Fleetwood, By RICHARD O. JONES Thomson News Service Whatever else one might say about Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, one thing seems perfectly clear and inarguable: They know how to put together a band. No band has been able to successfully reinvent itself over and over again like Fleetwood Mac. The band reached its hey-day in the mid-1970s, when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in for the self-titled landmark albura in 1975 and 1977's Rumours," which has sold 25 million copies to date. But depending on how you divide it up, there were at least three other Fleetwood Macs before that and a couple more since. The first was a four-piece blues outfit, featuring guitarists Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green. Then Green left and Danny Kirwin joined. Spencer left and the bass player's wife, Christine McVie, joined to sing and play keyboards. A second guitarist, Bob Welch. then signed on. Then Buckingham and Nicks put the band over the top. Buckingham left in 1987, and Billy Burnette and Rick Vito joined. In '92, Vito left, and in '93 Nicks ended her 15-year tenure. By all accounts at the time, that was the McVie know how end of Fleetwood Mac. Not so fast. This is the year of "Time," a new album by a new Fleetwood Mac that combines the classic sound with new influences. Once again, the band has a second guitarist. This time, it's an old friend, Dave Mason, a co-founder of Traffic and author of a handful of classic rock sounds himself, including "Feelin' Alright," "Dear Mr. Fantasy," and "Only You Know Know." Vocal power has been added in the form of Bekka Bramlett, who may be the youngest member of the band, but has previous ties to the band. Her parents were Delaney and Bonnie, one of the hot acts of the late '60s, and friends with Mason. Still with the band are Fleetwood, both McVies (though now divorced) and Burnette. It might appear that Bramlett has been brought on to replace the irreplaceable Nicks, and that might be a drawback for some old" Mac fans. While she helps hold down the familiar harmonic base, her con- a band works tributions to the outfit are quite different from Nicks. Where Stevie was mysterious and ethereal in her style and sound, Bramlett is down-to-earth and bluesy. While her addition may not be taking the band all they way back to their pure blues roots, it does go off in a different direction. I saw Fleetwood Mac in concert this summer on its "Another Link in the Chain" tour with Mason and Bramlett (but without Christine McVie), and it relied heavily on the mid-'70s catalog - "Go Your Own Way," "Don't Stop," "Say You Love Me," etc. The band probably would have been booed off the stage if it hadn't. It was a good concert, and the new members adapted well to the old material, but it clearly wasn't the same. "Time" certainly suits this lineup better. The album kicks off with "Talkin' to My Heart," a fiery duet written by Burnette and sung with Bramlett. Then Christine takes a caustic swipe at Tinseltown and stardom's toll on relationships with "Hollywood (Some Other Kind of Town)." NEW PAGERS NEC