The End Of The Game ()

I first found this record very hard to judge, many Peter Green fans might have been alienated by the Green God's post Mac debut, I always wanted to hear this album since I first discovered the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac at 19 years old, I saw it in a few used record shops but balked at the prices, So that's when Napster came in handy, after a few failed downloads I had the album, at first it was hard to relate to the music with it's lack of structure and the almost avant garde jazz atmosphere it creates, A couple listens were required to get aquainted with the sound, Peter was beginning to expand his range in his last year with Fleetwood Mac with extended jams and improvs on various songs, but Peter Green also well on his way to his LSD fueled psychological collapse and after a brief reunion with Fleetwood Mac in early 1971 began to disappear from the music scene for most of the 70s, However you view this record, It is an adventure in free form,

Reaching The Cold 100 ()

Since I purchased my first Splinter Group CD in 1998 I have always anticipated the next new release, Anticipation of Reaching The Cold 100 paid off big, on this disc the listener will note the absence of horns and female backing vocals leaving more of a raw, stripped down rocking affair from Green, Watson and Co, Greeny's vocals and musicianship are much more confident and energetic and really shine throughout from plaintive ballading to gruff blues stylings, just listen to his banjo on Nigel's "Legal Fee Blues" it doesn't and cannot disappoint, the new recordings of the three classic Fleetwood Mac tracks and Otis Spann's "It Takes Time" bring back memories of when I witnessed a Splinter Group appearence at a Blues Festival in Jackson NJ, Reaching The Cold 100 offers no disappointments and no true Splinter Group fan is to be without it, A Five Star Masterpiece with absolutely no doubts.

Hello There Big Boy ()

Sadly, this is where it ended, Hello There Big Boy has a few good moments, but overall it is uninspired and unfocused, Danny was in a state of personal degeneration and probaly would not have made the album, the record was made to satisfy his contract with DJM and Clifford Davis, and all that great talent wasted.

Future Games ()

This is probably one of my favorite post Peter Green Fleetwood Mac albums, It also marked the debut of the great songwriting talents of Bob Welch although he wrote only two tracks and co wrote "What a shame", Danny Kirwan stepped up and wrote some of his best songs, "Woman of 1000 years" is a beautiful ballad which is the opening cut on the album and the country rocker "Sands of time", I found this song to be a favorite song while driving up the Palisades Parkway to upstate New York last summer, One day not long ago I was listening to a WABC Musicradio soundfile from 1971 and heard an advertisement for Future Games with "Sands of time" as the backing track, Unfortunately, the album didn't chart, This is one of my all time favorite 70s albums, and one of Danny Kirwan's finest hours, Sadly, it didn't last.

Bare Trees ()

What can I say??, What a great follow up to Future Games, one of the two pre Buckingham/Nicks records to feature no changes in the line up, As with Future Games, Danny Kirwan is the dominating force with five of his songs appearing on the record, "Child of mine" is rife with some firey lead guitar, "Danny's chant" is a semi intrumental piece with plenty of wah-wah and "Da da das" as well as his gentler songs, "Dust" which is a Rupert Brooke poem made into song, "Sunny side of Heaven is a great Kirwan intrumental, Bob Welch penned one of his finest songs with "Sentimental Lady" which became a solo hit some five years later on his French kiss album, Mrs McVie has one ballad and one rock song here, "Spare me a little love" and "Homeward bound" with some great soloing by Danny, A somewhat unusual feature on this outing is a poem, "Thoughts on a grey day" written and read by Mrs Scarrot, Bare Trees is a more rockier record than Future Games and comfortably takes it's place as one of Fleetwood Mac's best, Unfortunately, Danny Kirwan, although writing much of the album was growing increasingly estranged from the rest of the band and was asked to leave the band during the Bare Trees tour of America, Thus the ending of IMO the best post Peter Green incarnation of Fleetwood Mac,