Away Team

Lindsey Buckingham

Songs from the Small Machine Live in L.A.

Eagle Vision

10 out of 10






Lindsey Buckingham is the most underrated guitarist ever. Here, let me share that with you again…. Lindsey Buckingham is the MOST underrated guitarist ever. From his beginnings with Buckingham Nicks (the guitar work on their debut album still sounds amazing 38 years later), to his Fleetwood Mac body of work, to his seven solo albums from 1981 to 2011. He has released or been a part of 13 studio albums, numerous live albums and seven movie soundtracks. The man’s body of work speaks for itself.

Whenever I get into a discussion about guitarists I always bring up Lindsey Buckingham. When I’m poo-pooed about my choice for the best and most underrated guitarist ever, I simply put on Fleetwood Mac’s The Dance, and the track Big Love. During that song Lindsey is on stage alone, playing 2 guitar parts at once (he uses a picking and strumming method simultaneously) and make them watch him at work. That song alone usually shuts them up. Then I mention the fact that when he left Fleetwood Mac in the 90’s it took two guitarists to do what he did by himself live.

Well its 2011 now, he is still in Fleetwood Mac, though as usual they aren’t releasing albums in any great rush, so he has plenty of time to put out more solo work, this time in the form of Seeds We So which shows Lindsey to be once again at his best. The man is a maniacal machine when it comes to his solo work. It can be very eclectic and sometimes takes a bit to get into, but once you are there, the music simply envelopes you and takes you on a journey unlike any other artist.

Lindsey has spent the last few months touring theaters bringing Seeds We Sow and his amazing prolific body of work to those special enough to have gotten tickets to this amazing show.

The set begins as it should, with just Lindsey and a guitar. In fact he mentions this about three songs in that he chose to start the set as he started in music, just a man and his guitar, just a voice, and guitar. And really, there is no better way to see or experience Lindsey Buckingham, than to have it be just him and a guitar.

One of the most powerful songs that Lindsey now does acoustically is Go Insane, it is a haunting ballad of loss and despair that ever so slowly builds to climax and a single vocal note held longer and cleaner than any 62 year old should be able to hold a note.

The acoustic opening set covers solo material as well as some reworked Fleetwood Mac favorites such as Never Going Back Again. But again, on Big Love the man shows the world why I’m right and why he is the most underrated guitarist ever. Again I can’t stress enough, sit down watch that song alone, and you’ll realize that it is a 62 year old man playing two guitar parts at once and never using a pic. It is just his fingers and nails the whole time.

When he shifts into the full band mode I think a little bit is lost, only because it takes away from just his voice and a guitar. Not that it doesn’t sound great and the band does a great job on cuts like Second Hand News and Tusk not to mention his new and older solo works, but I think Lindsey is at his best when it is just him. I don’t think enough people have been exposed to him as a guitarist and an artist in a solo environment and the best way to showcase it is just that.

If you are a Lindsey Buckingham fan then you’ll love this concert because it has everything you could want in it, Go Insane, Trouble, Under The Skin, All My Sorrows, In Our Own Time, Stars Are Crazy, and more are featured here.

If you are a Fleetwood Mac fan, then you’ll love being exposed to his vast solo catalog not to mention FM favorites like Big Love, I’m So Afraid, Go Your Own Way, and Tusk.

Second Hand News sounds great as just a Lindsey piece without Stevie and Christine’s backing vocals.

I think maybe the one song that really needs a backing band to make it more ethereal and let you get the full impact of a man lost amongst his own feelings of loss a betrayal, is I’m So Afraid. And the desolation washes over you wave after wave as Lindsey and Neal Heywood’s dual guitar solo explodes into Lindsey’s signature Afraid guitar crying solo that should erase any doubt that the man is a guitar legend and should be mentioned up there with Clapton, Hendrix, etc, but because his ‘band’s’ music was more California Rock ‘pop’ than Clapton, Hendrix, or Vaughn, his guitar playing was somehow less impressive than theirs.














You can purchase Lindsey Buckingham Songs from the Small Machine Live in L.A. right here.

For more Lindsey Buckingham click here.