Between the departure of Peter Green and the arrival of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac soldiered on in the early-to-mid 1970s re-fashioning their sound over six albums, a span of time and music that is largely forgotten by the general music listening audience.

On those six releases, there are nuggets worth discovering or revisiting and an indication of where the band would eventually wind up artistically, considerably distant from where it started.

Fleetwood Mac quickly became a British blues institution in the late 1960s with a lineup that included the rock solid rhythm section of John McVie, bass, and Mick Fleetwood, drums, along with Green, one of the U.K.’s preeminent blues guitarists and Jeremy Spencer, an Elmore James loyalist and early rock ‘n roll enthusiast.

Mac enjoyed single and album chart success in the U.K. and enjoyed good album numbers in the States for their self-titled debut, second release Mr. Wonderful, augmented by horns and guitarist Danny Kirwan, and third record English Rose, along with the compilation Pious Bird Of Good Omen.

After Green’s semi-involvement with an excellent fourth record, Then Play On, which has a muddled history of its own, founder Green left. It wasn’t until 1975 that Mac found mega-million selling worldwide success with Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie with the release of Fleetwood Mac and then Rumours in ’77, music in a much more pop-oriented vein but executed beautifully.

The years in between saw the release of Kiln House (1970), same as the lineup for the second album minus Green, Future Games (1971), which saw the departure of Spencer, the additions of American guitarist Bob Welch and singer/songwriter/pianist Christine McVie and the emergence of Kirwan as an equal if not dominant writer in the group, Bare Trees (1972), Penguin (1973), goodbye Kirwan, hello singer Dave Walker and guitarist Bob Weston, Mystery To Me (1973), so long Walker, and Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974), adios Weston.

Welch left after Heroes and a year later came the Buckingham-Nicks era.

Some of these albums are more consistent than others but there are no misfires. Still, after Kiln House not one charted in the U.K. And none of them were released on CD in Britain until 2004! None of this portion of Mac’s catalogue has been remastered since 1990, when they were released in the States. The 2004 releases in England were pressed in West Germany but used the same mastering as the American releases. Despite all this, the CDs sound fine. The vinyl is probably preferable in a number of cases but the mastering of the early ’90s suffice, at least for now.

Six albums is quite a bit of material to detail so I’ll hit some of the highlights of each.

Kiln House features material fairly equally split between Spencer and Kirwan, with most of the covers led by Spencer. There is still a strong strain of blues and early rock ‘n roll but pop sensibilities are starting to creep in. I had always liked some of Spencer’s early material, but because it gets repetitive and more and more derivative through the first three albums, it wears thin quickly. But here he makes some of his best contributions before his departure, particularly on the Buddy Holly tribute, Buddy’s Song, actually Peggy Sue Got Married.

Kirwan has a number of interesting compositions, including the instrumental Earl Grey and the rocking and bluesy Tell Me All The Things You Do, but none better than the collaboration with Spencer and McVie on Station Man, a blues-drenched workout with an unusual construction and some unexpected turns.

The addition of Welch and Christine McVie starts to turn the group around in a pop direction on Future Games, and even Kirwan starts drifting toward a more California-influenced sound with Woman Of 1,000 Years and Sands Of Time.  We start to hear Christine McVie emerge as a powerful songwriter on Morning Rain and the exquisite ballad Show Me A Smile. Welch has two solo outings on Lay It All Down and the title track. His best contributions to the group still lay ahead.

Though Kirwan wrote five songs on Bare Trees, including standouts Child Of Mine and the title track, Christine McVie and Welch are becoming firmly entrenched as the band’s songwriters on this release. McVie’s Homeward Bound and Spare Me A Little Of Your Love are two of the disc’s highlights and Welch’s Sentimental Lady, though somewhat syrupy and light on lyrics received the most radio air play. Kirwan was fired shortly after the album’s release and Bob Weston was recruited as lead guitarist and curiously Dave Walker as lead singer.

Walker actually only sings lead on two tracks of the next album Penguin as he was hired more to provide a frontman presence live. McVie’s Remember Me, Dissatisfied and Did You Ever Love Me, a collaboration with Welch, are the best tracks on this perhaps the oddest of the six albums.

Walker’s tenure was short-lived as he was gone by the next release, Mystery To Me, which is the era’s Fleetwood Mac mini-masterpiece. There’s not a bad track on it and some particularly memorable ones including Welch’s Hypnotized, which received a lot of air play, the title track and a personal favorite Miles Away, on which Weston gets a workout. In addition, Christine McVie delivers some of her best tunes yet in Believe Me, Just Crazy Love, The Way I Feel and Why.

Heroes Are Hard To Find continues in the same vein with McVie’s title track a stunner, complete with a potent string arrangement against a funky, rocking groove, but the record as a whole is not as consistent as Mystery. Again McVie hits big with the gorgeous Come A Little Bit Closer, Bad Loser and Prove Your Love. Welch actually has seven of the 11 tracks but none are on par with McVie’s.

She’s Changing Me, Silver Heels, both with country-rock feels, Born Enchanter and Safe Harbour are Welch’s best efforts on Heroes.

The best news about all these releases is how available and reasonable they are. Whether purchased in the States or U.K., you’ll wind up only spending about $6 on each. Quite a bargain. All six for less than 40 bucks. And the artwork on all the albums is some of the best of the ’70s. The covers ranges from childlike drawings and photos to Mystery’s monster cartoon. All worthy and won’t put too bad a dent in your wallet.