Madelow:
Although I enjoy Christine's Welch-era music, her songwriting and singing both improved after Linds & Stevie joined the band. Still can't figure out if it's the songs themselves, or the arrangement and production values. But, you can certainly hear the difference, beginning with"Warm Ways" on the White Album. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful Christine songs pre-Rumours, but the majority of her best work is clearly during the Buckingham-Nicks time.
SteveMacD:
I dunno if I completely agree. I think Spare Me A Little Of Your Love and Why easily stand up to anything she ever did with Stevie and Lindsey. Also, I don't hear too many major differences between her songs themselves on the white Fleetwood Mac album from the earlier work.
Why stop there? Beyond Spare Me A Little Of Your Love and Why, you could easily cite gems like Show Me A Smile, Dissatisfied, Remember Me, Did You Ever Love Me, Believe Me, The Way I Feel, Heroes Are Hard To Find and Come A Little Bit Closer. Cristine's dark inflection on Keep On Going is as good as anything she ever did pre or post B&N imo, though that may partly be due to BW's provocative lyrics and a great arrangement into the bargain. Her harmony accents also helped take some of those mid era Mac tunes over the top, starting with Mission Bell in 1970. She was pure gold in that realm on MTM.
Madelow: Still can't figure out if it's the songs themselves, or the arrangement and production values.
Chris penned a lot of gems in the late [B&N] era, but she also had 20 years to compose them before her Mac days were done. I'd say her 5 years per-B&N - as highlighted above - stand up quite admirably against the maturation which followed. Those songs laid the groundwork for the flowering you speak of. There was no meteoric curve or breakthrough one can readily point to, but certainly more gloss and sheen as time went along - occasionally bordering on MOR - plus a lot more material co-written by others (a la musical partners).
SteveMacD: They recorded Bare Trees in a week, but spent three months recording white Fleetwood Mac album.
BT in a week?? Source details or fail.
Also what was the time frame for the FM white album = February-April '75 @ Sound City in LA?
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