Reading, PA Interview

[michelej1]

Reading Eagle

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=109062

Lindsey Buckingham's 'Gift of Screws' tour stops in Reading
By Tracy Rasmussen
Reading Eagle Correspondent


Reading, PA - If Lindsey Buckingham had been a painter instead of a musician he'd describe his work with Fleetwood Mac as the broad strokes of a painting, while his solo career fills in the subtle shadings of his creativity.

That shading allows his solo efforts to paint a uniquely personal picture, which will be on display when Buckingham performs at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center on Friday in support of his most recent solo effort, "Gift of Screws."

"If you're sitting in front of a canvas and you're slopping paint on the canvas, you may have an idea of what you wanted," he said. "There's far more possibility that you're going to find things that are more surprising - that are more esoteric, certainly."

"Gift of Screws" is surprising in that it's very much a rock 'n' roll album, a departure from the usually more mellow music of his band Fleetwood Mac and Buckingham's four previous solo efforts.

"This is probably the most rock 'n' roll album I've ever made," he said during a teleconference prior to the beginning of his tour. "Consequently, you get the intensity of (Buckingham's guitar playing) style stepped up as well. It probably sounds like I'm getting ready to break a string here and there."

Because of that, Buckingham's show is different.

"Song for song there is no real challenge to doing the material," he said. "We've only been rehearsing for three weeks, and it's great. It's great fun to do the new stuff. The challenge is in how you make a set that doesn't rock too much, that comes down and has a certain breathing point. We're still trying to figure out what that arc is. It's going to be a way more boisterous show. So I hope people are ready for that."

Interestingly, Buckingham got started much more as a player than as a songwriter, a characterization he still embraces. Yet, he's written many memorable songs, including "Go Your Own Way," "The Chain" and "Tusk."

"The one thing that I could have called myself was a guitarist," Buckingham said. "I hadn't really written very much. By the time Stevie (Nicks) and I moved to Los Angeles and started looking for a record deal, I hadn't been writing for more than about a year. I'm still not really a writer. I'm a stylist. I'm not really a singer per se. I'm a stylist, and you can get a long way on that. I've done it pretty much on my own terms."

Working with Fleetwood Mac, he said, taught him not only about songwriting, but also about producing an album as well as a good show.

"It was a complete lesson in adaptation," he said. "You sort of find yourself having to adapt. There's a certain amount of knowledge you gain from that."

On his own, though, Buckingham said he's found a way to grow as an artist.

"There is also the aspect of not being driven to prove anything other than to work on my process," he said. "To not put myself on any particular treadmill."

Because of that attitude, there is a wealth of different material from which Buckingham can choose for his show.

"Obviously there are certain things you need to do because people expect that," Buckingham said. "I think the problem we're having right now is we've got a lot of rock 'n' roll material that we're having fun doing. We haven't quite found the formula yet for how to present that level of energy and to still have it sort of breathe and rest and build."

Buckingham was planning to change things up as much as possible.

"We need to make a stab at something and start running a set and see how it feels," he said. "We are trying to include some stuff that we've never done that's from past solo albums and we're just trying to shake it up as much as we can."

•E-mail correspondent Tracy Rasmussen at [email protected].