The story behind Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac is almost as interesting as the music found on this new DVD-Audio release by Silverline Records.  It’s a famous idiom that what Americans invent the British perfect.  At least that’s what the Brits might say, Americans might use other terms.  But when it comes to Blues it’s hard to deny that in the late 60s and early 70s the British school of Blues guitar had significant talent to offer.  In fact I would go so far as to say that the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon might never have achieved the recognition they so deserved if it wasn’t for their followers from the UK that included such notables as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.  The bastard cousin to this group was the less known but I daresay equally talented Peter Green. 

Peter Green was by all accounts one of the great blues guitarists of the first British Invasion.  But his early career was spent in the shadows of Eric Clapton who, as most fans of his work would tell you is God, so he’s in good company.  Eric was the lead guitarist for a band with a rotating roster called John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.  It was in the Bluesbreakers that Peter Green made his name, unfortunately, like I said as a second fiddle to Clapton in popularity.  Eventually Green had to leave the Bluesbreakers and he took fellow band members John McVie and Mick Fleetwood with him to form their own group “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”.  Yes, this is the very same band that put out those hit albums in the late 70s that your parents have tucked away in their old record collection.  Records are a black plastic (or vinyl) analogue storage media that was popular in decades prior to the 1980s for music playback.  But Fleetwood Mac’s commercial success occurred when the Peter Green’s rendition of the band fused with a California based pop act called Buckingham Nicks, which us to the new DVD-Audio of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.  This is a hard edge band with Peter Green as its lead guitar, a long way off from Lindsay Buckingham.  Grittier and loosely arranged, the style is more closely aligned with early British house of Blues.  If you’re interested in the work of any of the aforementioned guitarists you owe it to yourself to round out your musical experience with this rare recording.  Silverline has done an amazing job with this compilation of live performances from 1967 to 1970.  A great tribute to the already rare of work of this little known but fertile patch of Blues guitar history.  Green shows his prowess in the instrumental “Albatross”.  Steele guitar in “Preachin” is also a fine piece of work.  The audio quality in high resolution 96kHz/24pbs is amazing for a recording that was mastered between ’67-’70.  This disc is a time warp that will take you to those early recordings before the “Fleetwood Mac” we all know.  If you don’t have a DVD player that is capable of DVD-Audio don’t despair, there is also a Dolby Digital track that will play in 5.1 on any DVD player.  If you’re a fan of Blues or even just a casual fan of some of Eric Clapton’s grittier early work with Cream you owe it to yourself to hear the group that formed around the same time.  Peter Green never received the recognition that perhaps his talent should have dictated.  That’s because he was a poster child for how destructive drug abuse can be when it takes over your life.  You’ll hear this DVD and wonder what happened to this guy.