Live Solo Acoustic Album Out November 13!

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Lindsey Buckingham still going his own way on new live album

ALBUM REVIEW NOVEMBER 15, 2012
BY: PETER ROCHESubscribe

Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show
Credits: iTunes

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RATING FOR LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: ONE MAN SHOW

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Lindsey Buckingham’s been going his own way ever since he traded in his swimming trunks for guitar. He’s been involved with Fleetwood Mac for thirty-five years, writing and orchestrating now classic albums like Rumours and Tusk with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie.

But Buckingham has always reserved his more unusual gems for solo albums like Law and Order (1981), Out of the Cradle (1992), and Under the Skin (2006). These albums still boast Lindsey’s uncanny pop sensibility—but their best bits are usually found in the darker, more introspective songs or quirky alterna-tunes that exploit technology (drum machines and synthesizers) or subvert established forms (folk ballads, twelve-bar blues, etc.).

Buckingham released an excellent in-concert disc—Live at the Bass Performance Hall—a couple years back, but it wasn’t until 2011 that he gave longtime backup musicians Neale Heywood and Brett Tuggle a break and struck out alone. Now available exclusively on iTunes, Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show captures the architect of Mac at a creative peak as he regales Des Moines, Iowa fans with just his voice and guitars.

The digital album offers a baker’s dozen tracks from throughout Buckingham’s prodigious career, from the sparkling instrumental “Stephanie” (from the 1973 Buckingham Nicks LP) to the brooding—then uplifting—title track from last year’s terrific Seeds We Sow. He even tosses in obligatory Mac fave “Go Your Own Way” by playing along with a recording of the song’s subtle (but crucial) contrapuntal rhythm guitar. The technique is used sparingly here, occurring only in spots where Buckingham needs the freedom to embark on one of his sensation lead guitar breaks.

“Thank you for being part of this experiment I’m doing,” Lindsey greets the crowd at Hoyt Sherman Place.

The finger-plucker explains the intimate, coffeehouse-styled shows comprise the next step in the evolution of his solo work—the modest “small machine” (versus Mac’s arena-rock colossus) wherein he funnels his innermost angst and outermost joys. Later, Buckingham surmises his independent work couldn’t have happened without Fleetwood Mac’s success, and notes how both worlds now coexist harmoniously.

The shimmery “Not Too Late” finds the auteur questioning his motives after mulling a newspaper review. “Cast Away Dreams” bemoans another aspect of professional musicianship—extended touring—and the lasting effects on one’s home life.

“Gone away…no I cannot stay,” croons Lindsey. “I hope you understand.”

Originally destined for a solo album in the late 1990’s, “Bleed to Love Her” first appeared on Mac reunion disc The Dance before receiving proper studio treatment on 2003’s Say You Will. Here, the lovelorn piece vibrates with Buckingham’s syncopated finger-picking, and his voice builds to a spine-tingling crescendo.
Buckingham uses the body of his guitar as a percussion instrument on the sinister “Come,” then unleashes an appropriately distorted torrent of solo notes beneath his own thick (electronically triggered) rhythm chords. “So Afraid” employs more of what late acoustic guitarist Michael Hedges described as a“heavy mental” approach, with bass strings growling and treble strings echoing in bold musical measures that sound anything but unplugged.

Lindsey also indulges with three signature pieces. Bouncy Rumours chestnut “Never Going Back Again” benefits from a pretty, delicate new introduction, while artificial harmonics, clinical strumming, and hell-raising vocals transform “Go Insane” into a haunting elegy.

Having already received an acoustic makeover in past concert sets (from its synth-pop beginning on Mac’s Tango in the Night), “Big Love” pulsates schizophrenically as Buckingham veers from a whisper to full-on primal screams.

“I was looking out for love,” he says of the song’s inception. “Not looking for love, but looking out for it—pushing back, defending.

“Now it’s a meditation on the power and importance of change.”

Law and Order hit “Trouble” is re-imagined for the One Man encore, with Lindsey engaging some clever vocal inflections filling the sound with strings that buzz and reverberate in the mix.

Buckingham’s solitary gambit works because the material (so strong and refreshingly different to begin with) really shines without all the bell and whistles. Stripped down to bare essentials, the songs more readily reveal their emotional essences—adorable and ugly—for the candid scrutiny of a one-take, untouched console recording.

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