Midway through Lindsey Buckingham’s sold-out show Sunday night, he spoke about the tension that exists in making music for a “selling machine,” and working from what he termed “the left side of the palate.”

“I think one helps the other,” he said. “The audience for the ‘other’ is – you.”

Though obviously a reference to solo projects like the recently released “Gift of Screws,” Buckingham’s “left palate” includes a few turns his group Fleetwood Mac have taken away from their hit-making formula over the years.

The singer/guitarist evenly divided the evening’s music between solo material and Mac songs, but stayed esoteric, saving the big hits for the end of the show.

An enthusiastic crowd stayed with him for every note.

He opened with two songs from the new album, the frenetic “Great Day” and “Love Runs Deeper,” followed by a pair from his earlier solo works (“Trouble” and “Go Insane”),

The clearest indication that Lindsey Buckingham’s iconoclastic, left-leaning palate was on display came with the first Fleetwood Mac selection of the evening - “Tusk,” the title track of the 1979 album that confounded the music industry, and more than a few fans, who expected another “Rumours.”

He followed it with the poppy “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (also from “Tusk”), and the title cut from “Gift of Screws,” an Emily Dickinson poem turned punk rave-up.

A three-song acoustic interlude surprisingly provided the strongest guitar pyrotechnics of the night. A slightly revved-up “Never Going Back Again” (an overlooked “Rumours” gem) gave way to “Big Love,” a percolating boogie first stripped down for “The Dance,” Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 live reunion album.

Buckingham’s solo turn ended with “Shut Us Down,” as Buckingham’s fingers ranged up and down his guitar’s fret board with the finesse of Leo Kottke, taking the poignant song from a whisper to a scream.

The intimate opera house booking provided a special opportunity to see a performer usually at home in arenas and, during the heady 1970’s, baseball stadiums.  At times, the room seemed too small to contain him.

Several in the crowd reacted like smitten teenagers, rushing the stage and standing for the entire show.

For “World Turning,” drummer Alfredo Reyes tried his best Mick Fleetwood impression, flailing the drums with his bare hands, but came up a bit short.  What followed – a brief hip-hop excursion using Buckingham’s sampled voice – was equally unnecessary.

But all was forgiven with the incendiary “So Afraid,” which brought the entire crowd to its feet, where they stayed for the first finale, “Go Your Own Way.”

His three-song encore included the infectious Mac classic, “Second Hand News,” along with “Don’t Look Down” and “Treason.”  Buckingham was quick to point out that the latter song, the final track on the new album, had nothing to do with current events, but was more about “the lies we tell each other.”

As the night progressed, Buckingham opened up to the adoring crowd, and his stories grew longer and more personal. “You’re blessed to live in a beautiful place,” he said at one point.  “It’s transcendent.”

He was clearly having a great time, and after a feeble attempt to say good night, obliged demands for a second encore.  To the delight of everyone, he played an audience request, “Bleed To Love Her” (from Fleetwood Mac’s last studio album, “Say You Will”).

While he waited for a roadie to deliver a different guitar with a special tuning, he bantered with fans, and even signed a proffered copy of “Buckingham/Nicks” – the pre-Fleetwood Mac album he did with Stevie Nicks 35 years ago.

It was a neat closing of the circle, on a night that left everyone, band and fans alike, satisfied beyond expectations.

Leben 326– Dienstag, 14.10.08

Während Fleetwood Mac den „Albatross“ durch mein Schreibezimmer fliegen lässt, dank meines Lieblingssenders, von dem ich jetzt nicht schon wieder erwähnen will, dass es sich um SWR1/RP handelt, während also dieser stolze, grazile Vogel mich seinen Flügelschlag spüren lässt, denke ich mir, es muss raus, man kann das nicht einfach so für sich behalten.

Irgendwie waren die Nachbarkinder doof. Brav waren sie sowieso. Vorzeigebrav. „Nimm Dir mal ein Beispiel“ fingen einige dieser Sätze an, die ich bis zum Gehtnichtmehr hasste. Die blöden Sätze endeten meist mit den Namen der Nachbarkinder.

Peter und der Wolf haben die andauernd gehört. Wenn ich mal zu Besuch war, wurde ich gefragt, ob ich nicht Peter und der Wolf hören wolle. Wahrscheinlich ist das sogar was „Gutes“, aber die Nachbarvorzeigekinder haben es geliebt. Darum ich nicht.

Wir spielen hinter dem Haus, zwischen den Wäscheaufhängestangen. Fußball. Handball. Irgendwasball. Es kommt zum Streit. Die anderen ärgern mich. Oder umgekehrt. Egal. Die Sache eskaliert. Irgendwas passiert. Vielleicht werden wir sogar handgreiflich.

Die Nachbareltern lassen sich auf dem Balkon blicken. Da oben auf dem Nachbarbalkon. Und es reicht nicht, dass ihre Balgen Stress machen, jetzt vernehme ich vom Balkon auch noch Lebensweisheiten, die ich verächtlich mit Nichthingucken quittiere.

Der Redeschwall nimmt kein Ende, da sorge ich für die einzig angemessene Antwort: „IHR SEID ALLES ARSCHLÖCHER!!!“ rufe ich nach oben, so laut ich kann. Oh, wie ging’s mir da gut, als es raus war.

Minuten später taten mir einige Körperteile weh, unverhofft würde ich mal sagen. Mein Vater hatte kein direktes Verständnis über mein Urteil bezüglich der Nachbarn.

Egal, mir war klar, dass das hier keine Zukunft hatte. Ich wollte dieser dekadenten Welt eine letzte Chance geben, bevor ich nach Amerika auswandern würde. Als blinder Passagier auf einem leeren Bananendampfer. Soviel war sicher. So riss ich ein Kalenderblatt ab aus einem Taschenkalender, holte meine Buntstifte, krakelte unbeholfen „Ich klage an!“ und schmiss diesen Zettel in den Nachbarbriefkasten.

Das kam nun auch nicht unbedingt gut. Weder bei den Nachbarn. Noch bei meinem Vater. Über Details schweige ich jetzt mal.

Und das Auswandern? Ich glaube, ich wurde beim Schreibwaren-Lotto-Toto-Laden aufgegriffen, als mein Kaufverhalten ahnen ließ, dass ich nicht wiederkommen würde...

Peter Green’s Musik schwebt immer noch durch meine nächtliche Schreibwerkstatt und mit ihm und seiner grandiosen Musik lasse ich diese Begebenheit descressendo ausklingen.

© Ulf Runge, 2008

Or Maybe it's just the result of looking at something so dang cute all day, tends to make one feel like the united states government is not in fact, going to implode on itself.

Annie and I post Elianna feeding and swaddle.  Obviously the girl on the right, lacking said subtle collectedness, shall not be endowed with a child anytime soon.

Thankfully.

2. Also, my roommate told me a secret about this place in Berkeley called Urban Ore. A whole warehouse full of recycled, reusable EVERYTHING!

died. and. gone. to. heaven.

I assure you I will be posting much more about this in the very near future.

3.  Speaking of  things imploding, on themselves.  It has occurred to me that we might collectively be able to put an end to war as we know it, or at least save ourselves about a billion dollars on psychotherapy bills if we were all allowed to do this anytime life/love really sucked:

Feel better? Me too.

By JON FERGUSON, Staff Writer
LancasterOnline.com

Lindsey Buckingham considers "Tusk" his first solo album.

The follow-up to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" (1977), one of the best-selling albums of all time, "Tusk" was considered something of a commercial disappointment, even though it sold about 4 million copies.

Artistically, however, "Tusk" (1979) was a stunning success. The album was ambitious, edgy, experimental and exciting — all those things follow-ups to blockbusters rarely are because the tendency on the part of the artist is to play it safe.

Buckingham would later find out his bandmates were among those who wished they had hewed more closely to the Fleetwood Mac formula in hopes of repeating the numbers generated by "Rumours" (about 30 million sold worldwide).

"The band, in the wake of the comparatively moderate sales, there was a kind of politic that came down and said, 'We're not going to do that anymore,' " Buckingham, 59, said during a telephone interview from a Chicago motel room.

Buckingham, a singer, songwriter and guitarist who also was the architect of Fleetwood Mac's sound during its commercial heyday, got the message. The next two Fleetwood Mac albums — "Mirage" (1982) and "Tango in the Night" (1987) — were both approximations, however tepid, of "Rumours." There was no attempt to break new ground.

Buckingham — who is married and the father of three children, ages 4, 8 and 10 — would save his more adventurous music for his solo career, which he kicked off in 1981 with "Law and Order."

"The only place to explore the left side of one's palette at that point was to make solo albums," Buckingham said. "By virtue of the fact that they are the left side of the palette, generally speaking, I don't think you reach as many people. So given that as a basis for what I've done in solo work, I have never necessarily expected big commercial success nor have I enjoyed it.

"I do these things for the validity of doing the work and for keeping myself alive as an artist and getting out and doing the shows."

Buckingham, who will perform tonight at Reading's Sovereign Performing Arts Center, is touring in support of "Gift of Screws," his latest solo album which was released last month.

The album is getting a big promotional push from Warner Bros., and it might be the best of Buckingham's career. Impeccably produced, "Gift of Screws," which takes its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson, shows the full range of Buckingham's talent.

The guitar playing and singing are first-rate throughout but it is the songs that set the album apart from most of his earlier work. Buckingham has had a tendency in the past to write songs that never sounded fully formed, as though they were musical fragments inspired by a guitar solo or a catchy riff that never flowered into a complete tune.

That's not the case with "Gift of Screws," where every song counts. There's not a stinker in the bunch and some can compete with the best in Buckingham's catalog.

One of the standouts is "The Right Place to Fade," a rocker that closes with a ferocious guitar solo that can take its place alongside the one on Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way."

"That song does in a strange way hearken back to some Fleetwood Mac references," he said.

Another is "Treason," a thoughtful ballad that closes the album.

"It isn't necessarily about treason in any sort of political sense, although you can certainly overlay some sensibility that would apply to what's going on in America today and how the country is being run," he said.

Buckingham, a notoriously slow worker, has picked up the pace considerably in recent years. "Gift of Screws" follows on the heels of "Under the Skin," which was released just two years ago. He also figured mightily in the making of "Say You Will," a Fleetwood Mac album released in 2003.

After touring behind "Say You Will," Buckingham said he told his bandmates about his plans to make a pair of albums for himself.

"What I had to do to get two albums out in fairly short order and tour is to say to the band: 'Look, don't bother me for three-plus years and let me do this and then we'll talk about Fleetwood Mac again, Buckingham said. "Maybe that's something I should have done before."

He said plans call for the members of Fleetwood Mac — Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (singer-keyboardist Christine McVie left the band a number of years ago) to reconvene next year.

"We're talking about touring first and then we're talking about making an album after that," he said. "I'm good with that. We have to have a different sort of mantra this time, which is something more to do with enjoying each other more as people and letting the musical agenda take a back seat so we can just sort of appreciate each other and have fun with each other as people."

That's hasn't always been the case within the band as the personal dramas that brought the bandmates together and drove them apart have often threatened to upstage the music.

Buckingham left the band after making "Tango in the Night" because he needed to regain his sanity. The other members tried to go on without him but it quickly became an untenable situation and the band fell apart.

Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and the two McVies were reunited by former President Bill Clinton, who brought them together to play "Don't Stop" at his first inauguration in 1992. The band reunited for real later that decade for a tour and the live album "The Dance" (1997).

Buckingham said he plans to remain an active member of Fleetwood Mac.

"There doesn't seem any reason for me to remove myself, because it's a great band and it's a whole other scale," he said. "I don't think I will ever have that kind of an audience as a solo artist. It's just nice to have both."

Lindsey Buckingham, today, 8 p.m., Sovereign Performing Arts Center, 136 N. 6th St., Reading, $36-$46, 610-898-7299.

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."

Recently, I’ve become addicted to the June-released album All Or Nothing by garage band Brit-punks The Subways. I think their first album was technically a better one; their 2006 release, Young For Eternity, delivered the brazen, cohesive punch of a spanking new band, whereas All Or Nothing seems a little insecure and lost in the identity crisis of the dreaded sophomore-album slump. However, it is for those exact reasons that I find All Or Nothing a more interesting album.

I’ve always been interested in the inter-band dynamics behind an album’s creation. The Subways’ All Or Nothing was written around the time that guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper ended their long-term relationship. There are plenty of songs that deal with failed relationships between a band member and some heart-breaking stranger outside of the band. Listening to All or Nothing, I found myself thinking about what happens to the success of a band as a whole when the romantic relationship between two of its members fails.

What did Gwen Stefani’s break-up with Tony Kanal do for No Doubt? It gave them Tragic Kingdom, the album that skyrocketed them to multi-platinum fame. Same with Fleetwood Mac; though they already had t 13 albums to their name, it wasn’t until two nasty inter-band break-ups took place that Mac produced what is now universally known as one of the best-selling albums of all time, Rumors. When Carrie Bronstein and Corin Tucker broke up, Sleater-Kinney got popular. After Jack and Meg White got divorced, The White Stripes were formed. The list goes on.

In 1975, the husband-and-wife duo Captain and Tennille released their trademark hit, “Love Will Keep Us Together.” This piece of lyrical advice may have worked for “Captain” Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille; they are (a bit unbelievably) happily married to this very day. All the other lovers doubling as band-mates out there might do better to listen to Fleetwood Mac, who stressed that it was not love but “the chain” that would keep them together — “the chain” meaning the band.

Although the music might be over between Billy Lunn and Charlotte Cooper, it has only just begun for The Subways…which is a good thing. All Or Nothing might have been hailed by a lot of critics as lackluster and not as good as their first album, but the more encouraging adjective I’d like to use to describe it is “transitional.” Who wants to be “Young For Eternity” anyway? Just as a chef can’t make a good omelet without breaking eggs, a band can’t write a good album without a few broken hearts. The Subways are on the right track, and although Charlotte and Billy may have broken up, rock history points to the fact that The Subways most likely won’t. (The inter-band relationship that’s proven more likely to screw things up for everyone involved is not of the romantic persuasion. It’s called sibling rivalry. Just ask one of The Subways’ Britpop precursors, Oasis).

Gift of Screws

The origins of Gift of Screws supposedly go back a decade or more. Return, if you will, to 1998 as pop maestro Lindsey Buckingham was basking in the aftermath of a high profile (and highly profitable) Fleetwood Mac reunion. The next move was a solo record, which Buckingham traditionally takes his ever-loving time to fashion. The album was near completion when Fleetwood Mac surfaced again with the desire to make a new recording of its own. Buckingham then gutted the original Gift of Screws project and offered prime selections to the band that made him a celebrity. He then veered off for a quieter, predominantly acoustic record in 2006 called Under the Skin.

Now we have a reconstituted Gift of Screws. The title tune might reference the poetry of Emily Dickinson in verse, but the song's low-fi pop crunch, jittery guitar patterns and howling chorus are very much the devices of Buckingham. These are elements of a lean and slightly twisted pop vocabulary that, once freed from Fleetwood Mac's more commercial demands, take full flight on Buckingham's solo ventures.

You could say the Dickinson parallel doesn't stop with Gift of Screws' namesake song. While Buckingham's artistic life might not approximate the great poet's largely solitary existence, he does tend to turn his albums into essentially one-man band affairs. Gift of Screws is no different.

Aside from a few appearances by Fleetwood Mac's venerable rhythm section (drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie) and two cameos by Cuban drummer Walfredo Reyes (from Santana, Traffic and others), Buckingham drew up these pop sketches largely on his own.

Indulgent as this might seem, there is a familiarity within this methodology. Time Precious Time and Bel Air Rain, for instance, sound like flip sides of the same song. Both employ the sorts of descending guitar arpeggios that Buckingham has favored since late '80s Fleetwood Mac's Big Love — and maybe even earlier. On Time, the strings have a light, almost harplike sound that suits Buckingham's breathy, meditative singing. Rain, though, is all tension. The song is essentially an elongated nervous tic with guitars beating against its melody and Buckingham's harried singing advancing the tune's restlessness.

The spirit of Brian Wilson, which never seems to be too far from Buckingham's music, revisits on Underground. The song creates a cool ambience out of multitracked backing vocals, a warmer acoustic stride and lyrics that bear a modestly bittersweet sense of resignation. It's a sad song at heart. But the lightness of the arrangement makes the tune positively glow. Underground's evil twin is the album-opening Great Day, on which the acoustic runs are more brittle and the layers of Buckingham's vocal makeup bear a darker, more desperate cast.

Finally, there are moments when Buckingham tightens the reins, plugs in and takes merry old stabs at rock 'n' roll. Case in point on Gift of Screws is Love Runs Deeper. It serves up the sort of killer melodic hooks that Buckingham dispensed with ease during the height of his Fleetwood Mac tenure. But the tune also retains its homemade, demolike demeanor. It sounds like the second coming of Tusk.

So, the rock reinvention of Dickinson this isn't. But Gift of Screws does possess a potent solitary streak. You hear tradition. You hear groove. But the pop vision behind this arresting music sounds distinctive because Buckingham caters to no one's muse but his own.

Anyone who has followed the long musical and personal saga of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks knows that they made an excellent 1973 album, Buckingham Nicks, which was a commercial failure but has since regained cult status.

It was also re-issued in 1976 when the two hit it big after they joined Fleetwood Mac. However, it's never been released on CD, something Buckingham thinks could happen in the next couple of years with a possible tour behind it for the one-time lovers.

"If it is going to happen it would probably happen in the next two, three years," Buckingham said.

"It's sort of a symptom of the fact that the band spends long periods of time apart, that Stevie and I don't talk a lot, that people who are 'the handlers' tend to think that there will be an optimum time to do that that will coincide with a marketing plan."

Does Buckingham, now married with three kids, mean a tour with Nicks to
support its CD release?

"That could certainly happen, that would be fun," said Buckingham, currently on his own solo tour and beginning rehearsals in January for a Fleetwood Mac tour.

"Do we have enough material? Yes, we do. It would be its own hook, the two of us up there, it would be this complete circular thing, bringing us back to where we were in 1974, which has a poetry all its own.

"But again, the people who think in terms of marketing are thinking, 'Okay, but we have to do it at a time when we can remaster it and bonus tracks and all of this kind of stuff.' I would just re-release it myself because it is what it is!"

The Rumours -- pun intended -- are true: The Mac Attack is coming back next year.

Guitarist-singer-songwriter Lindsey Buckingham said that legendary rock group Fleetwood Mac -- with remaining members singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie -- will launch a tour in 2009.

"Fleetwood Mac is going to start doing something, rehearsals for some touring, in January, (and) we will probably be out in spring," said Buckingham, 59, in Toronto this week to promote his latest solo record, Gift of Screws (whose title track was inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem), and play a solo show at the Music Hall tonight after last night's gig at Hamilton Place.

'BETTER EXPERIENCE'

"It'll be the four of us and a couple of other additional backup musicians. No one of note."

That means you Sheryl Crow (see sidebar).

Buckingham says a new Fleetwood Mac album would come later -- hopefully. "We're talking about an album but we didn't want to go in cold," he said. "It's been awhile. And in my mind, the mantra really needs to be, 'Let's put any particular musical agenda second to the agenda of trying to enjoy each other as people.'

"And I've known Stevie since I was 16 and we still have some things to work out, and I think that that's the important thing at this point, otherwise, nothing's going to happen. We won't make it to the album otherwise. Let's acknowledge each other's feelings, let's be adults for a change, if that's possible. It may not be, we'll see.

"So if we go in with that attitude and we use the touring as a kind of proving ground and hang time, then I think it'll make an album after that a much better experience."

Strangely enough, Buckingham originally turned in an album named Gift of Screws back in 2001-02 but the record label asked him if they could use most of it for a new Fleetwood Mac album, which turned out to be 2003's Say You Will (it followed the group's last tour -- both sans keyboardist Christine McVie).

"It has been a bit of a pattern of sort of re-grouping and getting ready to do solo work in one form or another and have Fleetwood Mac sort of intervene. That's happened a few times," Buckingham said. "But you know if you're in the band, you gotta be part of the band."

Buckingham sounds positively easy-going within the dynamic of the famously fractious group -- whose various relationship breakups were documented on their landmark 1977 album, Rumours.

'HEALTHY TROUBLEMAKER'

"I'm working on it. I haven't always been," he said. "I've had very definite ideas which to some degree have been, I wouldn't say a thorn in the side, but I've been the healthy troublemaker who keeps things from being too complacent. That would be the way I would see it. Others might categorize it differently."

This time, however, Buckingham saw the rock-oriented Gift of Screws -- the followup to the more acoustic-based 2006 effort, Under the Skin -- through to its fruition with some lyric-writing help from his wife Kristen (Do You Miss Me, Love Runs Deeper) and 10-year-old son, Will (Great Day). The couple also has two daughters, eight-year-old Leelee, and four-year-old Stella.

Still, Fleetwood drums on three tracks and McVie plays bass on two from those much earlier recording sessions.

"This is a completion of a goal which was very specific that I had. And I said to the band, 'Please don't come knocking on my door for at least three years, because what I want to do is put out two albums and tour around both of them.'"

The British/American rock band formed in 1967,and had a string of hits including 'Black Magic Woman', 'Rhiannon', 'Go Your Own Way', 'Don't Stop', 'Dreams', 'The Chain', 'Little Lies', 'Everywhere', and 'Seven Wonders' and the reunited band were last on the road throughout much of 1997, the 20th anniversary of their Rumours album.

Lindsey Buckingham revealed that the 2009 line-up will include the remaining members singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. The singer announced, "It'll be the four of us and a couple of other additional backup musicians. No one of note."

The guitarist also told journalists, "Fleetwood Mac is going to start doing something, rehearsals for some touring, in January, (and) we will probably be out in spring."

Where was I going with this? Oh, right! An Horse is touring the U.S. fucking as we speak!! I am soo psyched to see them again. The last time I was vis-à-vis with Kate Cooper, the deliciously androgynous frontwoman, my soul was shredded to pieces. Only her horsey glue can glue it back together. That's where I was going with this - glue used to be made from horses, so it's ironic that only her glue can put it back together. Oh geez, I'm too witty for my own good. Anywho, the Brisbane-based band has been plugging along for a few years now. The sweet musings were originally constructed in the record store where both members worked and have since been filling the earphones of pubescent girls across the world! I'll be going to the show on October 20th and November 2nd. Any takers? I promise I'll drive and pay for the gas, food, potential lodging, merch, fun-times. PLEASE SOMEONE GO WITH ME. hahahaha. Their tour schedule can be found at their myspace, which I already linked, but will link it again because I'm feeling especially pleasant today.

I just recently had some discussion with my new friend Marc about Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac, and their classic album Rumours. He told me that he liked Fleetwood Mac because of Lindsey's guitar work, and still likes his solo work.  There wasn't much that I could respond with, without sounding like Marc's echo.  I understand because I feel the same way.

That's not to say that Fleetwood Mac didn't have other talented and creative people in the band.  Royal (the Poppermost bassist / engineer / electronics "MacGuyver") loves Stevie Nicks.  I have had an open crush on Christine McVie since I first saw her on the cover of Rumours way back in '77.  The rock steady combo of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood has driven and weathered the band changes since '67.  They're phenomenal.

Back in '77, it seemed as though great music filled the Los Angeles FM airwaves 24 hours a day.  My station of choice was 94.7 KMET, aka "the Mighty Met of Southern California."  It's where I first heard "Go Your Own Way," or at least the last 30 seconds of it.  The guitar solo stopped me in my tracks and glued my ears to the stereo speaker.  Like an accurate toss by a skilled knife thrower, the solo was staggeringly sharp and made a deep and immediate impact on my young musical brain.  And I cursed the disc jockey for not "back announcing" the song.  Through the courtesy of Top 40 AM radio, I found out that it was Fleetwood Mac.

Once I found out that it was Fleetwood Mac, I remembered the guitarist's face.  I'd seen him on "The Midnight Special" the previous year; he had a lion's mane for hair, a beard like an old wise man, a flowing white satin shirt and a white Gibson guitar.  Once it all clicked, I had my objective for the month - get some Fleetwood Mac into my tiny collection of records.  After a month of waiting, my mom finally drove the family to Sears department store.  Of course, I begged until she had had enough of my whining.  I was the proud owner of my first copy of Rumours.

Lindsey's creative magic is all over that particular album.  Not only is he a fine singer and excellent guitarist / arranger, his writing efforts on that album were my favorites.  "Second Hand News" sounded fresh and exciting on my first listen - it didn't sound like anything I'd heard up till that point.  "Never Going Back" was the song that showed me the difference between someone who "plays the guitar" and a "guitarist."  His guitar work on other Rumours songs, like "The Chain," "You Make Loving Fun," and "Don't Stop" would be some of the first pieces I worked out on my first acoustic guitar.

Over the years, I would have 5 vinyl copies and 3 CD copies of Rumours. It was my first favorite non-Beatles album.  As a teen, I practiced to the songs and copied Lindsey's solos note for note.  In my 20s, the songs on the album became my barometer after my first failed relationships.  Today, at the tail end of my 30s, it remains one of my top 3 albums of all time.

Lindsey has always been determined to avoid falling into repeating the same musical patterns.  His work on Tusk is definitely not Rumours, and it's where I go when I'm stuck for inspiration (try "What Make You Think You're The One" on for size sometime).  His solo single "Holiday Road" is easily one of the most overlooked songs of his musical canon.  His first solo album Law and Order (another loan from Harriet's personal musical library) was fun and experimental, and I love the quirky sound of it.  You've probably heard the "big" single from it, called "Trouble."  Try wrapping your musical brain around "That's How We Do It In L.A."

Last year, I got to see Lindsey live at a venue called The Joint, located inside of Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel.  His 5 piece band, there to promote 2006's Under the Skin, pulled out tunes from his other solo albums Go Insane and Out Of The Cradle (another one of my favorite records of all time).  Of course, he and the band performed some of his most famous Mac tracks for the crowd.  I only wished that he would have performed something from the Buckingham Nicks album from '73.  But that's okay - he performed one his favorite Stones tunes from their mid 60s heyday called "I Am Waiting."

Very few truly class acts make their way here to Las Vegas, weave their musical spell for a night and move on.  I don't have very many heroes from my childhood that are still walking the earth. Because of the band and "this business of music," I rarely get out of the studio.  But as long as I have breath in my lungs, I'll make my way down to see Lindsey and support one hero who's creativity dared me to dream my way out of South Central Los Angeles and aspire to "catch ears, one song at a time."

This October 3, I'd like to send birthday wishes and thanks to Lindsey.  You'll never know how much I love you, your music and creativity, and your chutzpah for never staying on the same musical path.  You give me strength, and I thank you.

Currently listening : Out of the Cradle By Lindsey Buckingham

Well, yesterday was Brooklyn's famous Atlantic Antic street festival, the absolute best of all the New York street festivals because it's massive, it's the last gasp of organized outdoor fun before the cold weather kicks in, there's live music, the food is amazing, there are plenty of adult beverages to enjoy, and it's in Brooklyn!  And, for me, it's right outside my apartment door.

I didn't get out there till about 3:30 because I was nursing a pretty hefty hangover from a late Saturday night, but quickly grabbed myself a bloody mary and a yummy Vietnamese sandwich and was on the up and up.  I met up with a couple friends and ran into some others, but mainly spent the next couple of hours first with Red David and then just with my hazy hangover-headed self.

It was really nice to see all the Obama frenzy at the Antic this year.  Everywhere I looked were people of different races, colors, religions, sexes, sexual preferences, musical tastes, and ice cream flavor preferences banding together in support of positivity, hope, and America's future.  You could get your picture taken with a life-size cutout of Barack, you could order an organic Obama burger, and even order Biden gelato.  It reminded me of New Yorkers inate ability to see through bullshit, and it's easy for us to see that there is only one presidential campaign right now which is running on truth and honesty...and it ain't McCain/Palin.

Another highlight was walking by at the right time to watch a fantastic country rock band from west Jersey playing outside of Hank's Saloon.  I found that the band was called Citizens Band Radio, and these guys (and gal) know how to jam!  It was cool seeing all types of people smiling and dancing to CBR's music.  Cheers to the band if they happen to stumble on this post!!!  Keep up the good stuff!

And another highlight for me was scoring some new cheap vinyl!  I got all of these for $1 each!  And they're all perfectly listenable.  I'm listening to Fleetwood Mac's cover of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" right now.  Mystery To Me is a great album...I don't think I even knew that the amazing song "Hypnotized" was done by the Mac.  Here's the full haul that I got for a total of $11...

I also, while I had the camera and records out, took some pics of the last couple vinyl scores I had over the last couple months.  Click on through to see the others...

So I got these ones at the Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton, New Jersey, where Franny had a play a couple months ago.  $36 worth...

And these I just got a couple weeks ago at the Cake Shop on the Lower East Side.  Also a total of $36...

*I gotta say I was elated to find two MAN albums at the Cake Shop, and they're two of MAN's best!

don't say that you need me

we're all fans this tuesday.

come on!!!

Lezers,

1. Vandeweek bezochten wij de voorstelling Pleinvrees van het Nationale Toneel. Pleinvrees is 'een hartverscheurende komedie over zes mensen op zoek naar contact. Ze worstelen zich met een uitgestreken gezicht door het dagelijks leven'.

2. Vandeweek besloten wij gezien het weer de bezem eens goed door het huis te halen. Zoals dat gaat blijft men dan de halve middag hangen bij de schoenendoos vol met oude foto's.

3. Gisteren dronken wij rode wijntjes met een vrouw waarvan wij, inmiddels enige tijd, weten dat zij niet degene is waarmee wij oud en grijs willen worden (andersom ook niet trouwens). Aan de orde kwam het ongebonden zijn, en de angst dat dat zo zou blijven.

4. Het is een druilerige zondag. Om precies te zijn: de op drie na laatste zondag van ons 35ste levensjaar.

Lezers, gegeven de omstandigheden hierboven genoemd ontkomt men er haast niet aan op een dag als vandaag eens diep te denken over het Zijn in de relationele zin des woords. Men loopt in gedachten de Dames van Weleer na, draait eens wat van hun soundtracks en overpeinst in hoeverre er sprake was van Grove Fouten Onzerzijds, Gemiste Kansen, Domme Pech of Blij-Dat-Het-Zo-Gegaan-Is. Nadat men ten aanzien hiervan tal van gedachten de revue heeft laten passeren, komt men onoverkomelijk tot de conclusie dat deze excersitie, hoewel zeer beschouwelijk en een interessant tijdverdrijf in muzikaal opzicht, ons geen steek verder brengt.

Ons in Italië woonachtige klankbord E. zal deze gedachtenstromen onzerzijds goed herkennen, omdat deze steevast leiden tot een Klaagzang over dat het nooit wat wordt, dat het ons Neerleggen bij de Ongebondenheid de enige optie is. Haar betoog over 'gewoon pech' en 'geduldig zijn en komt vanzelf' schuiven wij dan natuurlijk steevast met enkele rap ter tafel gebrachte, maar daarmee niet meer steekhoudende, argumenten terzijde (evenwel dank daarvoor!). Overigens wordt deze Klaagzang korte tijd later meestal gevolgd door Betogen over hoe leuk de nieuwe ster aan het firmament wel niet is.

Hoe dan ook, op een gegeven moment dient zich dan een nieuwe gedachtenstroom aan. Het Hoe-Dan-Wel-Te Krijgen-Wat-Men Wil. Men stelt dan allereerst vast dat men geen 23 meer is en dat Zij-Die-Leuk-Zijn zich ten dele al van de markt af bewogen en gebonden hebben (En geef ze eens ongelijk?!). Daarnaast stelt men ook vast dat het werkende bestaan met zich meebrengt dat men zich in een tamelijk beperkte kring begeeft. Een borreltje hier en een etentje daar, maar het Mining for a Heart of Gold wordt hierdoor toch bemoeilijkt. Van het internet-daten zij wij reeds bekomen, dus dat is ook geen optie meer. Op een enkele leuke date na, wiens type wij niet bleken te zijn, bracht dit vooral frustratie over het gebrek aan reactie, na leuk geschreven berichten en Gedane Moeite. Wij zijn ook niet het type dat zich in het weekend alleen het uitgaansgebeuren inwerpt op zoek naar die Parel tussen de Zwijnen.

Tsja, wat dan? Het laten varen van het Pakket van Eisen lijkt ook niet verstandig. Niet dat dat nog hetzelfde is als 10 jaar geleden: inmiddels zijn wij niet meer zo op zoek naar wild romantische, onbegrijpelijke, onvatbare maar daarmee zo verleidelijke vrouwen, maar zijn meer gecharmeerd van een uitstraling van goedheid, fijnheid en een begrip op intellectueel gebied: een mooie, zachte vrouw die ons verwondert. Maar waar vindt men die nog???

Nu ja, dergelijke gedachtenstromen bedekken dus dan al snel de zondagmiddag. En zij leiden tot niets. Dat zien wij ook wel in. In die zin heeft E. gelijk: geduld is de enige remedie, hoe weinig voldoening dat nu ook geeft. En tot die tijd? Tot die tijd rommelen wij her en der misschien eens wat aan, komen daar weer op terug, besteden eens in de zoveel tijd een middag met gedachten als deze en gaan weer over tot de Orde van de Dag. Maar lezers, natuurlijk niet nadat wij voor u een hartverscheurende mixtape in elkaar gedraaid hebben, met liederen afkomstig van de Soundtracks van de Vrouwen van Weleer en tevens Deuntjes van Gemengde Gevoelens.

Jackson Browne - Fountain of Sorrow
The Commodores - Sail On
Townes van Zandt - Flying Shoes
Graham Nash - Simple Man
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Herman van Veen - Ze Boog Zover Voorover
Rick Danko Band - It Makes No Difference
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire
Jacques Brel - Laat Me Niet Alleen
Tim Hardin - Reason To Believe
Saybia - The Second You Sleep
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
The Beatles - Yesterday
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Helplessly Hoping
Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
Heart - Alone
Kate Wolf - Back Roads
Milow - Out of My Hands
Herman van Veen - Voor Een Verre Prinses
The Rolling Stones - Memory Motel
Novastar - Never Back Down
Prince - Nothing Compares 2 U
Roy Orbison - In The Real World
Neil Young - Heart Of Gold

Luister: Mixtape Heart Of Gold

Lindsey Buckingham's new solo record, "Gift of Screws," is a family album. With a sweetly primal voice, a bucking-bronco/gypsy guitar and sparks of hopeful melancholy, he excavates his soul about being a husband, a father, a member of the human race and a member of a strange species called Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham, 59, will play solo and Mac tracks on Friday in Reading and next Saturday in Glenside, Montgomery County. During a recent phone interview he discussed musical therapy, his bond with fellow band member and ex-flame Stevie Nicks and the importance of innocence.

Q: You borrowed the title of your new record from an Emily Dickinson poem. What do you like about the phrase "gift of screws"?

A: The title seemed so open to interpretation. It seemed the real meaning was slightly obscured by more crude interpretations, whether it was the school of hard knocks or something more of a sexual innuendo. Probably it hit me on a somewhat visceral level.

You have to turn the screws of a press to get the fragrance from a flower petal. You can't just sit there and watch a rose grow; you have to wring out your own effort and vision. That's a concept I buy into. It's a good overview of a lot of things.

Q: The title track was recorded but not used during the sessions for Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Will" record [2003]. Why didn't it make the final cut?

A: It was actually the other way around. In 2001 I was poised to put out a solo album that included all this material until there was this sort of group will that said: Let's make a studio album. There was, for lack of a better term, a group intervention. If you're a band member who's responsible to the sensibilities of the whole, you have to compromise. All of this material was just sitting there, so I said: Let's give it up.

Q: Your previous record is called "Under the Skin." Here there's a lot of burrowing, too, with a handful of references to "underground" and "Deep down at the end of the season/We will rise from this treason." What's going on with all this excavation of the soul?

A: (Laughs) Well, I think you have to look at what's happened to me in the last 10 to 11 years. When I actually left Fleetwood Mac in '88 or '89 or whenever, it was to regain my sanity. We all had a measure of dysfunction. The stakes were so high following "Rumours" (1977) -- that incredible commercial success. In order to get through what needed to be done on a professional level with the band, you had to compartmentalize your feelings.

I think there was a long period when I was pretty well defended emotionally. It got to the point in my late 40s that I got into a family situation. Turning that corner relatively late made me feel that I had to resurface at a personal level. Obviously, there's a lot of rehabilitation left, and it takes time. Only then can you look back at being submerged -- from on top.

Q: In the song "Underground" you write: "They heard 15 seconds and that was enough/The idea was new but the business was rough/I think I might wander underground." Is that a dig at the record business?

A: It's an interesting phenomeon to have the luxury of being part of a big selling machine like Fleetwood Mac. And to also have the other side, the solo side, which kind of taps into the left side of the palette and is obviously for fewer ears and what that does to your dynamic with the record company. There tends to be a lack of motivation to meet you halfway with the more esoteric things. Probably today that lack of motivation is at an all-time high.

Having seen that first hand, I don't think the large companies can be as imaginative or as nurturing as they once were. I'm talking about how dismissive a company or a body of people can be to something without really knowing what they're dismissing.

Q: Your guitar playing has a definite gypsy flair. I hear it especially in "Precious Time," with all those rippling, spiral-staircasing figures. Do you have an inner Django Reinhardt?

A: Of course I have a regard for his playing. I don't think it played into any of this stuff. Certainly, I'm influenced by classical guitar playing and obviously folk and anything with fingerpicking. Starting young, it was all about finding your own style.

Q: You've said that one of the goals of "Under the Skin" was to pare your fingerpicking down to essentials. What was your major mission on "Gift of Screws"? To be more familiar? To rock out harder?

A: "Under the Skin" was just as much about what I didn't do as what I did. Here, I wanted to tap into the range of what I do, to make it a broader landscape for sure, to refine things I did even before Fleetwood Mac.

Q: You've said that, partly because you don't read music, your musicianship boils down to "a child's curiosity and intuition." Why is it so important to protect your innocence, your child-like intuition?

A: I don't know if it's necessary to protect it. I think if you see people who have been taught [music], one of the things that tends to fall away is the sense of individualism, of possibility. I've even asked people over the years: Do you think it would appropriate for me to take music classes?

Usually the response is that I've gotten to the point where I've done something I can call my own. Looking for something specific, something relevant, might douse my sensibilities, my instincts.

Q: Stevie Nicks has said her nearsightedness made her view the world more romantically, more mystically. You know, you look out during a concert and you see fireflies instead of spectators. Is that wondrous quality one of your bonds with her?

A: I mean, we are both people who have fundamentally a way of doing things without necessarily knowing what they are. I would consider myself a refined primitive, I guess, and she as well. Her process is actually much less refined. I think the bond we had musically was that I could take her basic offerings and see the potential for bringing them into some area and creating what we used to call good record making. Something that was really fundamentally different was "Rhiannon."

That began as just two fingers on a piano, like a little music box.

That was something we were able to do, to have some sort of common ground for an exchange. Let's start here, and I can take it there. Besides providing my own songs, that's my function in Fleetwood Mac.

Q: What's the toughest part about being in Fleetwood Mac?

A: (Pauses) The politics.

Q: What's the best part about being in Fleetwood Mac?

A: (Pauses longer) The money.

Q: What about the big showcase?

A: (No pause) The money.

In the fastest turnaround of Fleetwood Mac singer/guitarist/producer Lindsey Buckingham's career, Gift of Screws comes two years after his previous solo LP, Under the Skin. For the first couple of tracks, we want to stamp it "return to sender." "Great Day" boasts guitar ripples we first heard on his disembowelment of "Big Love" from Fleetwood Mac's live set The Dance, coupled with lyrics best described as verbal tags rather than coherent statements. A couple of songs exist as mere instrumentals: "Bel Air Rain" is Ottmar Liebert on Vivarin. "Did You Miss Me" comes closest to unearthing the romantic wanderlust that's been Buckingham's trademark since 1975's "Monday Morning," but as indelible as the chorus melody is, he could be directing his plaint to a mirror — or, heartbreakingly, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, whose harmonies would've reminded him (and us) of what he's missing. The feisty title track, replete with look-at-me-now axemanship and oddball vocal effects, feels anchored to a recognizable eccentricity; it's no surprise that Mick Fleetwood and John McVie constitute its rhythm section. Alas, "Trouble" and National Lampoon's Vacation one-off "Holiday Road" excepted, not a single track in Buckingham's solo period rivals Mac's "Go Your Own Way" for precision; he's a human being with conflicts, lusts and such only when he's allowed to express them around and to other people. Here, "Underground" acknowledges the dilemma: "Say what you mean, but please don't mean a thing" is not just a curt description of the Buckingham Problem, but a beautifully sung line from an artist capable of transcending limitations, yet content to bask in lapidary gestures. When Buckingham goes his own way, he wants it both ways — and goes nowhere at all.

Eh bien non, je n'ai pas le choix: si je suis bien obligée d'affronter le mois qui s'en vient, autant m'y préparer et tenter de voir le bon côté des choses! Justement, je pourrai me divertir ce weekend avec la venue de Boys Noize et d'A-Trak. Si vous aussi semblez être au bout du rouleau (bon, j'exagère quand même!), faites comme moi: samedi, avant de vous rendre au Théâtre Telus, réveillez-vous du bon pied et entâmez le mois avec les prochaines chansons. Vous verrez, vous vous sentirez déjà mieux.

Ratatat: Falcon Jab (Copy Remix)

Hot Chip: Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye Cover)

Feist: Sea Lion Woman (Funkanomics Remix)

Vampire Weekend: Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover)

La citadine

Nick Reynolds, who as a college student grabbed a guitar, donned a broad-striped button-down shirt and quickly helped propel the 1950s folk music revival to the top of the pop music charts as a founding member of the Kingston Trio, died Wednesday in San Diego. He was 75.  Reynolds had been hospitalized in recent weeks with acute respiratory disease, his son, Josh Reynolds, said Thursday.  The group’s recording of the tragic 19th century folk ballad “Tom  Dooley” went to No. 1 in 1958 and earned Reynolds and his partners Dave Guard and Bob Shane a Grammy for best country and western performance at the first Grammy Awards ceremony. In that inaugural year, the Grammys had no categories dedicated to folk music, which was booming on  college campuses around the country. The following year, the group’s  album “The Kingston Trio at Large” picked up a second Grammy for its members. That album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 in 1959.  “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. . . . From Odetta, I went to Harry Belafonte, the Kingston Trio, little by little uncovering more as I went along,” Bob Dylan once said.  Reynolds typically handled the middle part of the trio’s scintillating three-part harmonies, sometimes adding bongos, congas and other percussion accents. Although the group’s music generally shied away from the politicized content of such forebears as Woody Guthrie and the Weavers, its commercial breakthrough in the late  1950s represented a clean-cut alternative to the sexualized rock ‘n’ roll of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and others that had American teens in its grip. And it helped set the stage for folk-rooted protest singers such as Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary.  “It really started with the Weavers, in the early ’50s,” Reynolds said in a 2006 interview, referring to the New York-based quartet that included Pete Seeger. “We were big fans of theirs, but they got blacklisted in the McCarthy era. Their music was controversial. Suddenly, they couldn’t get any airplay; they couldn’t get booked into the big hotels, nothin’.  “We played their kind of music when we were first performing in colleges. But when we formed the trio . . . we had to sit down and make a decision: Are we going to remain apolitical with our music? Or are we going to slit our throats and get blacklisted for doing protest music? We decided we’d like to stay in this business for a while. And we got criticized a lot for that. . . . If Bob Dylan or Joan Baez had come out at that time, they’d have been dead in the water. But four or five years later, [their music] became commercially viable.” The trio also charted hits with “Tijuana Jail,” “M.T.A.” and Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” a protest song that became popular with anti-Vietnam War activists and that the group eventually sang on the White House lawn as President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, looked on.  Nicholas Wells Reynolds was born July 27, 1933, in San Diego to Stewart Shirley Reynolds, a Navy captain, and Jane Keck Reynolds. The family, including sisters Barbara and Jane, often engaged in singalongs led by their father, a guitarist with an affinity for old folk songs. It was in these sessions that Reynolds developed his facility with intricate vocal harmonies that became one of the hallmarks of the Kingston Trio’s music. “Nobody could nail a harmony part like Nick,” Shane once said. “He could hit it immediately, exactly where it needed to be, absolutely note perfect, all on the natch. Pure genius.”  After graduating from Coronado High School in 1951, he attended the University of Arizona and San Diego State before enrolling at Menlo College near San Francisco.  During a particularly dull accounting class at Menlo, he noticed a student dead asleep and later introduced himself to Bob Shane.  “He nudged me and said ‘Hey, I’m Nick Reynolds — have you got a car? Mine just blew up.’ … We started singing the first day we met,” Shane said Thursday.  “He was my very, very best friend. It’s a big loss.” Shane had played music with Guard in their native Hawaii, and when Guard decided to reconfigure his Kingston Quartet, which he had started while studying at nearby Stanford, he drafted Shane and Reynolds. Guard left the trio in 1961 to form his own group, and was replaced by singer-songwriter John Stewart, who went on to have a significant solo career.  Reynolds left the group in 1967 after the British Invasion rendered the folk style effectively antiquated in the minds of pop music fans, and moved his family to Oregon, where he stayed until the 1980s. He teamed up with Stewart again for the 1983 album “Revenge of the Budgie,” which also featured Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, and in 1991 he joined Shane in a reconstituted version of the Kingston Trio. Reynolds continued performing with Shane until he retired a second time in 2003. Shane bought the rights to the Kingston Trio name in 1976 so he could use it exclusively, and the act has continued to tour with three latter-day members since Shane’s retirement following a heart attack in 2004.  In recent years, Reynolds and Stewart had hosted a “Trio Fantasy Camp” in Arizona, where folk music fans would learn to play and sing many of the trio’s hits and other folk standards. Shane hosted it in August, renaming it the “The Kingston Trio Fantasy Camp” and said he will continue it in memory of Reynolds and Stewart, who died in January of a massive stroke.  - Randy Lewis (Los Angeles Times)