** Fleetwood Mac, United Center Sept. 13
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Many people who consider themselves Fleetwood Mac fans probably came to the band 10 years into its existence. With Rumors, the 1977 album that solidified the roles of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (who first appeared on Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled disc), the Mac went American mainstream, shedding some of its British blues pretensions, and achieved multi-platinum status. >Success, I'm told, can be hard to take, and for the last 25 years, the band has been wrestling with that demon. The latest FM formation is a quartet (Nicks, Buckingham, and original co-founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie), with Nicks and Buckingham reuniting as the band's driving force. One look at the Say You Will (Reprise) album cover, Nicks and Buckingham as the focus in the center, flanked by halves of Fleetwood and McVie, and you get the whole picture. The album pretty much breaks down into the Nicks songs (rhythmic pop numbers such as the title track, 'Throwndown,' 'Everybody Finds Out,' 'Destiny Rules' and mystically charged exercises such as 'Illume (9-11),' 'Running Through The Garden,' 'Silver Girl,' and the dreamy closing lullaby 'Goodbye Baby') and Buckingham's accessible ('What's The World Coming To,' 'Peacekeeper,' 'Steal Your Heart Away,' 'Bleed To Love Her') and less accessible experimental tracks ('Red Rover,' 'Come,' 'Say Goodbye'), all of which are merely extensions of their solo work.
During those same fertile, mid-'70s Fleetwood Mac years, singer/songwriter Phoebe Snow wooed listeners with her stunning vocal abilities and songwriting gifts. Snow probably remains best known for her chart-topping single 'Poetry Man,' but she also wrote and sang other sensational songs, including 'Harpo's Blues,' 'I Don't Want The Night To End,' 'Two Fisted Love,' 'Cash In,' 'All Over,' 'Autobiography (Shine, Shine, Shine),' 'Mercy On Those,' 'We're Children,' and 'Something Real,' among others. Additionally, Snow's singular interpretations of songs by Paul Simon, Stephen Bishop, Paul McCartney, and the Gershwins are virtually unparalleled. The aptly titled Natural Wonder (Eagle) is Snow's first studio album in five years and the first to include original material in 14 years. Enlightenment and spirituality are nothing new to this diva who has lent her pipes to the Sisters of Glory gospel ensemble and the songs on this album continue this exploration on songs such as 'Sahara,' 'How Beautiful,' 'Ever Surprised,' 'Changed,' and 'Natural Wonder.' The album's two covers are a ballad reading of the Motown classic 'Baby, I Need Your Loving' and a dramatic interpretation of Live's 'Lightning Crashes.'
Snow has also performed as part of The New York Rock And Soul Revue, a loose ensemble of performers led by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame. Interestingly enough, like Snow, Steely Dan have also returned this year with Everything Must Go (Reprise). Much less time has passed between the release of this album and their 2000 Two Against Nature (which, surprisingly, won a few Grammys), than the 20 years that passed between Two Against Nature and their previous studio release, 1980's Gaucho. With a sound so distinctive (it permeates Donald Fagen's solo albums), Steely Dan doesn't divert much from the pop/jazz/funk formula that has been their trademark for more than 30 years, and new songs such as 'The Last Mall,' 'Blues Beach,' 'Pixeleen,' and 'Lunch With Gina,' are the proof. The most notable occurrence on this disc is the first-ever lead vocal by Steely Dan's own Walter Becker on the album's bouncy centerpiece 'Slang Of Ages.'
Like Steely Dan, the recognizable front men of Sparks, brothers Ron and Russel Mael, were a presence in the '70s music scene. Although they never achieved the same domestic commercial success of Steely Dan, Sparks established a devoted cult following. With Lil' Beethoven (Palm), an album that sounds like a cross between Queen's and Electric Light Orchestra's vintage opuses, the brothers have polished up their bizarre sense of humor to a glimmering sheen and set songs such as 'How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?,' 'What Are All These Bands So Angry About?,' 'I Married Myself,' 'Your Call Is Very Important To Us. Please Hold,' 'Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls,' and 'Suburban Homeboy,' in unusual, theatrical, but fascinating arrangements.
Bizarre and experimental, The Residents have been creating their avant-garde brand of music for 30 years. On the more accessible than usual, but no less scary (see 'Ghost Children'), Demons Dance Alone (East Side), reportedly written after the events of Sept. 11, The Residents don't break with tradition, creating some of the most idiosyncratic music of the time. As disturbing as they are alluring, these songs are unlike anything you will ever hear on the radio or at a party.
Could there be a better time than now for The Fleshtones, a New York-based garage rock band formed in the late '70s, to get the appreciation and attention they so rightfully deserve? Do You Swing? (Yep Roc) holds that promise. Undeniably catchy numbers, such as 'Destination Greenpoint' (about Lower East Side residents forced to relocate to Brooklyn), garage rock retro gangbusters such as 'Are You Ready For The Mountain?,' 'Alright,' and 'I'm Back Again' fueled by Peter Zaremba's vocals and organ-playing, the hand-clapping foot-stomping instrumental 'Double Dipper,' and the punk blues reading of Led Zepplin's 'Communication Breakdown,' indicate that the Fleshtones time has finally come.
As a co-founding member of the U.K. band Squeeze, Jools Holland's keyboard playing was an essential component of the group's post-punk sound. As a solo artist, Holland has dabbled in a variety of styles and even made a name for himself as a the host of a British musical variety show. As with his previous album Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues, Holland plays well with others, as he proved with guest musicians Marc Almond, Sting, Paul Weller, Jamiroquai, and the late George Harrison and Joe Strummer. He does it again on More Friends (Rhino), which features soulful and energetic performances by Dionne Warwick (who makes a welcome return on the Holland co-composition 'What Goes Around'), Tom Jones, Marianne Faithfull (Dylan's 'You Got To Serve Somebody'), Norah Jones ('In The Dark'), and Ruby Turner ('Count Me In').
More than 30 years into his recording career, Canadian singer/songwriter and 'folk-rock godhead' Bruce Cockburn is a very busy man, contributing vocals to albums by performers such as Patty Larkin, Rosanne Cash, Jonatha Brooke, and most recently the jazz unit Dapp Theory. Cockburn has also continued to crank out his own albums, including his '80s smash Stealing Fire and more recently You've Never Seen Anything (Rounder/True North). With an impressive array of guests including Sam Phillips ('Tried And Tested'), Sarah Harmer ('Open' and 'Don't Forget About Delight'), and Emmylou Harris ('All Our Dark Tomorrows'), Cockburn strikes a musical balance between his political and spiritual views.
Kenny Loggins ruled the charts for much of the '70s. As one half of the Loggins & Messina duo, Loggins pumped out hit after hit. His solo career, which he began in 1977 with his first solo disc, also produced a string of hit singles, including a few movie theme songs. Marriage and fatherhood took up much of his time during the late '80s and early '90s. It's About Time (All The Best!) finds him collaborating with Michael McDonald, Richard Marx, Clint Black and Toad The Wet Sprocket's Glen Phillips on a set of smooth and safe numbers (the title track, 'Alive 'N' Kickin',' 'I Miss Us,' 'The One That Got Away,' and 'This Is How My Song Goes') that never approach the 'danger zone.'
When I first heard Pat Benatar, on her 1979 debut album, she sounded like a pre-fabricated new wave singer. The Avril Lavigne of her generation, if you will. Over the years, I grew to appreciate Benatar's brand of belted pop ('Love Is A Battlefield,' 'We Belong'). One of the things about Benatar's early work was the way she was able to make other songwriters' songs her own. On Go (Bel Chiasso/ WMG), her first studio album of original material in six years, Benatar and husband Neal Giraldo (who also produced the album) co-wrote nine of the 11 songs, which gives the album a claustrophobic feel. There's simply not enough variety.
There was a time when the arrival of a new John Mellencamp CD was preceded by a great deal of fanfare. His latest, and first-ever collection of cover tunes, Trouble No More (Columbia) seemed to slip in under the radar. Consisting of Mellencamp's interpretations of blues and folk songs, the first thing I wondered when I heard his rendition of Robert Johnson's 'Stones In My Passway,' was why he hadn't tried his hand at more blues-oriented material sooner. A recording artist since the mid-'70s, Mellencamp reached his commercial and critical peak in the mid-'80s (if you've never heard his duet with Rickie Lee Jones on 'Between A Laugh And A Tear' from Scarecrow, you should) and experienced a revival in the mid-'90s (his duet with MeShell Ndegeocello on the 'Wild Night' cover and his unexpected dance hit with Junior Vasquez-produced 'Key West Intermezzo'). He could undergo another one this decade, but I don't think it will happen with this album.
While he was in his early 20s, during the mid-1970s, Dean Friedman became a bona fide one-hit wonder with his super-catchy single 'Ariel.' Still recording today, Friedman's The Treehouse Journals (Real Life Records) is an Americana-flavored disc that celebrates love, parenthood, childhood memories, country life and even a bit of history.
