Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Classic Albums Live performs ‘Rumors’
The 1977 album “Rumors” — a brutally honest, tumultuous musical history of the romantic entanglements of the members of Fleetwood Mac — remains one of the best-selling albums of all time, with sales reaching over 45 million worldwide. Fans of the album who live in Northwest Arkansas will be in for a rare treat when the Walton Arts Center hosts the Classic Albums Live production of the beloved album tonight.
“It’s always important for the audience to understand that it’s not a tribute band show,” explains Rob Phillips, Classic Albums Live music director and guitarist on this tour. “We’re not wearing costumes and not trying to pass ourselves off as re-creating a live experience of the audio. It’s really the experience of putting on headphones, putting on an album and letting your mind go along on this journey with music for 45 minutes.”
Phillips’ role of music director means he’s the last word on what ends up in the performance on stage — something he says isn’t as easy as simply learning to play the music as written.
“It’s really a lot of putting headphones on and listening to what’s there and trying to figure out how we’re going to sound like the record,” he says. “Sometimes what’s in your ear is subjective, so we get into debates on what is actually on the recording.”
Phillips first learned the music 12 years ago.
“The song on that album, ‘Never Going Back,’ uses a tricky technical method called ‘Travis picking’.” Named after guitarist Merle Travis, it involves playing bass and melody notes with the same hand. “I didn’t realize what a good guitar player Lindsey Buckingham was until I started learning this album. He’s very confident in multiple styles of guitar playing, so it was very difficult at first.”
Phillips says that he hopes the performance will help fans remember a time when they first fell in love with the music.
“Back when we were in high school and college, before we had mortgages and kids, we had time to listen to an album without being interrupted,” he says. “You kind of forget how powerful that experience can be, taking in the album from beginning to end.”