance each other, and would not exist without each other,” said the 62-year-old American musician, describing the solo experience as a “strange little experiment.”

For a solo performer, he had a huge sound, thanks to the pumped-up volume of his guitar, which at first threatened to drown out his voice. Once things were sorted, he sang well enough, but it was still his guitar work that dazzled, as he demonstrated his skill on a parade of six-stringed instruments, electric and acoustic. The concert drew from Buckingham’s solo repertoire, including songs like Cast Away Dreams and Bleed To Love Her, as well as the Mac catalogue. Next to the unfamiliar solo stuff, the Fleetwood Mac hits energized the crowd.

But that energy was built on Edwards’ performance earlier in the evening.


Wearing an eye-catching orange dress for the occasion, Edwards began her concert with a pair of songs from Voyageur. Mint and Empty Threat were followed by Asking For Flowers and Going To Hell before she went way back in her catalogue for an early breakthough, the melodic Six O’Clock News.

Spotting her old pal, producer Dave Draves, in the crowd, she commented that it had been 10 years since she recorded the track with him. “Dude, your kids are here. How f----ed is that?” Edwards blurted, showing a glimpse of her still-feisty self. Another funny comment slipped out when she talked about her “bad boy” of a dress. “Now that I’m a single lady, it’s time to show a little leg,” Edwards cracked.

Other highlights included a soaring Change The Sheets and the soul-baring Chamelon/Comedian. In front of an audience of family and friends, Edwards showed she’s reached a new peak in her career. Judging by the applause, there isn’t a music fan in Ottawa who doesn’t feel proud of her.


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/enterta...#ixzz25u5exlQx

[michelej1]

Folk Fest: Big Love for solo act

By Denis Armstrong,Ottawa Sun, Friday, September 07, 2012
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/09/07/...e-for-solo-act

If there ever was anyone who could hit all the right notes for the new Ottawa Folk Festival, Lindsey Buckingham would be at the top of the list.

Fleetwood Mac’s former lead guitarist, and arguably its most successful songwriter, played a solo acoustic show of Fleetwood Mac hits as well as his own songs, stripped down to the bare bones.

Now 62 but looking intense, Buckingham opened his show with Cast Away Dreams. Alas, despite the tune’s hypnotic rhythm, the sound was so loud and sharp, it hurt to listen. However, the problem was fixed by the time he played his second tune, a Fleetwood Mac cover called Bleed to Love Her.

He then described the show’s content, and his career thus far as the “big machine versus the little machine, that is, Fleetwood Mac and my solo career.”

In the late 1970s, Fleetwood Mac was one of the biggest-selling bands on the planet, and Buckingham was the author of their most popular hit songs Go Your Own Way, Never Going Back Again and Big Love.

Packing an impressive arsenal of exotic guitars, Buckingham played some of the most dazzling licks I’ve ever heard from a guitar, and his writing is forceful and unconventional. My only regret was having to leave early to meet an early deadline.

With the threat of rain and the euphoria of opening night dissipated, the mood around Hog’s Back Park was considerably cozier with Kathleen Edwards and her old guitar partner Jim Bryson playing together again.

It’s been a heck of a year for Edwards, who divorced guitarist Colin Cripps and hooked up, in every sense, with Bon Iver’s Justin, who produced her latest album Voyageur.

The album signals a more mature Edwards, a more confident songwriter and polished performer.

She did not Failer, I mean fail to impress.

Opening with Mint and Empty Threat, she set the tone with her soaring, plaintive voice. She dedicated Asking For Flowers to the fan who, coincidentally, had brought her flowers before the show.

Between Chameleon, Change the Sheets and Soft Place to Land, she joked with Bryson, who played guitars and keyboard. It was like old times, or 2004, when Edwards and Bryson were regularly playing festivals and the black sheep inn together. Their long-standing friendship showed in the easy way they, and guitarist Gord Tough, drummer Lyle Molzan, Julie Fader on backup vocals and bassist John Dinsmore played perfectly off each other.

Rounding out her early show, Edwards summoned an old favourite, Six O’Clock News, and 12 Bellevue.

Edwards had barely finished when it was time for the rambling, banjo-playing indie sensation Old Man Luedecke on the Ravenlaw stage. A throwback to the Woody Guthries of the past, Luedecke had no trouble entertaining the estimated 6,000 fans with his songs about life’s sillier cruelties and pleasures.