PLAYING IN THE RAIN - Tyler Martin Sehnal

I am one of the many people around the globe who would put Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album among the top albums of all time.  It is easily one of my top three favorite albums (the exact placement might  depend on the day you ask me). Though I've listen to most of their subsequent releases since then, I would count myself as a huge fan of the group - just the album.  Still, seeing this book about the band available, I thought I'd dig just a little deeper.

Nearly everything presented here is freely available online, but author Tyler Martin Sehnal pulls it together in an almost cohesive manner.  Almost.

Sehnal organizes the book in sequential order from the band's earliest years to the most recent information with chapters organized by a period of years. But within the chapter Sehnal plays a little lose with time without making it clear beforehand, sometimes restating an incident but from another band member's perspective. One for instance is Buckingham's firing from the band.  

The incident is mentioned first, rather casually; "the band has again taken on two new members to replace their recently ousted guitarist and sole male vocalist, Lindsey Buckingham" which is followed  immediately with "Buckingham hadn’t been the one to make the call this time around, though. In reality, the band had let Buckingham go following a several-month-long dispute between the two parties...". The chapter goes on to talk about Buckingham and Christine McVie's duet album and on to a 2018 special performance at Radio City Music Hall which ends with:

That night, the band’s performances and speeches went off without a hitch, and Buckingham even noted that what the group was feeling “more than ever in our career [was] love.” Therefore, the news that would break only three months later left fans and those close to the band utterly shocked: in April 2018, it was announced that Lindsey Buckingham had been fired from Fleetwood Mac.

This seems like a 'big reveal' being at the end of a chapter, but we'd already read about it.

It is also important to note that Sehnal definitely has a bias in favor of Lyndsey Buckingham - he admits to it but even if hadn't it definitely shows. The full title of the book should be a very clear indicator.

I should also point out that, at least in my ARC Kindle version of the book, an entire quarter of the book is end notes and/or bibliography.

It's a quick read, and, to repeat what I stated earlier - most of this can be found online or already is known for any true Fleetwood Mac fan. It's probably just about right for someone like me who, while I enjoy(ed) the music, doesn't care a whole lot about the band's shenanigans.

Looking for a good book? Playing In the Rain: Lindsey Buckingham & Fleetwood Mac by Tyler Martin Sehnal is a quick-to-read overview of the band who arguable produced one of the best po/rock albums of all time.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

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Playing In the Rain: Lindsey Buckingham & Fleetwood Mac

author: Tyler Martin Sehnal

publisher: Lulu.com

ISBN: 9781088083772

paperback, 324 pages