Listen to the wind blow
Watch the sun rise…

Yes, it’s true.  Little Big Town’s "Bones" is a clone of Fleetwood Mac’s "The Chain".  But does that make it BAD?

There was only one Beatles, one band that constantly tested the limits, that pushed their art far beyond our conception.  That’s why they’re remembered, as strong as ever forty years on.  Little Big Town?  They’re not one for the ages.  Not yet.  Not unless a huge dollop of innovation comes their way.

But how about Fleetwood Mac?

Funny thing about Fleetwood Mac, most of their material, their hit material, with Buckingham and Nicks, is UNCOVERABLE!  Sure, we got the Dixie Chicks’ "Landslide", but so much of what the Mac did is sui generis, we just can’t imagine anybody else doing it.  And in an era when both Clive Davis and Jimmy Iovine rail that it’s all about songs and the minions pick up the mantra, Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest acts EVER, falls a bit flat.  But it’s not only about songs.  It’s about performance, it’s about production, it’s about ART!

Fleetwood Mac is only marginally hipper today than the Starland Vocal Band.  Oh, of course that’s an exaggeration.  It’s just that all that music from the seventies is now deemed quaint.  California rock is a pejorative, this music that ruled the seventies is experiencing a critical backlash.  It encompasses everybody from the Eagles to Jackson Browne.  If it’s soft, if it’s not EDGY, it’s somehow worthless.  As if melodies and harmonious vocals can EVER go out of style, as if meaningful lyrics are meaningless.

But these acts ARE has-beens.  They’ve got about as much of a chance of having a hit as Donald Rumsfeld has of reclaiming his job.  Radio has moved on.  It’s hip-hop, it’s pop, it’s got sheen.  It’s fresh for a supposedly fast moving generation, which ironically believes music is ENTERTAINMENT, as opposed to soul-fulfilling nourishment.

Stunningly, Little Big Town is not hiding its influence.  CMT just started airing a "Crossroads" featuring the act playing WITH Lindsey Buckingham.  Yes, on one hand you wince.  Clone band with oldster who can’t get arrested.  But TUNE IN!

By time I settled in with the recording long after midnight I was spent.  It was just twenty minutes of TV before I crashed for my early assignation with Dr. Brackmann at the House Ear Clinic.  But when the show started, I got that shot of adrenaline.  Oh, you know it, that EXCITEMENT, that you can only get from music.  I’m not talking about the metal assault, nor the overhyped overproduced extravaganzas of Madge and her wannabes, but that moment when the lights come up and people playing instruments and singing HIT IT!

I don’t know if this "Crossroads" was fixed in post-production.  Little Big Town’s vocals/harmonies are just PERFECT!  Then again, Lindsey Buckingham’s voice is a bit strained/rough, so I think this is real, one pass stuff.

The two guys are playing guitars.  The two women step up to their mics.  And then all four start to WAIL!  And in the background, a couple of steps back, is the master, the progenitor, Lindsey Buckingham, on his tiny little mahogany guitar, picking with his fingers.

I get a rush just thinking about it.  The power of the VOCALS!  Yes, they’re singing the Mac-like "Bones".  And then, about three minutes in, the band drops out, and right there is the LICK!  Lindsey Buckingham starts playing the notes.  It sounds EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORD!  Only he can play them.  Oh, they’re richer, they’re certainly live, but it’s like it’s 1977 all over again, when Fleetwood Mac ruled the world.  And when the stunningly good-looking Lindsey steps up to the mic and starts singing, you get this JOLT!  And when he drops back down and plays that lick again, you SIGH!

Lindsey’s singing lead.  The members of Little Big Town, weaned on "Rumours", sing the backup vocals.  There’s a power, an ESSENCE, which is INSTANTLY recognizable.  SUDDENLY, you’re reminded what a massive force Fleetwood Mac was.

Oh, unfortunately, the rest of the show isn’t quite as good, because there are these ridiculous sitting on a stool stilted fawning discussions that make you wince.  But whenever the musicians take the stage, you feel it.  And are stunned that although they’ve just met, they can get it so right.  To be confronted with TALENT all these years later is so WEIRD!

If you go to CMT’s site, you can see a performance of "Go Your Own Way", assuming you don’t use a Mac or Firefox, certainly not both.  But I suggest you tune in to see the whole show on CMT.  Until then, know that if you don’t love me now, you will never love me again.  You can count on me, I will never BREAK THE CHAIN!