By Felicia Naoum
Members Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac have come together as a duo for an album and tour and are bringing a taste of it to Cleveland at the Rocksino on Friday, November 3rd at 8 PM.
Although the collaboration may be a surprise to Fleetwood Mac fans, it has been in-the-making since Fleetwood Mac’s “On with the Show Tour” just a few years ago. During this tour, the two realized that musical fire was burning between them and their undying chemistry resulted in an album simply titled: Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie.
Although these two Fleetwood members are together as one now, they haven’t always been a duo perse. McVie has put out solo albums in the past, with her latest being In the Meantime, 2004. She has since semi-retired from the music business only to reunite with Fleetwood Mac in 2014.
As for Buckingham, he was once a “One Man Show” but no longer. He too has released solo works including his latest solo live album, One Man Show, 2012. Buckingham was the recipient of both the ASCAP Golden Note Award and the Les Paul Award in 2011.
Both solo artists can stand alone but are better together with the agreement that their music comes from nothing but that good place. “We bring out the best in each other,” says Buckingham. Buckingham adds that making each other better has always been their relationship and he’s really surprised that it took the duo this long to create their own music together.
McVie adds that the album has been built on several years of their longstanding friendship that has been much more positive than negative. “There really have been decades of mutual respect between Lindsey and myself,” says McVie. “We’ve had a lot of musical chemistry, and thankfully, not a lot of baggage. And now there’s this new album we’ve made together that I hope and believe beautifully reflects all of the respect and chemistry we share.”
Perhaps, too, McVie needed her partner and friend, Buckingham to bring her back to music. As McVie admits, “I’m a band person. As a solo artist, I’m not as driven as most. Then I retired for sixteen years — regrettably, perhaps. Yet then again, maybe there was a reason, the universe making me realize what making music means to me. I did not reunite for some matter of convenience.”
Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac is family to Mcvie. And this family seems to always come back to each other.
“Lindsey – and everyone in Fleetwood Mac — really has been my big, beautiful, crazy family, and I missed them, I missed making music with them. I missed their company. And I missed their faces, the way you do with family. That’s why I’ve returned to music and rejoined the circus. Like the last song on this album says, it was time this carnival begins again.”
And it begins again, indeed, and ironically beginning again in familiar territory. The birth of Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie came easy to the bandmates and was recorded at The Village Studios in LA where Fleetwood Mac recorded several albums. And this creation was effortless. Buckingham even says that when Christine hears a hook, you better stop and hear it, too. “Christine has always been known as the hit songwriter in Fleetwood Mac,” he says.
Even though this duo is dynamite together, there is a piece of Fleetwood Mac on this album. You may not be able to “hear” from the other iconic bandmembers, but maybe you can feel them because Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were also in the studio with the duo as they recorded.
Meet Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie at the Rocksino (Northfield Park) on November 3rd for new beginnings that go way back.
Photo by John Russo
