REVIEW: Stevie Nicks’ dream state - Nicks turns her poetry into lyrics 4/5 Stars

Stevie Nicks' sweet Dreams

4/5 Stars - Toronto Star

By Jane Stevenson, QMI Agency
Toronto Sun
4/5 STARS

TORONTO - In the feature film about her life, Stevie Nicks wants Reese Witherspoon to play her.

This is one of many revelations found in In Your Dreams, the documentary about the making of Nicks’ 2011 solo album of the same name, co-directed by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, who also helmed the record with Glen Ballard.

On and off, over the course of a year, Stewart shot 50 hours of footage of the now 64-year-old Nicks, most intimately at her mansion high in the hills above Los Angeles. The resulting film features cameos by Witherspoon, Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham, Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and, of course, Stewart, who is a bit of a character himself.

When he’s not belting back the occasional martini, he’s got either an acoustic or electric guitar or camera in his hand.

During one funny moment, Stewart is filming Nicks and she looks up and says: “Oh, that was you the whole time. I’m going like, ‘Who’s the chick in the white outfit that’s filming us?’”

One genuine surprise? That until writing with Stewart, Nicks had never ever written a song with another person in the same room before.

“I don’t like to be told what to do,” she says at one point.

In another scene, she is seen arguing with Buckingham over tense changes in her lyrics. “Would you say that to Bob Dylan?” Nicks asks him.

And when Stewart tries to insert some “too siren-y, too weird” guitar effects into a song, Nicks says bluntly: “Don’t quit your day job.”

No pushover is Nicks. And she’s honest too.

She admits to ending up with a demo reel of 23 Campbell tracks in the ’80s after visiting Tom Petty and stealing one - Runaway Trains - for a Fleetwood Mac song until Petty got wind of it.

“All I could hear was Tom screaming,” she says to the camera. “I was so busted.”

The movie is certain to appeal to fans of Nicks, whose gypsy persona, fashion style and throaty voice made her an icon. And for those who aren't devotees, the behind-the-scenes music-making with some of rock’s top musicians will fascinate.

FILM | Stevie Nicks "In Your Dreams"

by Jason Steidman
BlogTO

Singer/songwriter Steve Nicks, known from her association with the group Fleetwood Mac, will be present tonight at a special screening of the film, In Your Dreams, a documentary about the making of her 2011 album of the same name. This album was her first effort in ten years. A top notch cast of LA production and musical talent was enlisted to make it happen, led by Dave Stewart, a well-known producer whose career was launched back in the early '80s as part of the group The Eurythmics. The film follows the project from the writing process onwards, and also features biographical passages, and footage from Nick's childhood and career.

In Your Dreams: Stevie Nicks is at the TIFF Bell Lightbox tonight at 7 and 7:30, with Nicks conducting a Q&A afterward.

Sweet dreams — musically anyway — are made of this.

by Jane Stevens
Ottawa Sun

Two rock icons, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, worked together on Nicks’ first solo album in a decade, 2011’s In Your Dreams.

But their creative collaboration didn't end there.

There’s also a Stewart-directed 2013 behind- the-scenes documentary of the same name about making the record, co-produced by Glen Ballard, that will debut in Toronto Monday night. The film then moves across Canada over the next several weeks.

“It’s a movie that Stevie Nicks’ fans love,” says Stewart, 60, from Los Angeles.

“Obviously, she’s been a bit of an enigma and very sort of mysterious and there’s an insight not only into her world and her home and how she works but inside her mind as well. How she works creatively and how she thinks. What’s good is that if you’re not a Stevie Nicks fan in particular and you watch it, you get kind of surprised at how kind of intense and focused she is working. Because I think a lot of the views or people’s opinions about artists during certain periods of their life is kind of spaced out, hippie like. And then you see Stevie at work in the film and you go, ‘Holy s---!’ She’s like a force of nature.”

Turns out Stewart and Nicks met 30 years ago.

The occasion was an Eurythmics show in Los Angeles and Nicks came backstage.

“We got on really well,” says Stewart. “And I went back to stay in L.A. for a bit and we hung out and I was writing just experimental stuff with her and I ended up writing this song for her but then Tom Petty liked it and wanted to record it — Don’t Come Around Here No More — that’s why at the end (of the film, Stevie) says, ‘ Hey, Dave, definitely come around here!’ Because it became this epic sort of song for Tom.”

Stewart and Nicks regrouped again significantly in 2006 when Nicks appeared on a pilot for Stewart’s HBO music- themed interview show. In the documentary, she reveals after that collaboration she knew she wanted Stewart to produce either her next solo album or a Fleetwood Mac record.

He says after recording the album with Nicks and shooting about 50 hours of footage — boiled down to one hour and 40 minutes on-screen — he learned two significant things about her.

“Stevie’s incredibly generous. She’s always kept the same backing singers, the same friends ... even the sounds guys and everybody. They've all stuck by her. They’re so loyal to her. And that’s an amazing thing that I discovered about Stevie of how deep that runs within her, this loyalty. And then all of the time and effort she puts into putting her lyrics together. Training herself in books and reading so much literature. She’s steeped in her job. She said it herself. She purposely decided not to have children because she just knew she couldn't do both. It’s a massive decision.”

In Your Dreams, reviewed: In the Nicks of it

The week ahead for "In Your Dreams"

Fans who have seen this film across the U.S. absolutely loved it!... I think if you've been along for the ride from the inception of this album (and film) like many of us feel we have been, you'll get it... Obviously as an 'outsider' looking in, Mr. Bidini will have a different take on this film and situation, which is not a career spanning document but one of an experience of two seemingly different people, yet very similar in a lot of ways coming together and trying to capture the magic that occurred over that year (2010) of recording Stevie's "In Your Dreams".  But it is interesting seeing another perspective.

The National Post (Canada)

by Dave Bidini

A documentary that follows Stevie Nicks as she begins writing and recording her first solo album in nearly a decade.

“And herewith be the tale of the bescarfed nymphette spritzed with the gay mist of ladyhood traipsing about her earthen wares and sacred beads while cast in the glow of an everlasting aurora” is how any review about anything regarding Stevie Nicks should probably start. And yet the film, In Your Dreams, about the Fleetwood Mac sirenette, begins, regrettably, without much of her medieval-by-way-of-Topanga hoodoo or late ’70s Angelino imagery choosing, instead, to put us on a jet — a private jet, Nicks’s jet — before lapsing into footage of fans outside some indeterminate concert bowl in some indeterminate American city espousing life-changing testimony bout the bigness of Nicks’s songs as they relate to their lives. After too much of this, the plane lands. A limo. More fans telling the camera (and, ostensibly, telling Nicks): “I love you.” Then Nicks being made up backstage. Nicks shaking her bracelets. There’s the dull roar of the crowd, some lights, and: go. Lips struggling to push a food cart into his old highschool cafeteria in the opening moments of Anvil: The Story of Anvil this is not.

Movies about rock ’n’ roll — its scent, its pulp, its shattering emotional properties — are inherently disappointing because they’re not rock ’n’ roll, although In Your Dreams is disappointing because it’s not even really a movie. Instead, it’s a vanity postcard co-directed and co-produced by the film’s two principles, Nicks and Dave Stewart of The Tourists/Eurythmics, who are to cinematic objectivity what Stewart was to the ’80s neckbeard: ill-suited and gaudy. Because Stewart and Nicks are new filmmakers — and because everyone these days is a pocket Buñuel with their digital apparatii — the movie plays as if demanding visual Ritalin: colour becoming black and white becoming bordered with Kodak film stock becoming archival footage becoming video before eventually blurring into a kind of artless everything. Within the first few minutes, Stewart and Nicks are seen talking about the genesis of their working relationship — they have gathered to make her first record in 10 years — which amounts to each of them, by turns, telling the other how great they are. It’s like an SCTV sketch only no one gets blown up.

The concept of the film is all right — it’s essentially a making-of doc that hiccups between tiresome music videos of the songs — yet it’s a wonder that neither of the musicians/filmmakers’ watched VH1’s Classic Albums instalment on Fleetwood Mac’s seminal Rumours, a fine 60 minutes that reveals more about Nicks and her life than anything here. That said, it’s easy to imagine them deciding that they could do better, the massivity of their ego being what it is. Long and terrible passages in the film are spent while Nicks lounges on a settee worrying over lyrics, which are also long and terrible. While watching people write is rarely effective cinema (“Let’s face the music and dance” is a great lyric, but I doubt the scribbling down of its words would make a good film), the only thing less gripping is watching people track boring albums, which Nicks and her band do throughout In Your Dreams. In these scenes, Stewart directs himself pitching advice while wearing his fedora and sunglasses, which he never takes off. The truth is that, after a few weeks in the studio, one is rarely in good enough shape to get dressed, let alone dress well. Being in the studio is like being shipwrecked: oxygen-deprived and starving for normalcy and a decent meal. There’s nothing here that comes close to reflecting this experience. In the end, this film, like the sessions that produced Nicks’ album, reeks of catering.

Visit inyourdreamsmovie.com for more information.


A Stevie Nicks documentary by Stevie Nicks
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
by Brad Wheeler

Billed as an “intimate portrait of one of rock’s most enduring and legendary artists,” In Your Dreams, a documentary on the making of Stevie Nicks’s 2011 album of the same name, runs the risk of being too intimate for its own good. Musician Dave Stewart, who co-produced the album, shared directorial credit on the film with the singer herself. We spoke with him about a documentary being too close to its subject.

Stevie Nicks was involved in the editing of the documentary. Without someone independent doing it, doesn’t In Your Dreams end up being a fans-only film?

I suppose. My favourite music documentary is D.A. Pennebaker’s Dont Look Back, on Bob Dylan. But that kind of film would have never been made with Stevie. She never would have allowed an independent filmmaker to film her making a record. She wouldn’t have felt comfortable writing and recording with a camera filming. This came about naturally. A lot of it in the beginning was filmed on a cell phone.

I cringed watching her visit with soldiers in the hospital. Isn’t that a bit self-serving on her part?

Maybe. But it’s something she’s been doing for quite a while, that kind of charitable endeavour. It’s something she wanted to put in. She felt very seriously about the song Soldier’s Angel. The film could have had many different narratives. But once she got involved in the editing and really put herself into it, it meant that it wasn’t going to be the movie I would have exactly made.

At the end, she describes the experience of making the album as the best year of her life. You were there. Why do you think she felt so strongly about it?

I think there was a realization that happened to her – that the album was a collaboration, and that it was possible. She’d been closed in and locked in, if you know what I mean, and then the whole world opened up for her. I’m sure she could spend a lot of time in her house on her own, or with the people she normally works with, and not realize that there’s a world out there to play with.

In Your Dreams screens April 16 to 18 (special screenings on April 15 with Nicks Q&A sessions are sold out). TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King St. W., 416-599-8433.

In Your Dreams runs from April 16-18 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, with further screenings across Canada listed below.

Amazing photos of Dave Grohl with Stevie Nicks - Relix Magazine is out now!

Relix Magazine with Stevie and Dave on the cover (s) is out now... Check your local magazine retailer.  

Dave Grohl & Stevie Nicks 

The Old Dreams & New Realities of Rock and Roll

Photos by Danny Clinch - More on his website

Read an excerpt from the magazine at Relix

People seem to be having a hard time finding this magazine especially at Barnes and Noble.  Not sure why they aren't stocking it - yet. Another individual was told by B&N that it comes out in May, when it's actually OUT NOW!.  An alternative to buying at a magazine store is ordering it directly through Relix. You can buy single issues directly through them. In the U.S., it will cost you $3.99 extra for shipping on top of the magazine price of $6.99 (they also offer international shipping).  A cheaper alternative would be to just subscribe to the magazine for one year at a discounted price (which ends on April 17th).  The price is $20 and Relix will send you BOTH magazines featuring the different covers... So it's up to you. $11.00 for one magazine or $20 for both covers plus a yearly subscription.  Click through here for more details at RELIX on the subscription discount. Use Promo code SPECIAL in the promo spot HERE to place your subscription order.

April 25th - The Soundtrack Series welcomes Fleetwood Mac Producer Ken Caillat to The Gallery

Ken Caillat will make an appearance at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge - 158 Bleecker St, New York, NY on Thursday, April 25th at 8pm.  The Soundtrack Series produced and hosted by Dana Rossi on the fourth Thursday of every month will feature Ken speaking about his book "Making Rumours - The Inside story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album", which chronicles his experience as co-producer in the studio with Fleetwood Mac during the creation of  1977's "Rumours".  Get the "Making Rumours" book, bring it along and Ken will be happy to sign your copy.

Advance Tickets to this engagement can be purchased on-line at Le Poisson Rouge.  Tickets are $5 in advance, with day of tickets at $8.  

The Soundtrack Series (Website)
The Soundtrack Series (Facebook)
Le Poisson Rouge (Website)
The Gallery at LPR (Facebook)
Making Rumours (Website)
Rumours - The Book (Facebook)

REVIEW | PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac at the United Center - Chicago April 13, 2013

Concert review: Fleetwood Mac at the United Center
Greg Kot - Music critic
Chicago Tribune

It was billed as a Fleetwood Mac concert Saturday at the United Center, but it was really more about the California duo that Mick Fleetwood invited to join the band in 1974, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Lindsey and Stevie were the Jay-Z and Beyonce of the ‘70s. They were an under-achieving folk-rock duo transformed into a power couple with Fleetwood Mac, a core ingredient in three multimillion-selling albums that provided 15 of the 23 songs performed Saturday: “Fleetwood Mac” (1975), “Rumours” (1977) and “Tusk” (1979).

The concert turned into an extended dialogue between the two, with the rest of Mac’s membership – both current and past – reduced to ancillary roles. Buckingham and Nicks were more than just bandmates, of course, but lovers who broke up just as Fleetwood Mac broke big. That personal travail provided a subtext for countless songs, and the soap opera has continued to play out over the decades. Buckingham played hide-and-seek with the band while conducting a solo career, and he and Nicks appeared uneasy allies at best on recent tours. On Saturday, they were on cozier terms, and the songs and presentation underlined it.

Fleetwood Mac has a rich history that reaches back to swinging London during the late ‘60s. The band was named after its rhythm section, which is still intact. Though he looks more than ever like he could be Fagin’s goofball sidekick in “Oliver Twist,” Mick Fleetwood remains an inventive drummer, steeped in blues but capable of coloring arrangements with orchestral flair. Hey, the man’s got a gong – and wind chimes! – and he knows how to use them. Band co-founder John McVie provided the bass breakdown in “The Chain,” a moment so iconic that it got an ovation from the capacity crowd. But even though Fleetwood got a drum solo, he and McVie were basically just part of the backing band on this night.

Another crucial player in the “Rumours” run written out of the script was Christine McVie, the U.K. keyboardist whose sultry hits were every bit as resonant as those of Nicks and Buckingham. But McVie retired in 1998, and her songs have been retired from the set list, with one exception – “Don’t Stop.”

Above 5 Photos by Live Nation Illinois

It was that song that urged, “Don’t you look back, yesterday’s gone” – solid advice for most rock bands trying to remain relevant. Though the set was loaded with yesterday’s songs, Fleetwood Mac does have its own anti-nostalgia machine. Buckingham still plays like a guy looking for his first break. Only his gray hair betrayed any signs of aging. His voice remains pliable and strong, if slightly deranged in its most fevered moments. As a guitarist, he’s a finger-picker who can sound like he’s got four hands going at once, playing lead and rhythm lines simultaneously while mixing a grab-bag of influences – everything from bluegrass to hard rock. He described “Big Love” as a “meditation” on change, but this was more like an exorcism. He attacked his guitar as much as plucked it, a ferocious solo performance that was easily the night’s highlight.

Nicks took longer to warm to the occasion. Her range has narrowed and her register has lowered, and attempts to stretch out and talk-sing through “Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Sara” turned these warhorses sludgy and slack. But when Fleetwood, McVie and several backing musicians and singers exited, Nicks had the stage to herself with Buckingham, and the intimacy and space in the arrangements suited her. “Landslide” finished with the duo clasping hands, and they resurrected “Without You,” a song from their pre-Mac days that allowed their voices to blend like the California-pop innocents they once were.

Buckingham responded to Nicks’ tune with one he wrote a decade ago about the couple, “Say Goodbye.” The guitarist even broke out the “c” word – “closure” – in describing his relationship with Nicks. Once again, the stage was empty except for the two singers as their public therapy session dissolved into darkness. Then they exited holding hands.

Below photos by Cindy (csimko75) - View Gallery

Below Photos by Erin Brown - View Gallery

SAD ANGEL

(Will be released on-line as part of Fleetwood Mac's new EP. Lindsey says in the video, it's a digital release first, then possibly a physical piece later)

LANDSLIDE

Re: Fleetwood Mac EP "awaiting artwork approval"

Posted by: Anonymous

Whether this is fact or fiction... thought it was worth posting - and thanks to whomever posted the info if in fact it's correct:

"A friend of mine works at Madison Square Garden and got me backstage at the Fleetwood Mac concert last Monday. I heard Lindsey Buckingham telling someone that the new EP being released online was awaiting the approval of the artwork. Stevie at first wanted photos, but then they all decided it should just have a Fleetwood Mac logo and say EP. He said once that is approved the EP will be out in a week. It contains "Sad Angel", "Without You", "Miss Fantasy" and one more Lindsey song."

REVIEW | PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac Live in Louisville, KY + WDRB News Recap

Fleetwood Mac Live in Louisville, KY - April 11, 2013

Above Photos by Mike Stewart
View Gallery - 21 photos

Below Photos by Laura Wood
View Gallery

WDRB 41 Louisville - News, Weather, Sports Community

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac took the spotlight in Louisville. The group hit the stage at the KFC Yum Center on Thursday, April 11. The lineup includes original members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The band is on a national tour after a three-year break. The new tour marks the 35th anniversary of the release of their classic 1977 album Rumours.


Fleetwood Mac Puts on Exceptional Show at the KFC Yum! Center

by Pam Windsor
Louisville.com

Photos:  sniperphotography.com View Gallery

With no opening act – which made it all so much better - Fleetwood Mac hit the stage and rocked the KFC Yum! Center for more than two hours with a high energy, dynamic performance of their greatest hits, some new music, and even a newly discovered old song from the Buckingham Nicks days. As the show got underway, it was difficult to tell who was more excited to have Fleetwood Mac back performing live for the first time in three years – the many, thousands in the crowd – or Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

They kicked things off with the hard charging “Secondhand News,” one of many songs they performed from their 1977 Rumours album, which remains one of the most successful in rock history and saw a deluxe reissue earlier this year. Rumours came at time of emotional upheaval for the group, with the break-up of Nicks and Buckingham, the divorce of Mick Fleetwood, and the separation of John and Christine McVie, and many of the songs reflected what they were dealing with at the time.

“Secondhand News” was quickly followed by “The Chain.”

Nicks welcomed the Louisville crowd, with a “How about those Cardinals?” offering her congratulations and later dedicating her well-known song “Landslide” in their honor.

Nicks sported a long-sleeved black jacket and short tiered skirt, adding shawls and scarves throughout the show.  She moved and spun, sometimes round and round in a dizzying fashion, maintaining her signature dramatic flair.  She and Buckingham, once a couple, seem to have struck a balance of being separate now, yet at the same time sharing a closeness, as they deliver so many songs that  reflect their history together.

The group moved through a stream of fan favorites, “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Sara,” “Stand Back,” “Go Your Own Way,” and more, all with strong, excited reactions from the crowd.

There was also some new music.  Buckingham explained that before this latest tour the group went back into the studio and recorded some new tracks that will be available on a new EP soon.  They performed one called, “Sad Angel.”

There was an old song, too, pre-dating Fleetwood Mac, that Nicks and Buckingham recorded many years ago.  Nicks says she recently discovered it on a “Youtube” video. “Without You,” will also be on their new EP.

It was an amazing night, with intense musical performances throughout.  There were strong vocals from Nicks and Buckingham, exceptional guitar work from Buckingham, who has never ranked as high as he should on those “greatest rock guitarist” polls.  Some of the highlights included Buckingham’s solo performance of “Big Love,” (during a break when the rest of the band left the stage), that saw his hands and fingers moving  up and down the guitar so fast the crowd could hardly contain itself.  And later, he rocked the house in a mesmerizing performance of “I’m So Afraid.”   As he wrapped it up, he was so wound up he was banging the guitar at the end of the song with both hands.  His efforts garnered him a standing ovation.

Stellar musical performances, though, did not stop there.  Mick Fleetwood – did a tremendous job during “Eyes of the World,” and during the group’s first encore “World Turning,” Fleetwood  did an electrifying four minute drum solo, reminding those who may have forgotten, what rock and roll is all about.

John McVie was also in rare form on the bass throughout the evening, providing the foundation for the sound that has always been Fleetwood Mac.

There were some slight differences such as a few lower notes where songs in years past featured higher notes, and a few song variations such as a much slower, at first almost unrecognizable beginning to “Tusk,” when compared to the original version.  But those were not detractions, just minor observations for anyone paying attention.  Overall, the Fleetwood Mac concert was more than a show, it was an event. It’s rare to see four core members of one of rock and roll’s greatest groups, just as strong as ever, performing songs they made famous some thirty-five years ago.  It makes the idea of new music on an upcoming EP – something to get excited about.

WITHOUT YOU (New/old Buckingham Nicks song)
WORLD TURNING
SARA
SISTERS OF THE MOON

No Mirage... Fleetwood Mac Returns With New Songs

"We just made the decision to put a few of these songs on iTunes," Fleetwood said - the EP is expected to drop any day.

Boston Herald - April 12, 2013

Bob Lefsetz showing "Christine McVie" a little love

Lindsey Buckingham gets all the credit. Stevie Nicks gets all the attention. But Christine McVie was the glue. She bridged the gap from obscurity to fame. Nicks twirled, but it was Christine with her understated beauty that enraptured us. And it was Christine's track that broke the new Fleetwood Mac. Yes, "Over My Head" paved the way for "Rhiannon." And Bill Clinton's theme song, "Don't Stop," was not the work of an American, but a Brit, Christine McVie.

And for a while there, Christine was part of the Fleetwood Mac reunion, but then she dropped out. And too often band names are brand names and individuals are forgotten, but in Christine's case, this is unjust.

But all her Fleetwood Mac tunes stay in rotation. And if you loved those, maybe you missed her 1984 solo

album, produced by Russ Titelman, that had some traction but then disappeared, as if it were never made, but there are a few tracks that I'll never forget, that titillate me to the core.

Like "So Excited"...

"Well, I'm so excited

My baby is on his way"

It's the jangly guitar part and then the pure voice. The track exudes honesty, which is the heart of great music. You really feel like Christine has been waiting all day, cleaning the house, prepping her look, waiting for him to show up.

Who hasn't done this?

It's the essence of love. The anticipation!

REVIEW: Stevie Nicks: "In Your Dreams" Documentary

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams

Two and a half stars out of five
by Katherine Monk
Canada.com

Starring: Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart
Directed by: Dave Stewart
Running time: 100 minutes
Parental Guidance: coarse language

They say the creative process can be like riding a rabid bull, eager to gore you in a moment of distraction one minute, and likely to stampede in a rush of inspiration the next.

Unpredictable, fiery and completely random, creativity can reduce the bravest, most decorated left-brained soldier into a puddle of nervous mush.

For singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, this seems to be a natural state — a lacy palace of romantic thoughts and swirling melodies that complements her actual abode, a sprawling mansion with a mega-rotunda in suburban Los Angeles.

The house and Nicks’s ephemeral creative muse are essentially the two stars of In Your Dreams, a new documentary from multi-hyphenate producer Dave Stewart.

Part video diary of the production process, and part artist portrait, In Your Dreams chronicles the conception, gestation and eventual birth of Nicks’ latest studio offering, which shares the same title as the movie.

In many ways, it feels a lot like a generic outing from the folks at VH1 or MuchMusic — a slick collage of music videos and talking head interviews cut within an inch of looking like a straight commercial.

Yet, for all the generic filmmaking device, In Your Dreams is not a generic experience because Stevie Nicks is not your average pop star.

Easily one of the more compelling figures to occupy a stage at the height of the arena-rock era while a member of the record-breaking, iconic act Fleetwood Mac, Nicks always smacked of difference.

With her black cloaks, spinning dance moves and sulky, notoriously nasal voice, Nicks became a cryptic sex symbol, and part of the pop culture soap opera as the world followed her affairs and heartbreaks with the likes of Lindsey Buckingham and others.

Rumours of everything from substance abuse to witchcraft were also thrown into the cauldron of talk, and while In Your Dreams doesn’t exactly denude the singer’s quirky personal curiosities, it does bring the icon into clearer focus.

And frankly, that’s not always a good thing.

On the up side, we are given unprecedented insight into how Nicks creates her signature tunes. Without the structure of a formal musical education, Nicks simply sits at the keyboard and plinks around on the keys until she finds the right sounds to fit the melody in her head.

As the musicians in the room make abundantly clear, she breaks the rules of music all the time, often changing the number of beats in a bar, the time signature and the verb tense of the lyrics.

At times, we hear expert production staff tell her “she can’t” do something, to which Nicks responds in a perfectly diva-esque drawl, that “of course she can” — because it’s art, after all, not a term paper.

Her self-possession is obviously one of the big reasons why she became as successful as she is, but we also hear how success created fear at the bottom of her creative well, making her dread the possibility of fabricating a complete dud.

Stewart helps her get through all these creative traps because he not only understands the musician’s headspace and the female mind (having worked with Annie Lennox as the other half of Eurythmics), he’s a natural observer.

At the top of the film, Stewart tells us he’s been a man with a movie camera ever since he found a gold chain on the street, turned the corner to find a pawn shop, and traded the chain for an 8mm consumer model. He loves making movies, and we can feel his passion behind the frames as he completes a two-pronged project: the record, and the movie about making it.

The best parts come after the midway point, once Stewart has established Nicks as a serious artist worthy of icon status, because once he’s dispensed with her legacy, he can get down to brass tacks — and offer up the real face of the Phoenix-born daughter named Stephanie Lynn Nicks.

Conjuring a feeling somewhere between nutty cat-collector and esteemed oddball sculptress Louise Nevelson, we hear Nicks tell us she was so moved by the plight of Katrina victims she “needed to take action.” So she wrote a poem.

She also tells us: “If my father were still the president of Greyhound, he would have had every bus in the country” converging on the deluged bayou to help move people.

These are lovely sentiments, and writing a song for the suffering is a nice gesture. Similarly, she tells us how much the Italians are going to love the ballad she wrote about Italy because it’s “the most romantic song (she) has ever written.”

And then, she talks about how much she loves Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series because she feels a soul connection to the fictional Bella Swan — because she, too, fell in love with a beautiful boy at 16 who eventually dumped her.

This stuff all feels a little too self-indulgent to spur feelings of sympathy, but it’s undeniably real and speaks directly to who Stevie Nicks really is: A well-intentioned, high-minded woman who feels great waves of empathy for others, but also has a healthy sense of ego to ensure she never feels like a wishy-washy waif.

Stewart captures the woman in fits and spurts, but he’s a rather random director and for all the technical prowess he brings to the booth, the songs feel overproduced. In fact, one of the most illuminating moments involves a demo track for an old unrecorded song that was found on the Internet.

The song is so cool, they decide to record it with all the bells and whistles. Yet, it doesn’t take a thick-rimmed music geek to realize the track sounded better as a haunting acoustic number. Stewart seems to turn everything into a Sting solo album, which may be manna to some people’s ears, but make mine hide under the bed.

As a slice of L.A. life, In Your Dreams succeeds beyond caveats because it captures all the ego and chandelier crystal of the fame-enabled lifestyle, but as a music doc and straight biography, In Your Dreams feels a little bleary-eyed.

Eurythmics’ Stewart wowed by Night of 1,000 Stevies
by Jane Stevenson
Jam ShowBiz!

Eurythmics’ guitarist Dave Stewart, who co-wrote and co-produced Stevie Nicks’ 2011 solo album, In Your Dreams, also directed a documentary of the same name about the experience which begins exclusive engagements across Canada starting April 15 in Toronto.

Stewart told QMI Agency he came away from the exprience impressed by the diversity of Nicks’ fan base.

“What’s amazing about Stevie’s audience is that it ranges from 12 years old to 60 odd years old,’ said Stewart.

“I mean girls of 16 are obsessed with the look, the feeling, the words, and then you get soldiers – it’s amazing – you get a cross-section audience, age-wise, gender-wise.”

Like the Night of 1,000 Stevies, an annual event bringing together Nicks lovers and look-and-sound-alikes staged in New York, with this year’s 23rd event happening on May 3 at Highline Ballrom.

“It’s a huge sort of gay gathering that all worships Stevie. It’s another huge part of her audience,” said Stewart. “They all have a great time and every single one is dressed as Stevie.”

In Your Dreams Canadian screenings.

• Toronto / TIFF Bell Lightbox April 15 (7 p.m and 730 p.m. with Stevie Nicks Q&A afterwards) and then April 16–18.
• Ottawa / Mayfair Theatre - April 19 & 20
• Winnipeg / Winnipeg Cinematheque - May 2,3 & 5
• Saskatoon / Broadway Theatre - May 13
• Edmonton / Metro Cinema at the Garneau - May 14
• Calgary / Globe Cinema - May 16
• Vancouver / Vancity Theatre - May 18
• Montreal/ Cinema du Parc - June 14-17

4 Contests: WIN Tickets To See Fleetwood Mac Live - TULSA, LONG ISLAND, LAS VEGAS, NEWARK

TULSA, OK

Mix96 Tulsa Contest

Mix96 Tulsa is currently holding an on-line contest for you to register to win a pair of tickets to see Fleetwood Mac Live in Tulsa, Ok on May 1st at the BOK Center.

The contest ends on April 26th... If you are in the area, what do you have to loose... Go ahead and register.

Register at Mix96 Tulsa

Tulsa World Contest

Check out Tulsa World reporter Jennifer Chancellor's Barrelhouse Beat blog through this weekend for your chance to win a pair of tickets to Fleetwood Mac's May 1 concert at the BOK Center. 

Starting Friday morning, answer band trivia - the more days you participate, the more chances you have to win. Plus, if you answer the daily "bonus" question, that counts as another entry. The contest ends Sunday at midnight. 

tulsaworld.com/barrelhousebeat

NEWARK, NJ

Enter now for your chance to win a pair of tickets to see Fleetwood Mac performing on April 24th at the Prudential Center.

Deadline to enter is April 17, 2013. There will be 5 winners chosen. One entry per person. You do not need to be present or listen to win. Odds of winning are dependent on the total number of entries received. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Approximate Retail Value of prize is $100. To purchase tickets go to livenation.com.

Register at WCBSFM

NEW YORK CITY
Q104.3 - New York City
Enter below for a chance to win tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in June.
Contest ends: 6/13/2013 11:59 PM
Details at Q104.3

LAS VEGAS
Enter To Win Tickets To See Fleetwood Mac At The MGM Grand Arena In Vegas (USA only), Trip Includes Air+Hotel & Tickets For 2.
Enter Here : http://musicandprizes.com/contests/FleetwoodMac/entry.htm
Contest/Giveaway Details : One time entry only
Contest/Giveaway Ends : April 25th 2013

REVIEW: "Fleetwood Mac can still hold audiences rapt with their emotional baggage" - Washington 4/9/13

Photo by: Buster Harvey liveshotsphotography.com

Return of the Mac
Review: Fleetwood Mac debuts new song, rocks Verizon Center

BY: CJ Ciaramella
Washington Free Beacon
Photos by: Buster Harvey, liveshotsphotography

Ten thousand drunk women agree: They still love Stevie Nicks.

That was the news from my seat Tuesday night in the 400-level of the Verizon Center, where Fleetwood Mac returned to the stage for the first time in three years.

The calls rained down from the crowd: “I love you, Steeeeeevie!”

Like any number of other aging rock acts, Fleetwood could have just slapped together a tour and slogged through their old hits. According to the Internet, which is always correct, the Eagles are hitting the road this summer in support of a “career-spanning documentary” the band released in February.

Warner Bros. recently released a 35th anniversary “super deluxe” edition of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 mega-hit “Rumours,” which is as good an excuse as any for a tour. Instead, Fleetwood debuted new material amidst a solid mix of deep cuts and hits from across its catalogue.

“One of the things we thought would be a great thing to do this time before we hit the road was go into the studio and cut some new material,” guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said.

An EP of the new material is expected to drop sometime in the imminent future, and the band played one of the new cuts, “Sad Angel,” Tuesday night.

Mawkish title aside, the song sounded like vintage Fleetwood—driving mid-tempo drums, nice harmonies between Nicks and Buckingham, and catchy guitar lines.

The band also played a couple cuts from the new-wave tinged “Tusk,” as well as a forgotten demo from its early days.

From my high perch overlooking stage left, I could make out the general form of Nicks as she shambled about the stage in her gypsy woman outfit, tambourine in hand.

Photo by: Buster Harvey liveshotsphotography.com

Nicks can’t hit the high notes anymore, something most noticeable on songs like “Dreams” and “Rhiannon.”

Buckingham’s voice has also been grizzled by age. Without the tempering alto of Christine McVie, who left the band in 1998 (and also the only one who didn’t sing about having one’s heart shoved in a garbage disposal), the whole outfit sounds leaner and angrier.

A stripped-down yet 8-minute-long “Gold Dust Woman,” propelled by Mick Fleetwood’s drums and a fierce performance from Nicks, was one of the highlights of the night.

Buckingham remains a seriously underrated guitar player, as evidenced by his scorching solo on “I’m So Afraid.”

And it wouldn’t be Fleetwood Mac without some excess. Cue two encores and a drum solo. (Can we stop here for a moment and acknowledge that drum solos are to concerts as impromptu, drunken toasts are to weddings? Sometimes done well, but most often politely endured?)

But the real show, as always, was Buckingham, Nicks, and their tortured relationship. Even after all these years, they still hold some strange spell over each other and audiences.

It was fitting, then, that Buckingham didn’t end the show with a hit, say “Second Hand News” or “Go Your Own Way,” but rather obscure downer: “Say Goodbye,” a 2003 song he said was about closure with Nicks. “Once you said goodbye to me, yeah / Now I say goodbye to you,” the chorus goes.

“I just feel like they’re soul mates, y’know?” a tipsy woman behind me said to her friend as I was leaving the Verizon Center. “Like, maybe you don’t have to end up with someone to be soul mates with them.”

The existence and nature soul mates aside, what’s clear is that Fleetwood Mac can still hold audiences rapt with their emotional baggage, of which they will never lack. News broke recently that Mick Fleetwood has filed for separation from his wife.

Photo by: Buster Harvey liveshotsphotography.com

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