The Visitor

The Visitor is an album by Mick Fleetwood, released by RCA Records in 1981. All the songs were recorded in Accra, Ghana between January and February 1981 at the "Ghana Film Industries, Inc. Studio" and produced by Richard Dashut, and were later mixed in various studios in England. The album has been re-released several times, including a US CD release by Wounded Bird Records on October 18, 2011. Background At the conclusion of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk Tour, the band agreed to take an extended hiatus to pursue individual projects. Fleetwood had expressed interest in doing an African record back in 1978 when Fleetwood Mac was about to begin work on the Tusk album, although this idea was not fully realized until Fleetwood travelled to Ghana with the intention of collaborating with local musicians. Fleetwood approached Warner Brothers about the idea, but the label turned him down as they were unwilling to give the drummer $500,000 to fly out the necessary equipment to Ghana and arrange for the recording sessions. RCA Records eventually agree to fund Fleetwood's plan, so he flew out to Accra, the capital of Ghana, where Fleetwood and his manager Mickey Shapiro scouted the area for musicians. Fleetwood's original idea was to send mixing desks and tape machines to musicians so they could record at their home localities, although Fleetwood decided against this as the road conditions rendered it impossible to transport this gear. Fleetwood instead arranged for studio sessions with Faisal Helwani, who had the only functioning professional studio in Accra. George Hawkins, who performed most of the lead vocals on this album, later appeared on the I'm Not Me album from 1983 as a member and co-lead vocalist of Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo. Fleetwood had originally asked Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac, to appear on The Visitor, but Welch was too busy to participate.