The Ledge - Reviewjournal.com: Lindsey Buckingham, Aaron Lewis go acoustic this weekend.

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Las Vegas Stripped

Lindsey Buckingham, Aaron Lewis go acoustic this weekend

By MIKE WEATHERFORD
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Las Vegas casino entertainment isn't known for subtlety or minimalism. So what's with two stars in the same weekend stripping their shows down to acoustic guitar basics?

Chalk it up to coincidence or the truth beyond the perception of what can be found on the Strip during any given weekend. Casinos all over the country, Aaron Lewis notes, have become "the skeletal system for touring."Advertisement

In fact, the Staind frontman is playing just casinos on his latest acoustic venture, a one-man show he brings to town for the fourth time Sunday at the Palms.

Lindsey Buckingham won't be alone, but will do sections of his "Under the Skin" album all by himself when a backing trio isn't lending a hand. Believe it or not, it's the Fleetwood Mac maestro's first solo album and tour since he played the Huntridge theater in April 1993.

FLEETWOOD MAC CAN WAIT

Lindsey Buckingham sounds very laid back on the phone, but says he's not the slacker a 13-year gap between solo releases might imply.

"There was more intent than it might have seemed to get a solo album out," he says with a chuckle.

Devout fans of Fleetwood Mac and its 58-year-old musical architect know the whole story. They may even have bootlegs of "Gift of Screws," a Buckingham album that was eventually shelved, with many of its songs raided instead for the 2003 Mac reunion "Say You Will."

"Sometimes you have to be responsive to the needs of the whole," he says. And considering the subsequent Fleetwood Mac tour twice visited the MGM Grand with a top ticket of $225, who could blame a guy?

But now, Buckingham's modest tour to promote "Under My Skin" stops at the Luxor today and Saturday, and he's hard at work on another new solo release for next year. This time, if Mick Fleetwood or the others come knocking, "I'm sort of letting them knock," he says. "I think I've sort of earned the time to be doing this for the next year or so."

It all worked out in the long run, Buckingham believes, because he also got remarried and had three children in the past 10 years. The acoustic and personal nature of the "Skin" album and "the musical shift it encompasses, is more authentic with what's going on with me right now."

The album mixes the confessional intimacy of the singer-songwriter genre with Buckingham's quirky, ornate production. "It was about keeping the number of instruments down, but it didn't stop me from jumping on the production values," he says. "That was part of the idea, to drive the atmosphere in an aggressive way" within a sparse instrumental environment.

He does that in large part by multitracking or otherwise processing his vocals. The result can be novel or distracting, depending on the listener's disposition.

"At this point in my career, if people want to speculate on my confidence or lack of confidence as a singer that's their prerogative. It just seems a little late for anyone to be thinking about that," he says. "It really was just more about trying to create a spatial (thing) and an etherealness.

"Without that, many of these things would have come across more just like hanging a mic in the room and letting somebody play. I didn't want to do that, either. I didn't want to be that literal about it."

Which way does he do it live? Buckingham wanted to save some surprises, but allows that "it's an interesting proposition to figure out how to present a show which would have resonance with what (the album) is... It's really very pared down. We tried to get as close as we could to the sounds on the new songs."

Three musicians join him at various times in various combinations, and at the end, "we just kind of rock out." Solo freedom or no, he acknowledges it would be "a mistake" to ignore the "Rumours"-era classics. "I think we would have riots."