Fleetwood Mac Singer-Guitarist Takes a More Intimate Approach In His Solo Career

[#1LiddyBuckFan]

June 22, 2007 - IdahoStatesman.com

http://www.idahostatesman.com/music/story/89902.html

Thirty-two years ago, Lindsey Buckingham and girlfriend Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, a group that already included Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie and John McVie. Guided by Buckingham's vision, the band broke through with "Rumours," one of rock history's best-selling albums. Fleetwood Mac's follow-up, the quirkier, experimental "Tusk," sold disappointingly in comparison. But it set the tone for where Buckingham, a virtuoso guitarist and gifted songwriter, would go as a solo explorer in the coming years.
Buckingham and his backing band will perform at The Big Easy on Sunday night, marking his first solo tour — and album — in about a decade and a half: As a part of Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham explains, it can be hard to find time for individual pursuits: "Mick is always lurking in the wings," Buckingham, 57, says with a chuckle.

Has the experience of touring solo been like you thought it would be after taking such a long break?

I'd say it's been everything and more. The last time that I went out, I took sort of a guitar army with me. It was just a completely different thing. This CD, "Under the Skin," is a way more intimate approach.

I guess that comes from having done certain songs on stage that were originally ensemble pieces on recording and then became single guitar and voice pieces on stage — "Big Love" is one of those, "Go Insane" (is another) — and seeing how well those connected with audiences. I wanted to do a CD that was kind of pared down, where one or two guitars were doing the work of a whole track a lot of the time.

We wanted to make that the starting point for the show. And we've approached it in a really smart way with only a few people. We've just got like a guitarist and a keyboardist and a percussionist, or a slash, drummer. And it's just been incredible out there.

Maybe part of it, too, is that I am married for the first time and have kids. So all of that is — you know, it's kind of the best time of my life right now. This whole tour thing has been amazing in terms of the camaraderie with the guys, in terms of knowing that I'm going to go in and do another CD probably that will be out the first part of next year.

Is the pared-down approach to "Under the Skin" and to this tour related to marriage and kids? Have you gotten to a time in life where simplicity feels good rather than big, outrageous guitar armies?

Yeah, I think there is something to be said for that. I would say there is a connection between the desire or the idea to do something more intimate and experiencing something more intimate at home, for sure. And it all seems to hang together. I mean you're writing about new things.

And a lot of those questions were hanging out there for years with the band. I mean, as far as living with Stevie and being a partner with her for years and then breaking up and never really getting closure, and just a lot of crud hanging out there for years that finally got answered.

I think Americans, particularly, are so used to wanting to be shocked and awed by everything — do they seem to be responding to the more intimate approach?

We're playing, generally, smaller venues. And it is well-suited for the kind of music that's going on. Most of the people who are coming to the show are people who understand what I've been doing and what my intention is, and they see it in a context, and yes, they do appreciate the pared-down stuff.

But having said that, we're not doing a mellow show. We are doing a really energetic show in which there are points of intimacy and points of mellowness, but probably many more points where we're just rocking out.

I mean, I think it would have been a mistake not to do things like "Go Your Own Way" or "Tusk," which is part of your body of work that people are going to want to hear. So we're kind of making people's ears bleed by the end of the set.

I'm sure you're happy to do a couple of the hits, but I just saw John Mayer in concert. He went up there and basically blew my mind as far as a blues-rock guitarist, but he didn't do either of his biggest radio hits. There were a lot of people there that kind of walked out scratching their heads: "He didn't do those songs, did he?"

It's kind of hard. I think he's going through a little identity crisis. And that's fair enough. We've all done that to a certain extent. It's kind of hard to establish something so well in the mainstream and then you want to completely shun it.

With the success Fleetwood Mac had, did you go through a personal sort of identity crisis at any time?

Well, not exactly. It wasn't really as clearcut as where John Mayer is going. Because he's not looking for anything new necessarily, he's just wanting to tap into a completely different part of himself that he doesn't feel has been represented. And possibly, that was always the way he saw himself, and suddenly these other things came to light. And people tend to think of you in the most narrow way possible.

But for me, in the wake of "Rumors," this hugely mega-successful thing, there was some pressure on us to do what I guess could best be described as "Rumors II." And at that point in time, I had sort of gotten a handle on some new ideas, and some new ways of working. And I was sort of very clear that doing that was, in a way, doing things for the wrong reason — repeating yourself, trying to dredge up the same set of reference points and labels, when it's not really authentic.

I mean "Rumors" was a point in time. You probably couldn't have done a "Rumors II" if you'd tried. And, so, I went the other way and I pulled the band into a different approach and we made the "Tusk" album, which is still my favorite. But, again, that did sort of create a certain kind of (chuckling) backlash in the wake of it not selling 16 million albums at the time.

But in retrospect, you've got Mick and even Stevie now saying that's their favorite album. And for me, that's a line in the sand that I drew that still provides me with the set of values that allow me to keep moving forward. Where you feel it's important to know yourself and not to succumb to a set of labels that other people want to put on you. So, I guess, the long answer is yes, but not in the same way that John Mayer is doing.

What do you enjoy more: Doing the solo intimate thing or playing with Fleetwood Mac in an arena?

I definitely enjoy the solo thing. Although I will have to say, (I enjoyed) the last Fleetwood Mac tour we did, which was three-plus years ago. Even though Christine wasn't there and even though we all miss her as a person — you know, she just picked up stakes and moved to England — I have to say I had more fun on that tour than I've ever had by virtue of the fact that it was just two writers up there. And it opened up a set of possibilities for me to be more of a guy, you know? More testosterone playing around on stage.

So I was probably able to be more me on stage with Fleetwood Mac than I'd ever been before. I don't know how other people in the band felt about that, and we could talk for hours about that, but we won't go there. (Chuckles.) I've actually talked about that, and Stevie's read it and gotten pissed off at me. So I don't talk about that anymore!

But playing solo, the camaraderie is just incredible with these guys. And we all just want to keep doing more stuff. And it feels like we're not playing for 20,000 people. It feels like it's accomplishing what it's supposed to be accomplishing on all levels.

Michael Deeds: 377-6407