Providence Journal article

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Music Scene by Rick Massimo: Fleetwood Mac’s Buckingham brings his solo guitar songs to Foxwoods

06:06 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 11, 2006


It takes a few listens to Lindsey Buckingham’s latest solo record, Under the Skin, before you appreciate what it is rather than lament what it isn’t. Once you get over the frustration that there’d be three massive hits on this record (“Show You How,” “It Was You” and “Cast Away Dreams”) if only the songs they included had a rhythm section on them, you realize that the stripped-down production is the point.

Most of the songs here are just vocals and guitar (with one song seeing Buckingham backed by Mac Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood). Under the Skin is Buckingham’s first solo record since 1992’s Out of the Cradle, and it’s the logical progression of the stripping-down process started on that record — a change from the outright pop frippery of 1981’s Law and Order and 1984’s Go Insane.

Buckingham says the idea of such an intimate record came from a live re-arrangement of his Fleetwood Mac song “Big Love” that he performed solo, with an acoustic guitar playing a fleet-fingered pattern (you can find it on 1997’s album The Dance). “And it was so effective on stage, it got me thinking about that style of playing, and what one guitar could do if it were the right guitar part. So over a few years I was looking for more songs that would work with that approach.”

While the production is muted, it’s still important, as the trademark echo and ping-ponging between multiple Buckinghams provides the usual oddness you expect from the Fleetwood Mac guitarist-songwriter-producer.

“The production part of it was very important, because otherwise it would be like you were in a living room, singing to someone. And I [still] wanted it to feel like a record, for lack of a better term. … It was essential, in my mind, that you apply some kind of artificiality, if you will, to a single guitar.

“A record, in my mind, has something to do with atmosphere, with lift, with in some cases a certain amount of surrealness, a certain number of elements that are perhaps unidentifiable — things that enhance the emotional quality that’s already there.”

Now Buckingham’s on the road with two other guitar players and a drummer, and while the focus is on the new album, he says the set list will get “a little bit more electric” as the show evolves. “You have to rock out a little bit.”


BUCKINGHAM NEVER meant to take 14 years between solo albums, but such efforts got shelved in favor of Fleetwod Mac projects: The Dance and the studio record Say You Will in 2003. Was it frustrating to push solo work into the background?

“It’s a choice you make yourself. No one had a gun to my head; it’s just part of the challenge of having a facet of what you do that’s more esoteric and more to the left and more boutique, and having this huge mainstream machine. And obviously I’m lucky to have that machine, but — yeah, there are times when that can be frustrating, for sure.”

The question of whether Buckingham’s ever gotten the credit he’s due is still bandied about. An observation to that effect fueled “Not Too Late,” the opener of Under the Skin.

“A lot of people, and I’m not saying I’m one of them, but a lot of people get caught up in an image that’s defined by other people for them, and start believing their own press, as they say. And I think that gets a lot of entertainers in trouble; it keeps them from being grounded. Although again, I don’t think of myself as one of those. We’ve all been guilty of lapses like that. [But] whether or not I’m a visionary, or one of the underappreciated visionaries — that’s just what somebody’s writing.

“You just think about what you’re doing and you try to keep creative. But [the review] gave me a moment of pause: Why have I been doing this for so long?”


THE NEAR FUTURE for Buckingham is to tour behind this record, with another slew of dates coming in the new year. After that, he says, he’s got another group of songs together already, so he hopes to have a new solo record next year — a breakneck pace for him.

After that, he’s not sure. “I think Fleetwood Mac would love to do something again, and probably that will happen after that. Beyond that, I couldn’t say, but that’s enough for the next few years.”

Buckingham says that becoming a father for the first time at 48 made an impact. He refers to his His children are referenced by name in “It Was You,” and most of the record is indicative of a more reflective mindset than that of, say, “Go Insane.”

“It certainly is a huge perspective check. And if you had a tendency towards being self-absorbed at all, it’s going to shake that up. . . . It’s allowed me to put certain things to rest, and feel that somehow the good and bad that’s happened was all meant to be.

“It’s odd, really. This is the best time of my life. Having children now and feeling like I’m at a point musically that I’ve been trying to get to. So it’s just a matter of being able to appreciate what you’ve had and what you have a little bit more.”


Lindsey Buckingham is at the Fox Theatre at Foxwoods Resort Casino, the Mohegan Sun Casino, Route 2, Mashantucket, Conn., Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $55 and $65; call (800) 200-2882.