Posted on Tue, Nov. 07, 2006email thisprint thisreprint or license
this
Brooks & Dunn dominate
Urban, Evans provide high-profile buzz
BY ROSS RAIHALA
Pop Music Critic
The 40th annual Country Music Association Awards looked more like
the Brooks & Dunn show as the celebrated duo dominated the ceremony
Monday night, not only as hosts but as quadruple winners.

The pair, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, earned song, single and music
video of the year nods for "Believe" as well as a trophy for vocal
duo of the year, a category they've swept since 1992 (save for a
2000 upset from Montgomery Gentry). Dunn — the blond one with the
shoddy facelift — even stepped in to accept the male vocalist award
for Keith Urban.

Urban, the hunky Australian also known as Mr. Nicole Kidman, was
busy drying out in an undisclosed rehab center and not able to
attend the awards, which were broadcast live on ABC in Nashville. It
was unfortunate timing, given that he's got one of the most hotly
anticipated country records of the year, "Love, Pain and the Whole
Crazy Thing," due in stores today.

Sara Evans provided some more high-profile buzz, thanks to an
embarrassingly public divorce that's caused her to pull out of
TV's "Dancing with the Stars." She did show up at the CMAs to
perform a relatively sedate version of "A Real Fine Place to Start"
that was more notable for the cut of her jeans, which appeared to be
restricting blood flow to all regions south of her navel. Evans then
swiftly ducked out of the frame of her close-up when "American Idol"
star Carrie Underwood beat her — and established acts Faith Hill,
Martina McBride and Gretchen Wilson — for female vocalist of the
year.

Underwood also picked up the horizon award that recognizes new
artists, giving her two enthusiastic thumbs up from the Nashville
community, which isn't always known for welcoming outsiders,
particularly ones who come from pop-driven televised karaoke
competitions like "American Idol."

Country traditionalist Brad Paisley also earned a pair of awards,
after being shut out last year with six nominations and not a single
trophy. His duet with Dolly Parton was anointed musical event, while
his fourth disc "Time Well Wasted' won album of the year.

Hugely popular — and populist — acts collected other key awards,
with Rascal Flatts getting the nod for vocal group and Kenny Chesney
grabbing the entertainer of the year honor. Both have sold out
multiple local concerts in recent years, with Rascal Flatts also
claiming the year's top-selling CD thus far.

As is usually the case with the CMAs, though, the focus was on the
performances with the actual awards sometimes feeling like space
fillers between songs. In fact, it was a good 40 minutes into the
three-hour ceremony before they got around to giving the second
award of the night. All the big winners, save for the absent Urban,
stepped up to the microphone to sing, as did Gretchen Wilson, Dierks
Bentley, Faith Hill, Josh Turner and the Wreckers.

True surprises were few and far between, although Brooks slipped in
a quip about being "loaded for bear" when introducing presenters
Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry, the latter of whom is facing
charges in Duluth that he shot a tame bear, yet tagged it as if it
were a wild animal.

Elsewhere in the show, horizon award nominees Little Big Town all
but begged Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to get their lawyers
on the phone by performing "Bones," a jaw-dropping and utterly
shameless retread of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." And speaking of
rip-offs, the famously mulletted former star Billy Ray Cyrus showed
up to give an award sporting a hairdo so perfectly Keith Urban-
esque, it might even trick Nicole Kidman.

Pop Music Critic Ross Raihala can be reached at
rraihala@... or 651-228-5553. Read more about the local
music scene on his blog, "The Ross Who Knew Too Much," at
blogs.twincities.com/ross.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/entertainment/15947167.htm?
source=rss&channel=twincities_entertainment
*******************************************************************
November 6, 2006 E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed


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By Rich Kane, Special to The Times


Just how punk rock is Lindsey Buckingham?

Well, not very — we're talking about a guy who, as a main player in
Fleetwood Mac, built his rep as an architect of mellow 1970s
California pop.

ADVERTISEMENT

But there were certainly flourishes of aural anarchy during his show
Friday at the Grove of Anaheim, where he slammed his guitar onto the
stage, spanked the strings like an inebriated chimp, then flopped
over and rolled around on his back. And there was the way he ended
an otherwise quiet, acoustic take of "Go Insane" — with a spurt of
guttural microphone howling that made you think he's developed an
affinity for screamo, or Swedish death-metal.

So much for mellow — the only thing missing was the heavy black
eyeliner and steel-studded wristbands.

Maybe Buckingham was trying to show off for his toddler kids — who
were watching from the crowd — by behaving like a man several
decades younger than his 57 years.

But this burst of undignified youthful inertia was definitely
preferable to what could have come from a guy who, since his last
solo outing in 1992, has turned into a happy family man — think
songs of squishy, I-love-being-a-dad sentimentality, of which the
rock canon is rife.

And while there are songs on his new "Under the Skin" album that
celebrate those joys, none come off so corny that you wouldn't ever
want to hear them again. The head-bobbing summertime lilt of "It Was
You," for instance, sounds like a lost tune from Buckingham's
breezy '70s oeuvre or even something that might have been penned by
his idol, Brian Wilson.

At the Grove, Buckingham dedicated the Mac chestnut "Never Going
Back Again" (but oddly not "It Was You") to his brood, which got the
inevitable kin-mention out of the way early. What followed was a
generous mix of songs from "Under the Skin"; some of his better-
known crowd-rousers, including "Second Hand News," "World
Turning," "Go Your Own Way" and "I'm So Afraid"; the rarely
performed "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and "Save Me a Place" from the Mac
opus "Tusk;" and the giddy "Holiday Road," his shoulda-been smash
from the "Vacation" soundtrack.

While the set list could've represented his midperiod work better —
there was just one song apiece from his pair of '80s albums, and
nothing at all from 1992's "Out of the Cradle" — it was still a good
time watching a clearly jazzed Buckingham revel in both his new
material and his cavalcade of hits from a career that's managed to
last as long as it has.

For a pseudo-punk, that's a pretty grand achievement.
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/pop/cl-et-
buckingham6nov06,0,6865254.story
*********************************************************************
Buckingham gets 'Under the Skin,' Fields 'Thinks of You' on new CDs
By Leslie Katz, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated:11/06/2006 11:43:19 AM PST


"Under the Skin," Lindsey Buckingham (Reprise)
There are few rock guitarists whose work is so distinct that it
instantly stands out in every circumstance, on every recording, even
to the casual listener. Lindsey Buckingham is one of those artists,
and his new album represents no exception. Compelling from start to
finish, "Under the Sun," Buckingham's first solo album in 14 years,
shows off the musician at his iconoclastic best.

Apparently he hasn't been the happiest guy in recent years. The CD's
tone veers away from the bounciness of the Fleetwood Mac
mastermind's 1970s megahits with that group, and even from his
sporadic solo work on three excellent albums in 25 years.

There's a personal, haunting starkness to many of the tunes, with
Buckingham preferring his virtuosic acoustic guitar — it sounds
almost classical at times — and minimal percussion over heavy
instrumentation. Buckingham produced all but two of the tunes on the
album, which was recorded, according to liner notes, "at home and on
the road."

Themes touch on issues facing people in middle age, from regret, on
the opening tune "Not Too Late" and "Cast Away Dreams" (clearly not
the vapid fare of today's hit radio), to the power of children,
on "Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind" and "Flying Down Jupiter."

While intense and thoughtful, Buckingham isn't morose. "Show You
How" pops and crackles, and "Down Home Radio," on which he's joined
by former bandmates Mick Fleetwood


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and John McVie, has a lingering Southern rock feel.
Tunes not written by Buckingham — "I Am Waiting" by Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards and "To Try for the Sun" by Donovan Leitch — fit
seamlessly into the mix.

"Under the Sun" benefits from repeated listenings, and is a must for
Buckingham fans.

"Thinking of You," Victor Fields (Regina)

For the utmost in smooth jazz, you can't top Victor Fields' latest
album, his fourth. The sultry vocalist's tunes go down mighty easy
on "Thinking of You," a collection of mostly R&B covers featuring
stellar guest musicians from the smooth jazz world. The lineup
includes producer Chris Comozzi, keyboardist Jeff Lorber,
saxophonist Richard Elliot and flugelhorn player Rick Braun.

Fields starts out with a silky version of Bill Withers' "Lovely
Day," setting the tone for the rest of the album. While none of the
renditions attempt to reinvent the wheel, at the same time, Fields'
sweet interpretations never sound like retreads.

Smooth jazz and soul lovers will enjoy Fields' takes on "Yearning
for Your Love," originally recorded by the Gap Band, "Creepin'"
(Stevie Wonder), "When Somebody Loves You Back" (Teddy
Pendergrass), "Butterflies" (Michael Jackson), "For the Cool in You"
(Babyface) and "What's Going On" (Marvin Gaye). "Walking in Rhythm"
by the Blackbyrds has a slower, more soulful vibe than the pumping
original.



Lindsey Buckingham performs at 8 p.m. Monday at the Palace of Fine
Arts, 3301 Lyon St., San Francisco. Call (510) 635-8497. Victor
Fields appears at 8 p.m. Friday at Holy Names University's Regents
Theater, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland; visit
http://www.ticketweb.com.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4607226?source=rss
*********************************************************************
Godfather of blues to rock region

KEIRON PIM

November 4, 2006

Eric Clapton went on to Cream and a hugely successful solo career,
Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin, Mick Taylor joined the Rolling
Stones and Peter Green went on to Fleetwood Mac.

What they all have in common, apart from being among the best
British rock guitarists of the 1960s, is one man: John Mayall. His
band The Bluesbreakers has always been known a finishing school for
the country's most promising blues musicians. For this reason, along
with the fact that at 72 he's a few years older than most of his
protιgιs, Mayall has been dubbed the Godfather of British Blues. And
40-plus years on from when he made his name, he is still touring
relentlessly and dedicating himself to promoting the music he loves.
This Sunday, November 5, The Bluesbreakers come to Norwich, and
Mayall is confident that his current lead guitarist could match
anyone you care to name from the band's past.

"We have a Texan blues guitarist, Buddy Whittington," he says. "The
mark of a great guitar player is if you listen to somebody and you
can tell who they are after a couple of bars.

"Buddy is in that category and the fact that he has been with me for
so many years attests to that. You never get bored listening to him."

His current line-up of The Bluesbreakers is the most settled in the
band's history, he explains.

"Over the last 20 years I think we have been very steady. Everybody
has been very supportive, I've had the best band I've ever had."

Mayall himself primarily plays keyboards and sings but is a multi-
instrumentalist bandleader, playing harmonica, lead guitar, piano
and Hammond organ during the course of a gig.

Music ran in the family. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, to a
semi-professional guitar player on November 29, 1933, and took an
early interest in jazz and blues by exploring his father's record
collection. As a teenager he had his first brush with fame, though
not for his music. He decided to leave the parental home moved into
his treehouse in the back garden. This typically eccentric decision
made the local papers, and after he had returned from a spell with
the army in Korea, he brought his first wife back to his treehouse
to live with him there.

He had been playing music since his early teens - by 14 he had
taught himself the basics of guitar and boogie woogie piano, though
in terms of a career he was studying to become an artist.

"As my career was directed towards graphic design, I never really
thought about becoming a professional musician. During the 50s,
England was dominated by the traditional jazz bands of the day and,
as there was no indication that the blues would ever have an
audience, I played only for my own satisfaction."

He began playing for an audience in the 1950s, however, and cut his
teeth fronting semi-professional bands The Powerhouse Four and Blues
Syndicate.

In 1963 he moved to London aged 29 and formed The Bluesbreakers. Two
years later he hired Eric Clapton in a move that propelled both
musicians' careers to a new level. Mayall also learnt his craft from
the originators of the music he loves, backing blues greats such as
John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker and Sonny Boy Williamson on their
English tours. He says he looks back fondly: "All those characters
are no longer with us. It was a great thrill to be able to back
them. I certainly learnt a lot from each of them: you learn a lot
about delivery. It makes you feel quite small and inadequate! But
you learn a lot."

The 1970s saw Mayall establish a solo career and move to Laurel
Canyon, near Los Angeles, which is where he remains based.

He suffered a setback in 1979 when his house burned down but by the
early 1980s was on the up again, reforming The Bluesbreakers with
Mick Taylor and John McVie, who had left the band in the mid-60s
with Peter Green to form Fleetwood Mac.

Although his career has fluctuated in terms of critical and
commercial success, Mayall is adamant that he has always found
something to enjoy in playing the blues.

Certain bands haven't been as popular as others but that's part of
the fabric of popular music," he said.

In fact, he is so engrossed in his current band that he was a little
reluctant to talk about the great musicians with whom he has worked
in the past.

"What I love most is the fact it's an ongoing career; every year we
play 120 shows," he says.

"There may be people who are bigger names than I am, but some of
them have got stuck with the same notes they have to play for the
last 20 or 30 years.

"I don't have time to look back and digest it all, it's an ongoing
project. But it's a great career to have experienced," he said.

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers are at the UEA at 8pm on Sunday,
November 5, supported by Stan Webb's Chicken Shack. Tickets cost
£20. For tickets call the UEA box office on 01603 508050. Then on
Monday, November 6, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers are at King's
Lynn Corn Exchange, telephone 01553 764864; followed by Ipswich Corn
Exchange on Tuesday, November 7, telephone 01473 433100.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/WhatsOn/story.asp?
brand=EDPOnline&category=WhatsOn&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=WhatsOn&i
temid=NOED03%20Nov%202006%2019%3A26%3A15%3A077
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Friday, November 3, 2006
Lindsey Buckingham: Breaking away
Finally finishing a solo album without Fleetwood Mac intervening,
Lindsey Buckingham has begun a new chapter in his career.
By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register
It isn't as though Lindsey Buckingham intended to take 14 years to
make another solo album. It isn't as if he hadn't tried numerous
times to resist the lure of another reunion with Fleetwood Mac.

It's just that, to paraphrase Al Pacino, whenever Buckingham thought
he was out, they'd pull him back in.

"There was a pattern of that happening for quite a while," the
singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist admitted by phone from
Chicago midway through his first Mac-free tour in more than a
decade. (He plays tonight at the Grove of Anaheim and a week later
at the Wiltern LG in L.A.)

"Even before 'Out of the Cradle' (his last solo effort, from 1992)
that would happen. There was a period before then when somehow a lot
of the material I was writing ended up on … uhhh …" He
chuckled. "Whatever that was called."

"Tango in the Night," from 1987, the last proper Fleetwood Mac
album – that is, the last one to feature the principals who recorded
the 1977 blockbuster "Rumours" – until 2003's "Say You Will."

"Right, that's it. That stuff was intended to be for a solo album.
This has been happening for many, many years, of getting into a
groove on my own terms, then having my intentions or needs
intervened at the 11th hour. Which often leads me to be mindful of
the greater good."

And he has put such wishes ahead of his own creative desires time
and again. While working on a follow-up to "Cradle" in 1997, for
instance, with the Mac's namesake rhythm section – drummer Mick
Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – he was persuaded to set aside his
plans and instead bring back pianist-vocalist Christine McVie and
former flame and writing partner Stevie Nicks. That led to an MTV
special and album ("The Dance") and enormously lucrative tour.

The pattern repeated itself three years ago. Buckingham was again
working on an insular, home-recorded, decidedly nonmainstream solo
album when, once more persuaded by the others to think bigger and
more commercially, most of its tunes were pillaged for another Mac
disc, the coolly received "Say You Will."

Not that he's bitter about that. "At least from my perspective there
are a lot of wonderful moments on that album," he says. "Whether it
hangs together as a whole piece, you know, that's debatable.
Certainly a lot of politics went into it, as usual – its
construction, its sequencing. But in retrospect, it seems like all
the material that ended up on 'Say You Will' was more appropriate
for that anyway."

One project, however, tends to lead to another: The richly textured
intimacy of Buckingham's acclaimed new work "Under the Skin,"
wouldn't have happened without his "Say You Will" experience –
specifically the tour that followed it. With Christine McVie opting
out, "It opened up this whole arena for more … testosteroneon stage,
shall we say."

More to the point, it allowed Buckingham a grander spotlight, which
he maximized by exploring tricky solo acoustic terrain on two
reworked numbers, "Big Love" and "Go Insane." "They had both been
ensemble pieces that became signature pieces on a single guitar on
that tour. That was the starting point for thinking along the lines
of what this new album became."

Yet, as he's quick to note, much of his work has become cyclical.
The array of subtle but hypnotic effects used on "Under the Skin" in
many ways plays like the full flowering of eccentric ideas that have
crept into all of Buckingham's work since he produced the Mac's 1979
studio opus "Tusk." The sales of that challenging album were
something of a letdown after the unprecedented success of "Rumours"
but its stature has only grown as the decades have gone by.

Buckingham often refers to the bedrock approach set forth on that
offbeat gem as "the left side" – of his brain, of a sonic style,
definitely of the commercial spectrum.

" 'Tusk' was the moment of definition for me, of drawing a line in
the sand," he explains. "Whatever I've defined myself as, in terms
of drawing from that left side of the palette and somehow balancing
that out with something more mainstream – which can be more than a
little neurotic, I realize – it all stems from that.

"That album was such a great release for me. But it also shifted the
dynamic between me and the band. After it didn't sell 16 million
copies, a dictum was handed down: 'Lindsey, we can't let you produce
records.' That's what led me to do solo albums in the first place."

All of his subsequent solo work – from 1981's "Law and Order" and
1984's "Go Insane" on through "Cradle" and the new "Skin" – has
proven far more introspective and evolutionary than his Fleetwood
Mac sides. It seems therapeutic, each album reassessing his life and
reputation.

And nowhere is that more evident than on "Under the Skin." Now 57,
married since 2000 and the father of three kids (Will, Leelee and
Stella), Buckingham seems content at last in songs like "Show You
How" and "It Was You."

"Having stability at home actually gives you a creative foundation,"
he says. "All the things we did all those years ago when we were
living a lifestyle, abusing substances, that feeds into a subculture
thought that it's something you have to do in order to be creative.
Obviously that's not the case. It's really more about your focus and
how much of your idealism you can keep intact."

But elsewhere on an album teeming with mesmerizing finger-picking
and haunting, delicate soundscapes Buckingham continues to grapple
with the plight of the overlooked genius. It's right there in his
opening statement, "Not Too Late": "Reading the paper / Saw a
review / Said I was a visionary / But nobody knew / Now that's been
a problem / Feeling unseen / Just like I'm living somebody's dream."

"Some people have misconstrued that song to think that I literally
feel unseen or literally think of myself as a visionary, which isn't
the case. It's more about the difference between what people
perceive you to be and how you perceive yourself – and the pitfalls
between the two. It's about what one has to do to hold that line in
the sand, and how the psychology you sometimes have to employ to do
so can keep you invisible, apart from the machinery.

Now, however, it appears that Buckingham may be artistically free
from the machinery – the industry that is Fleetwood Mac – once and
for all.

"Touring is one animal," he says. "I would not disagree with anyone
who has the notion that we'll tour again at some point. Maybe not
till 2008, depending on what goes on with me." But another Mac
album? "To me that would totally hinge on Stevie, and my last
understanding was that she wasn't interested in making any more new
music.

"That could change. Sometimes she'll react strongly one moment, then
think it over and change her mind, as we all do. But for now, I feel
like I have people in my corner at (longtime label) Warner Bros.
People saying, 'Do this, and if you want do another album in short
order' – which is what I'd like to do – 'then do it. And if
Fleetwood Mac is knocking, let 'em knock for a while."

Finally, it seems, everything is in place for Buckingham to come
into his own.

"It really feels like the best time of my life."

He let out a laugh. "Now I'm just waiting for the bottom to drop
out."

CONTACT US: 714-796-2248 or bwener@...
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/music/abox/article
_1342625.php
*********************************************************************
Bette Midler's fundraiser brings celebs out -- and in costume
Liz Smith
Originally published November 2, 2006

Bette Midler's annual "Hulaween" fundraiser for her New York
Restoration Project doesn't always happen on Oct. 31. This year it
did -- in spades -- which meant that almost without exception, every
person who crammed into the Waldorf's ballroom was in costume.




The costumes were fabulously inventive, colorful and some of them
quite wicked. (There was one girl wearing a sequined T-shirt that
said "Mrs. Ritchie." She carried an African doll in a bundle slung
across her arm. The photographers went wild for her.)

Bette appeared as a goddess of nature with what seemed to be a large
dangling fern headpiece. (She later explained it was a faucet!) Joy
Behar, her co-auctioneer, was got up as Queen Elizabeth II. (Harvey
Fierstein said she looked more like Golda Meir or Leona Helmsley.)
The auction was fast, furious and fabulously vulgar. Bette did her
level best to get those big bucks -- and she did. ("Is that Michael
Fuchs' table? Is that you, Michael? Are you raising your hand or
just waving to me? Do I have to come down there?" Fuchs coughed up,
naturally.) And Bette is so persuasive talking about her wish to
make the city a lovely, welcoming environment, not only of steel,
glass and concrete, but of trees and grass -- well, you want to go
right out and plant a sapling. Bette says her own goal is to
plant "a million trees" in New York. Costumed celebs included
Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart, Michael Kors, Danny Aiello, Lee Daniels
and Anne Hathaway.

Willie Nelson was honored for his founding of Farm Aid. He and Bette
sang an exquisite "Wind Beneath My Wings." Then Willie sang some
more -- perhaps more than expected. Stevie Nicks was waiting to take
the stage.

All I can say is it was worth the wait. The audience went berserk as
Nicks appeared. Her voice, one of the most distinctive in rock 'n'
roll, was rich and full. As Nicks went into her famous
trademark "twirl," the crowd yelled loud enough to be heard out on
Park Avenue. Forty minutes later when she finished, the room was on
its feet and Bette herself was rocking out. It was funny, campy and
thanks to Stevie, enjoyably sweaty. This is another triumph for
Bette Midler, who raised an incredible $2 million for the work that
keeps New York City No. 1 in the world!



P.S. on Stevie Nicks
This iconic, somewhat mysterious performer spends time these days
visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital in
Washington. She gives presence, support and iPods filled with great
music as well. Asked about this, she blushes and brushes it
off: "They're great guys -- and gals. No matter what you think about
the war, it's the least anybody can do, right?" Right.


[Tribune Media Services]
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-
to.liz02nov02,0,619965.story?track=rss