Fever

Lindsey Buckingham
Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
Saturday, October 7, 2006

What if Fleetwood Mac's guitarist played a show at the Ryman and a Backstreet Boys concert broke out?

I never thought I'd be pondering a question like that, but I certainly was last night. It doesn't surprise me that Lindsey Buckingham has rabid fans. The guy is an masterful guitarist and songwriter, and a member of one of the most popular bands of the last 30 years. But I was totally unprepared for the estrogen fueled mania that took place last night. By midway through the concert, a huge mass of mainly middle-aged women had rushed the stage, and the 80 year old ushers at the Ryman were powerless to get them to return to their seats. Lindsey seemed genuinely excited and apprectiative of the raucous reception he received from the crowd, finishing several songs by literally jumping up and down like an excited school boy.

The show was definitely worthy of the response. The evening started with a three solo songs, including an sublime version of his 1981 solo hit "Trouble." His band then came out and played a 90 minute set that pulled heavily from his new album Under The Skin. Of course there were several songs from his Fleetwood Mac catalog, the highlights including a stripped down take on "Tusk," an amazing version of "I'm So Afraid," and the surprise of the evening, "World Turning," a song that had its genesis way back in the days when Peter Green was still leading Fleetwood Mac. After an encore that began with "Holiday Road," Lindsey came up front to sign a few autographs for the throng of people that had gathered in front of the stage. When it quickly became obvious that he was only encouraging more people to rush up front, he wisely returned to the microphone and asked the crowd if they wanted to hear another song, treating the crowd to a bonus encore of "Bleed To Love Her" before leaving the stage.

For your listening pleasure, here are two rare tracks burned from the 1992 promo CD Words And Music.

Lindsey Buckingham - "Holiday Road" (mp3)
Buckingham Nicks - "Stephanie" (mp3)

"Holiday Road" is of course the theme song from National Lampoon's Vacation. "Stephanie" is an instrumental from the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album. If you were going to make a list of the most sought after albums that have never been released on CD, this one would surely make the list. But I'm sure you could find a digital copy of it if you looked hard enough...

Photo by flyfirelry.

post title by Peggy Lee