Fleetwood Mac star (and Atherton native) personalizes solo CD
By Shay Quillen, MEDIANEWS STAFF
Article Last Updated: 01/16/2007 11:14:11 AM PST


Lindsey Buckingham's latest CD "Under the Skin" is in stores now.
WHENEVER he gets away from his responsibilities in Fleetwood Mac,
Lindsey Buckingham has always gone his own way.
"It's not like Fleetwood Mac is about any one thing," he says, "but
certainly, if you cut to the chase, it's about the bottom line in a
lot of people's minds. Whatever I might be interested in is not. So
you have to make the choice and then fight the fight."

For "Under the Skin," his first solo album in 14 years, the Atherton
native has stripped the music to its essential elements:
Buckingham's intensely personal lyrics over his accomplished
acoustic finger-picking, with no drums or bass.

"If I had wanted this album to reach the broadest audience it could
have, I would have made a more normal album," he says.

Instead, it's an intimate portrait of the artist as a middle-age
man, a once-restless rock star who seems to have found both creative
and personal fulfillment at age 57.

Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, along with fellow Menlo-
Atherton High School alum Stevie Nicks, and his songs, voice, guitar
prowess and production skills helped transform a fairly successful
British blues-rock band into an L.A.-based pop-rock juggernaut.

The band hasn't been Buckingham's only outlet. He has released four
solo albums in the years since, and left the band entirely from 1987
to 1997, but both Fleetwood Mac and Buckingham have found more
commercial success together than apart.

The new album's first song, "Not Too Late," was


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inspired by an article in Rolling Stone that Buckingham read while
on tour with Fleetwood Mac. It opens, "Reading the paper saw a
review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew."
Buckingham makes clear that "visionary" was critic Bud Scoppa's
word, not his own, but he expresses pride in having stuck to his
artistic guns over the years, despite pressures that come with being
part of a successful band.

"When you are in a situation where you are defining yourself in ways
that others do not wish you to define yourself, you have to be your
own best booster, because there's really not going to be anyone
else," he says. "Especially when it's pitted against some large
machine like Fleetwood Mac."

The song also introduces the album's key theme: family. It's the
first album he's made since getting married and having kids — now
ages 8, 6 and 2 — and his family's presence is felt throughout the
album, both in the lyrics and in the photos that illustrate the
booklet.

"It Was You" plainly and directly expresses gratitude to his wife
and the family she gave him, in a multitude of overdubbed Buckingham
vocals. The album closes with "Flying Down Juniper," a song inspired
by childhood memories of riding bikes down Juniper Drive in
Atherton.

"It ran right into the front of our house, so any time we would
leave and go out into that world, we were going down Juniper Drive,"
he says. "It really was just a thing of thinking about childhood and
those times, and how magical they seem. And family."

Buckingham plans to tour the new album through July and then to
record another solo album, expected to come out early in 2008. Then
he'll return to his more lucrative job.

"I'm just trying to give myself the window to complete these
projects properly," says Buckingham, who on multiple occasions has
seen his own solo projects cannibalized into Fleetwood Mac
albums. "And then we'll see what Fleetwood Mac wants to do after
that."
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_5022647?source=rss
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Fleetwood fires up fans with old hits
By JEFF MIERS
News Pop Music Critic
1/13/2007

Click to view larger picture

Mick Fleetwood keeps the pace in a Mac attack of hits covering three
decades.
CONCERT REVIEW
Mick Fleetwood Band
Friday night in Avalon Ballroom, Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort.
Another performance at 9 tonight.

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - Mick Fleetwood, half of the namesake for one
of the most successful rock bands in history, Fleetwood Mac, doesn't
need to tour to support himself any longer.
The Mac's success has made him quite comfortable, financially, and
though the group is on hiatus more than it is working these days,
Fleetwood could be enjoying peace, quiet and prosperity at home.

Instead, he has gathered a few of his oldest friends and hit the
road under his own imprimatur. Clearly, the Mick Fleetwood Band is a
labor of love for all involved.

On Friday, during the first of two evenings of sold-out shows inside
the Avalon Ballroom, Fleetwood and pals Billy Burnette, Rick Vito
and George Hawkins Jr. dug deep for Fleetwood Mac tunes covering
three decades, and threw in some surprising, and delightful, cover
tunes.

The show commenced with Fleetwood striding straight to the front-of-
stage microphone and introducing his band mates in a relaxed,
conversational manner.

This was an unusual move, but fit the loose, laid-back atmosphere of
the entire show. Guitarists Burnette and Vito are seasoned players,
and have long histories with Fleetwood. Most notably, the pair
joined Fleetwood Mac following guitarist and principal songwriter
Lindsey Buckingham's departure from the band, in the mid-'80s.
Bassist Hawkins has performed with Fleetwood intermittently over the
years, as well.

With the introductions out of the way, the band got down to
business, and it was immediately clear that this outfit had much
more in common with the first version of Fleetwood Mac - when
original guitarist Peter Green led the band through a visceral
fusion of blues and rock in the late '60s, launching the future
careers of an untold number of guitarists in the process - than it
did with the more popular hit-making machine led by Buckingham and
Stevie Nicks in the '70s.

"Monday Morning" is, in fact, a Buckingham song, but when this band
opened with it on Friday, it came across like a Green-era bluesy
romp. Burnette handled the vocals beautifully, and Vito's slide
guitar playing was jaw-dropping.

The Green tunes came quickly, with Vito handling the vocals on the
evergreen, "Oh Well," and then leading the group through a torrid
take of Green's "Black Magic Woman," a tune made famous by Santana.

The Fleetwood Band's version was heavier and bluesier, and during
the song's coda, which Santana used as an opportunity to interpolate
Gabor Szabo's "Gypsy Queen," the group kicked into swampy blues
shuffle.

More than any other guitarist this writer has experienced in the
live setting, Vito can channel Green - from the legendary
guitarist's shimmering, sweeping vibrato, to his achingly restrained
blues phrases. The crowd responded appropriately with a loud roar at
the tune's conclusion.

"Rattlesnake Shake," another early Mac classic, got a serious
workout, Vito again bringing down the house with his vibrant
soloing. Burnette's "My Love Will Not Change," a tune he wrote for
the bluegrass outfit, the Del McCoury Band, was granted a hopping
rockabilly treatment, much like the approach taken on "When the Sun
Goes Down," a Burnette/Vito tune from Fleetwood Mac's
undervalued "Behind the Mask" album.

Throughout all of this, Fleetwood simply beamed from behind his kit,
his pure locomotive force as a drummer balanced by his taste,
restraint, and ability to move fluidly between straight four-on-the-
floor rock beats, swing-blues, rockabilly, and even a jazzy country
ballad.

The band returns to the Avalon Ballroom this evening for a second
sold-out show.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070113/1041210.asp
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`Folk Songs' at the Fulton
Symphony performance includes vocal acrobatics from Gap resident
Karen Rogers Blanchard

By Rebecca J. Ritzel
Intelligencer Journal

Published: Jan 12, 2007 12:09 AM EST

LANCASTER, Pa. - Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. Stevie Nicks and
Lindsey Buckingham. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. None of these
couples were meant to last, yet each left artistic legacies in the
wakes of a rocky relationship.

Add to that list a more obscure musical marriage: composer Luciano
Berio and mezzo soprano Cathy Berberian. They met in 1950 in Milan,
where Berberian, a young American, was studying voice on a Fulbright
scholarship, and Berio, an aspiring composer, was working as an
accompanist. They married within months but never settled down,
physically or emotionally. Composer and singer kept collaborating
with remarkable results, even after Berio moved on to the second of
his three wives.

Tonight, Lancaster Symphony will perform Berio's "Folk Songs," a
1964 collection of traditional tunes from around the world, with
music written and arranged by Berio and lyrics collected by himself
and Berberian. The concert also will include Rachmaninoff's lush,
cinematic Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich's lively Festive Overture.
The program repeats Saturday and Sunday at Fulton Opera House.

To find a woman capable of the vocal acrobatics that "Folk Songs"
requires, music director Stephen Gunzenhauser invited six of the
singers who applied to come perform a few songs from the cycle.
Gunzenhauser and two additional judges from Pennsylvania Academy of
Music sat behind a screen and listened.

The unanimous winner was soprano Karen Rogers Blanchard, a Gap
resident who is married to Tom Blanchard, the orchestra's personnel
director and principal percussionist.

No nepotism here.

"It was a blind audition," explained M. Scott Robinson, the
orchestra's executive director. "She was the best."

The singers each were given a number and not allowed to talk before
or after performing. Blanchard delivered a raw but well rehearsed
performance.

"I had the voice that he wanted to hear, for this piece, on that
day," the soprano said. She had been hoping to sing for Gunzenhauzer
for some time, but didn't want to take advantage of her husband's
connections.

In that professional sense, the Blanchards do bear some similarities
to Berio and Berberian, but their marriage is better compared to
talented working couples like Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick or
Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Tom and Karen met in the early 1990s
while studying music at Temple University. They now have two
children, Justin and Amelia, who are ten and seven.

Blanchard's early career accolades include collaborating with
GianCarlo Menotti, the legendary opera composer who wrote "The
Telephone" and "Ahmal and the Night Visitors." She has sung several
supporting roles with Opera Company of Philadelphia but said, at
this point in her life, singing ranks as a distant second priority
behind raising her kids. So while Tom tours the world playing
timpani with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Karen seeks opportunities
to sing closer to home.

"We can't both be out all week and out on weekends," she said. "I'm
very picky about what I take, because it has to be worth leaving my
kids behind."

Most recently, she's enjoyed singing with The Crossing, a choral
ensemble that David Patrick Stearns, the Philadelphia' Inquirer's
music critic, has called "an answered prayer" for the city's music
scene. The group specializes in both Renaissance music and new
choral works.

"I love modern music," Blanchard said. "That's why I wanted to
sing `Folk Songs.' "

Berberian, like Blanchard, specialized in early music and works
written by herself, her ex-husband and John Cage. Of her own
compositions, the most notorious is "Stripsody," a pastiche of comic
strip bubbles like "Zap," "Zip" and other onomatopoeia sounds.
Berberian became known for what's now called extended vocal
technique — stretching the definition of singing to include all
possible utterances.

"Folk Songs" is tame by Berio's standards, but Blanchard still will
have a chance to demonstrate what made Berio and Berberian's work so
revolutionary. Each of the 11 songs represents the music of a
different culture. The aural tour begins in Appalachia, with the
traditional "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" and proceeds
through Armenia, France, Italy, Russia and Azerbaijan.

"I like the challenge of being able to create a new character and a
new style for each song," Blanchard said. The most challenging
character is a Sicilian fisherman's wife who pleads with God for her
husband's safe return. "That's the only one that I struggle with,"
Blanchard said. "It's ugly and nasally. To do it well, I think it's
not supposed to be pretty, but I don't like like producing a sound
that doesn't have some beauty to it."

Blanchard has listened to many recordings of "Folk Songs" while
crafting her interpretations. One by soprano Dawn Upshaw was
nominated for a Grammy in 2005, but Blanchard has been keenly aware
that not everyone likes "Folk Songs" at first listen. She certainly
didn't, and therein lies her challenge for this weekend.

"It takes living with this piece to really love it," Blanchard
said. "Now I love `Folk Songs," but I have to sell it in one
performance."


"The Romance of Rachmaninoff," Lancaster Symphony Orchestra with
acclaimed soprano, Karen Rogers Blanchard, Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 3 p.m.
& 8 p.m., Sun. 7:30 p.m., Fulton Opera House, 12 N. Prince St., $21-
$55, 397-7425.
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/29426
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Lindsey Buckingham recharges his creative batteries
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By Joshua Rotter
Special to The Record
January 11, 2007 6:00 AM
As Fleetwood Mac's frontman for the past 30 years, singer-guitarist
Lindsey Buckingham was no stranger to the spotlight. Still, he could
hide behind his bandmates, their blockbuster productions and the
emotional walls he put up to withstand their public successes and
private failures.

However, following an argument with his wife during the making of
his new, aptly-titled third solo album "Under the Skin," he realized
that he'd have to shed his old ways, inspiring the track "Cast Away
Dreams."

"There are times when you have to give up something or allow oneself
to compromise," he said. "I got past the emotional turmoil and all
the success from the 'Rumours' days.

Concert preview
Lindsey Buckingham

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Turlock Community Theatre, 1574 E. Canal Drive, Turlock

Admission: $39-$61

Information: (209) 668-1169
"The emotional walling up to get through the creative experience
left some scars and questions, but I was able to pull down some
stuff and have children. I've changed on a creative level, no drums,
no bass, no lead guitars, very paired down. The intimacy of that
seemed to coincide with things personally."

Buckingham captures the stripped down spirit of the acoustic guitar-
driven album on his current tour by playing a career-spanning set,
backed only by a three-piece band. He performs Friday in Turlock.

"The last time I traveled with an army of guitarists," he
said. "This album is more scaled down, and this tour is appropriate
to the scale. I now feel more connected with the audience."

"Under the Skin" gets at many of the personal changes Buckingham's
undergone in the 14 years since his last solo release, from learning
to be present on "Show You How" to the wonders of parenthood on "It
Was You."

"We all spent many years being self-absorbed," he said. "But at this
point, I would easily and happily give up anything to assure the
well-being of my family."

Raised in Palo Alto, Buckingham and then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks
joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. Their tumultuous breakup inspired the
band's No. 1 best-selling album "Rumours" (1977). The Buckingham-
driven experimental LP "Tusk" (1979) paved the way for three
critically acclaimed solo albums, "Law and Order" (1981), with the
top 10 hit "Trouble," "Go Insane" (1984), and "Out of the Cradle"
(1992).

With band commitments, however, Buckingham's solo career often was
halted as individual projects, "Tango in the Night" (1987),
preceding his decade-long departure from the group, and "Say You
Will" (2003) became Fleetwood Mac releases.

"On several occasions I intended to get out a solo album," he
said. "But I had to be mindful of the needs of Fleetwood Mac, so I
had to divert my attention."

As Buckingham will soon rejoin his band to prepare for a 2008 tour,
it's fair to say that growing as an individual has helped the singer-
guitarist as a band mate.

"We're a work in progress as people," he said. "In terms of Stevie
and myself, she sometimes knee-jerks into something, as will I. But
we've ended up in a place where we're happy with each other as
friends."

Till then, his solo work, which yields him more creatively than
commercially, will remain his primary focus. In fact, he will
release another solo album later this year.

"I'm not burning up the charts, but I'm happy if I can just sell a
thousand a week and keep visible," he said. "But if you do nothing
but solo work, you're shooting yourself in the foot."

Contact Joshua Rotter at features@...
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AID=/20070111/A_ENTERTAIN/701110301/-1/rss03
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X/O brunch
X/O Chicago
3441 N. Halsted St.

Includes an appetizer buffet and made-to-order entrees. Upgrades
include champagne and oysters on the half shell. Each week features
a different music theme from Motown to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna.

Through Jan. 28

Sundays : 11 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Price: $19.95-$42.90
Phone: 773-348-9696

*******************************************************************
Last Updated: January 4, 2007
Get Into The Act: Breaking Up The BandBreaking Up The Band is an
acoustic duo that found its name, and its purpose, quite easily.
Vocalist Connie Edinger and guitarist Mike Fritz started playing
together in August 2005 when they were in a band that was breaking
up.

Forming a duo gave them the versatility they desired, Edinger
says. ''We love the format of the duo, we can do anything. We play
everything from A to Z, Alanis [Morrisette] to [Warren] Zevon.''



Lehigh Valley Local Links


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BREAKING UP THE BANDMusic: Acoustic classic rock
Performing: 7:30 p.m. Friday, The Java Lounge, 60 S. Main St.,
Nazareth, 610-759-0820
Band members: Connie Edinger, vocals and percussion; Mike Fritz,
guitar
On the Net: http://www.sarune.com/connie;
www.myspace.com/connieedinger Expect an energetic vocal performance
coupled with solid guitar playing. The duo plays classic rock that
includes Heart, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Billy Joel,
Led Zeppelin, and they mix in just about anything.

''We'll play whatever you want,'' says Edinger.

Edinger was nominated for Best Female Vocalist at the 2006 Lehigh
Valley Music Awards, and is a veteran of many local bands including
Magik, Lucky 7, Electric Sleeves and Connie's Brigade. Her
background includes performing in her school chorus, musicals and
marching and stage bands, as well as playing drums and percussion.
Fritz spent many years as a guitarist with local band Bedlam.

Edinger also works as an actress. She has appeared on the television
series ''Forensic Files,'' and done commercials.

''I try to do it all,'' she says, ''but I love singing and pleasing
an audience.''

Marc Waldman
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/all-
act_breakingjan04,0,7125502.story?track=rss