Stevie Nicks Live in Pittsburgh, PA September 27, 2023

Stevie Nicks delivers the hits and stories in Pittsburgh concert

MIKE PALM 

Triblive.com

Photo: Renee Klaas Piatt

Much as she’s done for the past 40-plus years of her solo career, Stevie Nicks enchanted Pittsburgh concert-goers with a career-spanning show Wednesday night.

Nicks dazzled through a nearly two-hour show at PPG Paints Arena, soaring through Fleetwood Mac classics like “Dreams” and “Gypsy” while delving into her solo career, with hits like “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

Dressed all in black, the 75-year-old Nicks didn’t venture too far from her mic stand except for occasional off-stage wardrobe updates — a variety of shawls, of course — or for light dancing near her guitarists.

Playing the part of enthusiastic storyteller, Nicks offered commentary and insight into many of her songs while introducing them. First, she expressed satisfaction with being indoors after a rain-drenched show in Boston last week where she was forced to wear a velvet hat on stage for the first time in 30 years.

Appropriately, she opened Wednesday’s show with “Outside the Rain,” which segued seamlessly into Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

After the synth-driven “If Anyone Falls,” Nicks told the story of how one of her most famous songs — from her debut solo album “Bella Donna” — came to life, thanks to producer Jimmy Iovine.

“(He said) ‘Well, it’s a great record, and we love it, but guess what? There is no single,’” Nicks recalled of the conversation. “By now, this guy is also my boyfriend. ‘There’s no single. Did you think about telling me that last week or something? Do I have to write a single or dig through my vault of songs and find another song that we didn’t put on there already? He goes, ‘No, no … I have a plan.’”

That plan turned out to be a collaboration with Tom Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which helped Nicks’ debut record rocket to No. 1 on the Billboard charts back in 1981.

One of her most recent songs (relatively speaking), 2001’s “Fall From Grace” rocked with Nicks offering her most emphatic singing of the night and some minor head bopping.

In 1966, Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield wrote “For What It’s Worth” about the Sunset Strip Riots in Los Angeles, and Nicks had long admired it, releasing a cover of it last year.

“He managed to write a protest song but yet write it in a way where it’s like, you’re on this side, and you’re on this side, and you’re down the middle and he doesn’t really care,” Nicks said. “He’s just writing a song to ask everybody to stand back and listen. Listen to some music. Listen to your friends, and don’t be nuts and try to destroy everything.”

Nicks called Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” her foundation song, recalling a time in 1975 where she and Lindsey Buckingham came into a lot of money but she needed to stay grounded. She pulled her mattress onto the floor, declaring “I am still Stevie.”

“And much to my surprise — you would probably not believe this — but I still do this every once in a while,” she said. “I put the mattress back on the floor, back to my roots. So if you ever need to just bring your foundation back to where you wish it would have stayed, that’s what you do.”

“Wild Heart” flowed into “Bella Donna” before an electric version of “Stand Back,” complete with black and yellow lights on the stage and video screen, as well as Nicks’ black-with-gold-highlights shawl.

In her most serious moment, Nicks reflected on 2011’s “Soldier’s Angel” — written after visiting injured troops at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — taking on new meaning in light of the conflict in Ukraine.

An extended version of “Gold Dust Woman” led to “I Sing For the Things,” which had originally been cut from Nicks’ debut album. The crowd came back to life as the drums and guitar kicked in for the intro on “Edge of Seventeen,” another highlight of the set.

Two of the three songs in the encore paid tribute to close friends she had lost. A cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’” included archival photos of Nicks and Petty, and the closing “Landslide,” a Fleetwood Mac classic, honored bandmate Christine McVie, who died in November 2022.

In between those two came another Fleetwood Mac hit, “Rhiannon,” which drew the largest cheers and helped send the audience home satisfied.

Judging by the restroom lines, the crowd skewed heavily female, and there might not have been this many Pittsburgh women sporting fancy hats since Easter or maybe the Kentucky Derby.

Cil, a 20-year-old pop singer from Colorado, opened the show with 25 minutes of songs about love, albeit with a younger viewpoint.

Stevie Nicks setlist

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
• Fall From Grace
• For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Soldier's Angel
• Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
• I Sing for the Things
• Edge of Seventeen

Encore

• Free Fallin' (Tom Petty cover)
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)

Review: The ageless Stevie Nicks bewitches crowd at PPG Paints Arena

SCOTT MERVIS

PostGazette.com

With the departure of Lindsey Buckingham and the passing of Christine McVie, we may have seen the end of Fleetwood Mac.

While that situation plays out, or doesn’t, we are blessed to have the mystical gypsy of the band, Stevie Nicks, serenading us with those classic songs as well as the best of her solo career.

That on-and-off journey was launched 42 years ago with the instant success of “Bella Donna,” and now, at 75, Nicks is on a solo tour that brought her to PPG Paints Arena Wednesday for the first time since 2018.

Her devoted followers turned out strong in brimmed hats, shawls and lacy dresses, even some of the guys.

After the entry song of “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” from another fallen comrade, Tom Petty, Nicks emerged, all in black, bowed, and eased into “Outside the Rain,” a deeper track from her 1981 debut, “Bella Donna.”

Although it’s not a showy song, vocally, it was all we need to know that her uniquely rough and raspy voice still has the old magic. It was reinforced when the song segued into “Dreams,” one of the beloved entries from the FM catalog.

It’s not often that Pittsburgh is complimented for its lack of rain, but she greeted the crowd saying she did her previous show, with Billy Joel, in a steady Boston rain, with a hat pinned to her head, “and I can’t tell you how excited I was to get to this show.”

She prefaced her signature duet with the story of Jimmy Iovine telling her that her forthcoming solo debut album didn’t have a single.

His solution was to introduce her to Petty for what would become “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.”

“I love you, I love the Heartbreakers, I love this song,” she recalled telling Petty.

Rather than summoning the late Heartbreaker on video, she found a worthy duet partner in longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel, who sizzled throughout.

Nicks, once a shy frontwoman, continued in storyteller mode, providing the background, about the LA Sunset Riots in 1966, for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” The song endures for her, she said, because it’s about learning how to listen. She infused it with some added slide guitar, her blunt, husky delivery and a longer, echoey outro.

About 10 years after Stephen Stills wrote that song, she was joining a broke Fleetwood Mac, driving around with Buckingham in a car that didn’t go in reverse.

“I was the only one that had a job,” she said, “because [what] was Lindsey going to do?”

She was cleaning houses. He was perfecting his guitar chops, presumably.

It introduced “Gypsy,” which she referred to as one of FM’s “foundational songs.” It, of course, was another beauty with another stunning vocal over a spinning, carousel effect.

It was full-on hard-rock muscle for a show-stopping “Stand Back,” for which she donned a sparkly coat for the first of her witchy dances, sending the crowd into hysterics.

The strident “Soldier's Angel,” she explained, was added to the set to support Ukraine and express her disgust with Vladimir Putin, who she is convinced plans to take over all of Eastern Europe. “He is not going to stop.” Rod Stewart had a similar message here a few weeks ago, so this is clearly a hot topic with the boomer rockers.

An exquisite “Gold Dust Woman” was thick with drama and noisy atmosphere, climaxing with harrowing held notes and the shawl dance that’s the Stevie Nicks equivalent of Gene Simmons spitting fire.

Wachtel got to blaze away in an extended opening for the song that many were waiting for, “Edge of Seventeen.” It was an epic set-closer with the chugging riff, Nicks’ braying vocal and a round of solos going from organ to piano to guitar.

“You’ve been an awesome crowd…I love being in this city,” she said, before exiting the stage.

There were more hits stacked in the encore: a celebratory cover of “Free Fallin’,” a surprisingly hard-driving “Rhiannon” and finally, the lovely and bittersweet “Landslide” with just Nicks, Wachtel and keyboard.

This song is course, has her repeating “And I’m getting older too.”

Some of the 70-something rockers still packing arenas have lost a step or two, while others barely seem any different than they were 30 years ago. Maybe even better. Nicks clearly falls in the latter category. Rock goddess, indeed.

Stevie Nicks Announces 2024 North American Headlining Tour Dates

Stevie Nicks unveils seven additional headlining tour dates extending into 2024. She will kickstart the new year on February 10th in Atlantic City and sweep across the US enchanting audiences from New York, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana concluding on March 9th in Arlington, TX.

Tickets for all dates (minus Arlington, TX) go on sale beginning Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. at StevieNicksOfficial (pre-sales begin earlier this week)

February 10 – Atlantic City, NJ - Mark G Etess Arena

February 14 – Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena

February 21 – Greenville, SC - Bon Secours Wellness Arena

February 24 – Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live

February 28 – New Orleans, LA - Smoothie King Center

March 3 – Omaha, NE - CHI Health Center

March 6 – North Little Rock, AR - Simmons Bank Arena

Reviews... Stevie Nicks Live in Foxborough (Boston) Sept 23, 2023

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel a powerhouse pop tandem at rainy Gillette

By Maura Johnston

BostonGlobe

FOXBOROUGH — When the pugilistic pop composer Billy Joel and the bewitching singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks announced their joint tour earlier this year, it took a second for the pairing to click. Joel’s blend of classical training and punky New York attitude seem at odds with Nicks’s West Coast mystic visions, but the two share a theatricality — not to mention packed back catalogs — that made their show Saturday night at Gillette Stadium a top-to-bottom joyride.

The hit parade was a bit waterlogged, with rain falling steadily throughout the show. But the weather — which was also marked by decidedly autumnal temperatures — added a sense of drama to the proceedings while also proving that those filling the stadium were committed to seeing the whole night through. Nicks’s set spotlighted both her work with the tumultuous hitmakers Fleetwood Mac and her solo material, with a stunning extended run-through of the world-weary Mac track “Gold Dust Woman” and a fiery take on her grief-stricken solo hit “Edge of Seventeen.”

Mourning ran through the set, with Nicks’s former duet partner Tom Petty being paid tribute through versions of the tug-of-war duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Joel more than ably handling what Nicks called “the argument part” of Petty’s vocal) and the modern American standard “Free Fallin’.” Her former bandmate Christine McVie, who passed away last November, was given the spotlight during Nicks’s set-closing version of the yearning Fleetwood Mac smash “Landslide.” That song and “Free Fallin’” have both become modern touchstones of American pop, and Nicks’s presentation of both showed how crucial she and her collaborators have been to the modern pop firmament.

Joel opened his set with a take on his 1978 outta-my-face anthem “My Life” that he blended into Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” which succinctly summed up at least one facet of his appeal. His musical chops straddle the old and new worlds; his piano playing, as evidenced by the frequent close-ups on his keyboard that blazed across the video screens, hasn’t missed a beat, and he can still hit the high note that marks the yearning title track from 1983′s street-corner-music homage “An Innocent Man.” He’s able to channel that talent and knowledge of pop into songs that speak from a perspective marked by hunger, whether it’s for basic respect from the system (the chugging “Allentown”), bridge-and-tunnel transcendence (the strivers’ anthem “Movin’ Out [Anthony’s Song]”), or something more carnal (the New Wave-y chronicle of frustration “Sometimes a Fantasy”). Joel’s been in music’s upper echelons for four-plus decades, but his wisecracking, fighting spirit still shines through — and his pop craftsmanship makes joining in via singing along even easier.

Double play at Gillette: Joel and Nicks offer a classic show

Craig S. Semon

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

FOXBOROUGH _ Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks’ limited-run, double-bill concert pairing is being touted as “Two Icons, One Night.”

No argument here.

While one of these legendary artists has enough star power, rich musical legacy, and a cavalcade of hits to play to a packed house on their own, two on the same bill is rock ‘n’ roll heaven sent as became quite evident during a rain-soaked, sold-out show Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.

Despite having really nothing in common other than selling tons of records, composing some of the most memorable and beloved pop songs in the last 50 years, and emerging out of the ‘70s, Joel, who hasn’t played Foxborough gridiron since the summer of 2009 as part of the “Face to Face” tour with Sir Elton John, and Nicks, who has never played at the home of the Patriots, seems like an unlikely pairing indeed.

While they’re not quite as odd at each other as Elvis Costello hanging out with Burt Bacharach or as peculiar as Miley Cyrus fronting Metallica, Joel is New York brass/angry young man cool while Nicks is rock’s premiere earth mother/leather and lace enchantress.

And that’s what made this unlikely pairing so special and so much fun.

Joel, 74, who played roughly two hours, while Nicks, 75, who opened with an abbreviated hour-and-20-minute set, delivered two distinctly different and totally satisfying sets that were chock-full of nothing but great songs. And both delivered a killer encore worth the price of admission alone.

Early in his set, Joel braced the drenched crowd with some good news and bad news, starting with the bad news: “We don’t have anything new to play for you.” And then the good: “You don’t have to listen to any new (expletive).”  

Despite the fact that he hasn’t released a new pop album in 30 years, Joel’s voice sounded great and his songs sounded as fresh and relevant as ever.

Perched behind a black baby grand piano on a rotating circular stage, Joel pounded out Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” before breaking into his first of many beloved hits and crowd singalongs, “My Life,” during his longer, headlining set. Delivered with the same youthful vigor as he did when the song was first released 45 years earlier, Joel stood up at the end of the number to soak up the admiration from the drenched audience.

While the rain was enough to give the most delicate in the crowd a heart attack, ack, ack, ack, ack, ack, Joel kept the hit parade coming with a rousing version of “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” one of his great slice-of-angry-young-man’s-life vignette songs from 1977’s “The Stranger.”

Although it wasn’t needed to sell the song, the stormy seas saga “The Downeaster Alexa” received an added visual boost with sheets of rain crashing down on the crowd during Joel’s passionate plight of the Long Island fisherman.

With Taylor Swift no longer being the only recording artist with a memorable rain show at Gillette, Joel _ after amusingly doing impromptu versions of the Beatles’ “Rain” and The Everly Brothers’ “Crying in the Rain” _ cursed the Almighty up above with the defiant cries of “Is that the best you can do! Is that all you got!”

Retreating back to the standard setlist, Joel briefly lamented that he’s not in his 30s anymore, so the audience should pray for him to hit a couple of high notes on the falsetto favorite “An Innocent Man.” Brushing the sweat off his brow by song’s end, Joel nailed the crucial notes like a seasoned trooper.   

Snippets of The Regents’ “Barbara Ann” and Solomon Lindi’s original Evening Birds’ cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” served as a warm-up exercise for Joel’s modern-day doo-wop classic, “The Longest Time,” which had the singer dragging the mike stage from one end of the stage to the other.

After the elegant piano masterwork on “Vienna,” Joel gave Bruce Springsteen a run for his blue-collar champion crown with “Allentown,” one of the happiest songs ever recorded about factory closings.

With its swirling keyboards and percolating rhythms, Joel’s naughty little ‘80s relic about the middle of the night, 900 phone calls “Sometimes A Fantasy” is still his strongest bid for new wave rocker status, while “Only the Good Die Young” served up the singer at his bad boy best.

The soul-cleansing, life-affirming “The River of Dreams” was not only enough to lift the crowd’s spirits, it turned into a killer showstopper when percussionist and blessed pipes extraordinaire Crystal Taiefero got up from behind her drumkit and unleashed her inner-Tina Turner on “River Deep, Mountain High.”

Joel and company delivered a spectacular version of “Scenes from An Italian Restaurant,” which ended with the crowd waving Brenda and Eddy (the two main characters in the song) goodbye.

After getting a stagehand to replace his rain-soaked harmonica with a dry one, Joel introduced "a pretty good crowd for a Saturday (which it was)" to a series of familiar bar regulars sharing a drink they called loneliness (because it’s better than drinking alone) on the autobiographical musical character study “Piano Man.”

Joel kicked off a killer, five-song encore with the chart-topping, history lesson “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a true scorcher that every Baby Boomer should see performed once in their lifetime with the flickering images of the 118 pop culture references that the singer rattles off at breakneck speed.

Joel revisited the lovable bad boy with the blessed pipes of his youth (the same one that once won supermodel Christie Brinkley’s heart) on his lively ode to doo-wop, “Uptown Girl.”

After the snappy and irresistible “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (Joel’s first Number One), Joel went back to the piano for “Big Shot,” which was one of the heaviest rockers of the evening, followed by “You May Be Right.”

With her unmistakable raspy voice, elegant gypsy fashion sense, and spacy stage antics, Nicks proved she’s still an encompassing free-spirit who, despite the rain, is one with the cosmos but always seems to be at odds with affairs of the heart.

Whether it was the timeless, Fleetwood Mac classics (which included “Dreams” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rhianna,” and “Landslide”) or her stellar solo hits (including “If Anyone Falls in Love,” “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen”), Nicks proved she still has the power to conjure up the forces of nature.

Wearing a black, long-sleeve top, a grey frilly chiffon skirt, knee-high boots, a floppy hat, and donning a vast assortment of capes, scarves, and shawls throughout her set, Nicks' voice sounded youthful and robust and her teary-eyed ruminations and impassioned roars of defiance were vibrant and timeless.

One of the most distinctly female voices in pop, Nicks cast the audience under her spell immediately and often and nothing was going to rain on her hit parade, not even rain, even if she conjured up images of stormy skies with the appropriately titled opener “Outside the Rain,” which seamlessly segued into “Dreams,” the first of four Fleetwood Mac classics performed by her piping hot band led by guitar god and bespectacled rock legend Waddy Wachtel

Despite the golden-haired rock goddess calling the rain “awful,” the lines “Thunder only happens when it raining” and “When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know” (both from “Dreams”) became the unofficial mantra of the rain-soaked crowd that roared with approval.

Joel first popped up unannounced during Nicks’ set to fill in for the late Tom Petty in the Nicks-Petty duet smash “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Carrying an umbrella and wearing a bundled-up blazer, dungarees, sneakers, and a baseball cap advertising “Deux Ex Machina Custom Motorcycles,” Joel sang the song with gusto but the pairing was merely a nice gesture that lacked the infectious heat of the original.

Nicks adorned herself with a gold and black shawl for the showstopper “Stand Back” and while draped with a gold shawl showered the crowd with rock ‘n’ roll riches on the epic rocker “Gold Dust Woman.” With the pouring rain glimmering in the yellow stage lights, it looked like the audience was in the middle of a psychedelic gold rush.

After a heartfelt cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Free Fallin,’” Nicks closed her main set with a guitar-heavy, arena-rock version of "Edge of Seventeen," which turned into a lovefest with the diehard Nicks-ophiles in the audience pounding their fists in the air and shouting along with their idol.

During her encore, Nicks delivered the most tender and tortured number of the evening with her signature Fleetwood Mac ballad "Landslide." Paying tribute to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who died at 79 in November, this was Nicks at her emotionally unguarded best.

Fleetwood Mac this week on the charts around the world

Fleetwood Mac this week on the charts around the world. Previous week in brackets.  These are the most current charts as of September 22, 2023.

 

 

US Billboard Top 200

#34 - Rumours (32)

#81 - Rumours Live (debut)

#178 - Greatest Hits (146)

US Top Album Sales

#4  - Rumours Live (debut)

#23 - Rumours (22)

US Top 100 Current Album Sales

#4 - Rumours Live (debut)

US Top 25 Vinyl Albums

#7 - Rumours Live (debut)

#14 - Rumours (14)

Canada Top 100 Albums Chart

#31 - Rumours (re-entry)

UK Top 100 Albums Chart

#6  - 50 Years - Don't Stop (7) 5,220 sales

#26 - Rumours (22)

UK Top 100 Singles Chart

#84 - Dreams (74)

#85 - Everywhere (77)

UK Top 100 Album Sales

#22 - Rumours (23)

#41 - Rumours Live (9)

#86 - Greatest Hits (95)

UK Top 100 Album Downloads

#63 - Rumours (51)

UK Top 100 Physical Albums Chart

#21 - Rumours (21)

#39 - Rumours Live (9)

#90 - Greatest Hits (98)

UK Vinyl Albums Chart

#14 - Rumours (17)

Scotland Top 100 Albums Chart

#15 - Rumours (17)

#43 - Rumours Live (6)

#91 - Greatest Hits (85)

Ireland Top 100 Albums

#4  - 50 Years - Don't Stop (2

#21 - Rumours (20)

Australia Top 50 Albums

#27 - Rumours (26)

Austria Top 75 Albums Chart

#15 - Rumours (re-entry)

Belgium Top 50 Albums Chart

#19 - Rumours (re-entry)

Dutch Top 100 Albums Chart

#3 - Rumours (3)

France Top 150 Albums Chart

#51 - Rumours Live (debut)

Switzerland Top 100 Albums Chart

#17 - Rumours (re-entry) 

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours: Live’ Debuts at No.4 on Album Sales Chart

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours: Live’ Debuts in Top 10 on Album Sales Chart

Billboard

Fleetwood Mac’s from-the-vaults release Rumours: Live debuts at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 23). It’s the highest debut on the list for the band in more than 20 years, since the act’s last full-length studio album, Say You Will, opened at No. 2 in May 2003.

Comprised almost entirely of previously unreleased recordings, Rumours: Live captures the band’s Aug. 29, 1977, concert at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., during the act’s Rumours Tour. The trek was in support of its then-most-recent studio release Rumours, which had bowed earlier in 1977. That album would spend 31 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart – still the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a group. The set launched four top 10-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the group’s lone chart-topper, “Dreams.”

(Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales.)

Rumours: Live sold a little over 10,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 14, according to Luminate. Among the songs featured on the album are such Hot 100 hits as “Dreams,” “Oh Well,” “Landslide,” “Over My Head,” “Rhiannon,” “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way.” Rumours: Live was available to purchase as a digital download album or in three physical iterations (a 180-gram double vinyl set, a crystal-clear colored double vinyl set sold via Walmart, and a two-CD package). Vinyl accounted for 44.5% of the album’s first-week sales.

Fleetwood Mac “Rumours Live” 

Order CD or VINYL at Rhino.com

Rumours Live Vinyl | Rumours Live CD

Rumours Live On The Charts:

USA:

No. 4 - Top Selling Album 

No. 7 - Top Vinyl Album Sales 

No.81 - Billboard Top 200 

Scotland:

No. 6 - Top 100 Albums (debut)

UK:

No. 9 - Top 100 Album Sales (2,988 sales)

No.11 - Top 40 Vinyl Albums

No.19 - Top 100 Physical Albums

No.23 - Top 100 Download Albums

No.23 - Top 100 Streaming Albums

No.34 - Top 100 Albums Chart

New Zealand:

No.32 - Top 40 Albums Chart

France:

No.51 - Top 150 Albums Chart

Review Stevie Nicks Complete Studio Albums & Rarities

Stevie Nicks

Complete Studio Albums & Rarities

Author rating: 9/10

Under The Radar

Massive career-spanning box sets are a completist’s dream. In this installment, Rhino takes on Stevie Nicks’ solo career. The 10-CD set features each disc housed in a replica sleeve with copies of the liner notes, all be they too small to actually read. There is no big booklet examining the titles, featuring essays or ephemera. It’s just the music. And as far as that goes, it doesn’t get much better.

Bella Donna, from 1981, is the gold standard, and the conventional wisdom is that things go progressively downhill from there, at least until the 2000s come along and Nicks enters the revitalized stage of her career. The big hits on Bella Donna (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Tom Petty, “Edge of Seventeen,” “Leather and Lace” with Don Henley) need no introduction. But even the other tracks here shine. It’s Nicks’ coming out party.

The Wild Heart, released two years later, doesn’t have quite the same hit power as Bella Donna, but songs like the title track and “Enchanted” are only some of the non-hits that sparkle with the best of Nicks’ solo work.

Rock a Little, from 1985, was a largely forgettable affair, steeped in ‘80s effects, but the upbeat “I Can’t Wait” is perfect ‘80s radio, and the ballads “I Sing for Things” and “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You” touch with the best of her ballads.

The Other Side of the Mirror (1989) stands up better to time with songs that are not obscured by the decade’s worse impulses. The tunes are mostly earworms, benefiting as always from Nicks’ inimitable voice and overall charisma, and with four tracks with either co-writing credit and/or guitar playing by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. Unfortunately, “Two Kinds of Love,” with Bruce Horsby, in hindsight only proves that Hornsby was no Tom Petty in terms of male Nicks duet partners. A cover of Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” does the Man in Black proud.

With 1994’s Street Angel, Waddy Wachtel, architect of the infamous chugging riff of “Edge of Seventeen” is back in a more prominent role, where on The Other Side of the Mirror he seemed more of a bit player. The result is an album that is more immediate, more thrown back to the classic Nicks albums of the early ’80s. And while there may be no big hit tracks other than “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind,” which reached 57 on the Billboard chart, it’s a better album upon revisiting that it was perhaps given credit for at the time, being released amid the grunge explosion.

After Street Angel, Nicks laid low for the rest of the ‘90s, not releasing another album until 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, and the album finds her entering the new millennium sounding reenergized and supported by a cast of admirers including Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, and (Dixie) Chick Natalie Maines, all who provide supporting vocals. But the album sounds not so much like a star-studded affair, rather a return to what Nicks always did best, write killer songs.

Another 10-year break after Shangri-La found the release of In Your Dreams, which was produced by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, who also duetted with Nicks on “Cheaper Than Free.” Lindsey Buckingham also returns to provide guitar and backing vocals on “Soldier’s Angel.” Aside from the undeniable pop melody of the title track, the rocker “Ghosts Are Gone,” and the soaring choruses of “Italian Summer,” In Your Dreams is predictably solid fare.

By 24 Karat Gold, Nicks was firmly in the middle of her resurgence. Fleetwood Mac was well into its own third (or eighth?) life, and Nicks’ solo profile was as high as it had been since Bella Donna. For the album, she recorded demos of old songs written between 1969 and 1987, with a couple newer tracks/covers thrown into the mix. And it shows, the album being one of her strongest solo records since that glorious debut.

The set is capped with a two-CD compilation of rarities consisting of soundtrack cuts, B-sides, and non-proper album tracks. It’s 23 additional songs essential to the complete Stevie Nicks collection, and it’s a boon to have all these various songs in one place. They are in no way throwaways, the set culminating in Nicks’ 2022 version of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

It’s all here with Complete Studio Albums & Rarities. And it’s worth your while in grand sum.

Review Stevie Nicks Complete Studio Albums & Rarities Showcases Her Magic

Stevie Nicks

Complete Studio Albums & Rarities

4.5 out of 5 stars

American Songwriter

While Stevie Nicks’ latest release, Complete Studio Albums & Rarities, may not seem like that enticing of a project on paper, having the expanse of Nicks’ career all in one place is the best way to showcase her magic.

The project starts out with cuts from Nicks’ debut solo album, Bella Donna. Her witchy motif is in full swing on the title track while she showcases some of her musical affiliations with a pair of timeless duets: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Tom Petty and “Leather and Lace” with Don Henley. The remastered versions of the tracks bring even more color into these Nicks classics.

Following the Bella Donna section is The Wild Heart. Highlights include the title track (which sees Nicks at her most enchanting), another duet with Petty, “I Will Run To You,” and “If Anyone Falls.”

As the title suggests, the track list continues in chronological order. The rest of the Complete Studio Albums portion of the project features cuts from Rock a Little, The Other Side of the Mirror, Street Angel, Trouble in Shangri-La, In Your Dreams, and 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault.

The content is pretty much what one would expect. There aren’t many surprises within the first part of this release. But, if anything, take it as an excuse to revisit Nicks’ work. When an artist is so omnipresent, they can be taken for granted. Given the prestige of her work, we all think we have our favorite Nicks song signed and sealed. But, when diving deep into the breadths of her career, it’s highly likely that new favorite songs will emerge.

For instance, on Bella Donna, it’s “Edge of Seventeen,” which has become the standout over the years. But, closing out the album is a stunning little mid-tempo number called “The Highwayman,” which has far fewer streams but is every bit as hypnotizing. Similarly, a deep cut on The Other Side of the Mirror, “I Still Miss Someone (Blue Eyes)” calls to mind Nicks-helmed Fleetwood staples like “Sara” or “Gypsy.” This release gives songs like these a second chance at finding their audience.

The back half of the release, Rarities, has a little more to chew on. Many of the songs on Rarities are only available on this release. If you are a Nicks fan, you’re likely starving for new content from the rock icon. Save a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” Nicks hasn’t shared new music in several years.

There are a few rarities that demand attention. Standouts include “Real Tears,” “Love’s a Hard Game to Play,” and “Garbo” but, really any of these deep cuts will be an enticing listen for Nicks’ wanting fans. Each of them continues Nicks’ reign as the most haunting, mystical, and captivating rocker around.

Rarities is also a testament to how prolific Nicks is as a songwriter. It’s not enough to have her name-making past work on display, Nicks wanted to go the extra mile and share songs that have not yet received their dues. This would fall flat if it was understandable why these songs didn’t make the original cut but, luckily, they are every bit as powerful as the songs that became Nicks’ signature releases.

Nicks is an artist with a sprawling history. From her time in Fleetwood Mac to her continued solo career, few rock stars have been so enduring. It’s high time we brought Nicks back into focus and really meditated on what made her the symbol she is today. This release provides just the outlet.

Review Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities Boxset

Stevie Nicks: Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 

Rating * * * * *

Even to the adoring listener, a single will only offer what amounts to a snap shot in time of what has been consuming the artist, the influence almost transitory…unless it forms part of the larger picture, the album in all its glory which is the equivalent perhaps of an Instagram message, but more of a detailed novel which frames the length of time in which the artist has given over which might be a few months, or in some cases, years between arrangements and full release.

If an album is defined as the weighty tome, then the pleasure and scope unearthed when an artist releases a career defining box set, every studio album, all the rarities, the lesser known stamp of authority which fills the entire day with a sound that is more nine volume history of the world written by the one person to have lived through every explosion, every revolution, every brief encounter and long lasting lover affair, then to have in your possession one of the true performers and icons of the last fifty years, is a phenomenon of advantage and a voice of enticement that will allow your heart and soul to soar.

In Stevie Nicks: Complete Studio Albums & Rarities, time is of the essence, time is arguably all, for memories fill the moment which turns to hours and decades with the ease of a kiss on the cheek delivered by a siren tempting sailors at sea with an insight into relationships, addiction, break ups, fame, fortune, and fortitude to which few in rock’s circus can ever emulate or dare to behold.

Every album, all the hits, the issues and damage, all mixed together in a way that frames Stevie Nicks’ special place in the hearts of the fam and in music across the world, this is the sensational beauty and belief that has gone into a boxset of, dare it be said, exceptional excess, a scintillating drama to which only one of the female vocalists of one of the most endearing groups of all time, only a survivor, could oversee.

From 1981’s Bella Donna, through the fierce control of The Other Side Of The Mirror and with a sharp eye on the aftermath in 24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault, and the abundance of tracks that even the most ardent fan will surely be unaware of in the rarities offering, Ms. Nicks complete catalogue is there to be savoured. In short bursts of reminisce, or in the full countdown of a well-earned day at the stereo, this is one box set that is like its creator, full of life and nature.

Ian D. Hall 

Review Stevie Nicks Complete Studio Albums & Rarities

Stevie Nicks

Complete Studio Albums & Rarities

Flood Magazine

When too much of the credit for the success of Fleetwood Mac’s White Album, Rumours, and Tusk went to nasal-pop-meister Lindsey Buckingham, his ex and fellow singing songwriter Stevie Nicks did the logical thing and started a solo career. That her own output (seven albums between Bella Donna of 1981 and In Your Dreams 30 years later) out-witchy-womaned everything that the Mac did (or that Buckingham recorded alone, for that matter) after her band’s 1970s hat trick proved who truly wore the gaucho pants and the long, gauzy black dresses in Fleetwood Mac.

The spidery songwriting style she created for herself apart from Mac (yet usually Mac-affiliated) was guided by a gutsier guitar sound than Buckingham ever provided (hello, Waddy Wachtel) as well as denser arrangements (more often than not from a mix of Heartbreakers and E-Streeters), all while pushing and prodding the limits of her scratchy, plumed contralto and her youthfully sensualized lyrics. Thinking of the raspy vocal totality of her solo work as an often-sexualized, but not-too-merry mix of leather and lace scented by patchouli and speckled by emeralds, this first-ever all-oeuvre study of Nicks’ music—including 2014’s 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, a newly recorded old-song comp, and this box’s centerpiece, Rarities—is mystical (of course), fragrant, and funky in a flashy boho fashion.

While hints of a new-wave Janis Joplin top the earliest and most wearily and ruminatively romantic of Nicks’ solo albums (Bella Donna, 1983’s The Wild Heart) and songs such as “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” the older Nicks gets, the more she yearns to swing (1985’s Rock a Little, ’89’s The Other Side of the Mirror) and find greater weightlessness in her lyrics. Although the oddly glossy, synth-tech Rock a Little is much better than I remember it, with the dusky, even daring likes of “The Nightmare” and “No Spoken Word” competing with a sprightly dance vibe (“I Can’t Wait”), follow-ups such as Mirror (a great soap opera title, but not a great-sounding album) and 1994’s Street Angel were heavy-handed, dull, and filled with floral refrigerator-magnet poetry. 

Luckily, Nicks’ welcome to the 21st century, 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, finds her spacey spiritualism and raw, silken rasp in full fettle, and her melodies at their mod-pop best as she touches on hippie-ish outlaw country with The Chicks’ Natalie Maine (“Too Far From Texas”), intense tenderness (“Love Changes”), and meaningful mysticism (“Bombay Sapphires” and “Sorcerer”). And yes, this album also comes across as way better than I remember it. Nicks’ work—no matter whether it’s 40 years old or from 2011’s Mac-sounding In Your Dreams—ages like fine wine no matter what the vintage.

While the overlooked new-old music of her David A. Stewart–produced 24 Karat Gold collection gets a shimmering revisionist look-see here (it’s shockingly great hearing Nicks finish thoughts she only barely started), the Rarities collection pulls off its own surprises: from the swaying R&B of “Love’s a Hard Game to Play,” to the lost 1985 B-side cruncher “One More Big Time Rock and Roll Star,” to her most recently recorded track, the immensely soulful 2022 cover of Buffalo Springfield’s classic “For What It’s Worth.” For what it’s worth (and the price isn’t cheap for the 16-LP vinyl box), Stevie Nicks’ back pages are most desirable at twice the price.

FLEETWOOD MAC RUMOURS LIVE AVAILABLE SEPT 8

FLEETWOOD MAC RUMOURS LIVE

(2-CD OR 2-LP)

RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Order CD or VINYL at Rhino.com

Rumours Live Vinyl | Rumours Live CD

REVIEWS

Fleetwood Mac was at the top of its game in August 1977 when the band returned to its adopted home in Southern California to play three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. Rumours had only been out a few weeks when the band left in February to tour the world, returning six months later to play three shows at The Forum for nearly 50,000 fans.

Rumours was the #1 album in America and well on its way to becoming one of the most successful ever released. Rumours eventually sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has just been certified 21x platinum in the U.S. The record has also been certified 14x Platinum in the U.K., and 13x Platinum in Australia and New Zealand, all countries where the album reached #1.

RUMOURS LIVE captures the energy and excitement of the band’s opening night at The Forum on August 29, 1977. The nearly 90-minute performance includes live versions of most of the songs from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the group’s first multi-platinum #1 album, which came out in 1975.

The concert remained unreleased for decades until 2021, when “Gold Dust Woman” from the show was included as a bonus track on Live: Deluxe Edition, Rhino’s expanded version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1980 concert album. The other 17 songs on the collection have never been released before.

RUMOURS LIVE will be available on September 8 as 2-CD and 2-LP sets. The black-vinyl version has two 180-gram records in a gatefold jacket with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Pre-order HERE. Also, a crystal clear-vinyl version of RUMOURS LIVE will be released the same day exclusively at Walmart.

The music will be available from digital and streaming platforms. The unreleased live version of “DREAMS” from RUMOURS LIVE is available now on all digital platforms.

The concert’s setlist draws almost exclusively from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, the first two albums recorded by the band’s latest incarnation: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie, and the newest members, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. The lone nod to Fleetwood Mac’s other nine studio albums is a performance of “Oh Well,” a rock-guitar masterpiece originally released in 1969 and written by the band’s founder, guitarist Peter Green.

Engineer Ken Caillat, who helped record Rumours, also recorded the concert at The Forum using the Record Plant’s mobile recording truck. He captured the band’s impassioned performance at a moment of peak Rumours frenzy, including powerful versions of “Landslide,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Songbird,” and “The Chain.”

In the liner notes from RUMOURS LIVE, Sam Graham observes: “The songs are familiar: ‘Dreams,’ ‘Go Your Own Way,’ ‘Say You Love Me,’ ‘Over My Head,’ and on and on. But most of these live versions are more muscular, more ferocious, than the album recordings, driven by the powerhouse Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section and Buckingham’s febrile guitar playing; and instead of a rote recital of the hits, the group stretches out in concert, as songs like ‘Rhiannon,’ ‘World Turning,’ and ‘I’m So Afraid’ blossom into exuberant tours de force onstage.

Order the CD | Order the Vinyl

RUMOURS LIVE 2-LP Track Listing

LP One

Side One

1.    “Say You Love Me”

2.    “Monday Morning”

3.    “Dreams”

4.    “Oh Well”

5.    “Rhiannon”

Side Two

1.    “Oh Daddy”

2.    “Never Going Back Again”

3.    “Landslide”

4.    “Over My Head”

5.    “Gold Dust Woman”

LP Two

Side One

1.    “You Make Loving Fun”

2.    “I’m So Afraid”

3.    “Go Your Own Way”

4.    “World Turning”

Side Two

1.    “Blue Letter”

2.    “The Chain”

3.    “Second Hand News”

4.    “Songbird”

Mick Fleetwood and ‘Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro honor Christine McVie

Mick Fleetwood and ‘Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro honor Christine McVie on the late Fleetwood Mac Singer’s Birthday with a touching instrumental version of “Songbird”

The release of “Songbird” was years in the making. Fleetwood and Shimabukuro, who both live in Hawaii, have been eager to collaborate for over a decade. When the opportunity finally arose this spring to record some music at Fleetwood’s studio in Maui, it was Shimabukuro who suggested they record “Songbird.” Fleetwood recalls, “We cut it in April, and it turned out beautifully, but there was no plan yet to release it. But when I heard about Christine’s upcoming birthday, it felt like the right time to share this as a tribute to all the lovely music she created, both on her own and with Fleetwood Mac.”

“Songbird” holds a special place in the hearts of Fleetwood Mac fans around the world, and McVie’s impassioned vocals have made it an enduring classic since its debut on Rumours in 1977. That’s why Fleetwood says he was initially cautious about reinterpreting such a cherished song. “When something is that well known, it becomes hallowed ground to a certain extent. But when we did it, I remember there was a hush when we listened back, and we felt that we had touched on something.” At that moment, Fleetwood says, he felt McVie’s presence in a powerful way.

In his heartfelt dedication at the end of the instrumental, Fleetwood adapts a lyric from McVie’s original. He says, “As the songbird sings, now from the heavens, to you Christine, I wish you all the love in the world. But, most of all, I wish it from myself.”

Surprisingly, “Songbird” wasn’t the only Fleetwood Mac song inspiring them in the studio. The drummer reveals that the track’s soft, insistent rhythm was influenced by another instrumental piece, “Albatross.” Written by the band’s founder and guitarist Peter Green, the song topped the U.K. charts in 1969. Fleetwood describes the songs as musical siblings. “They’re as simple as can be, but Peter Green always used to say, less is more.”

Listen here: cmv.lnk.to/SongbirdMJ

Remastered Christine McVie Albums Set For November, 2023 Release

 

Rhino is celebrating Christine McVie today (Wed, July 12th) on what would have been the beloved singer-songwriter’s 80th birthday. While she has been deeply missed since her death last November, the music she made, both with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, continues to resonate with fans worldwide. In honor of McVie’s enduring legacy, Rhino is introducing new music and announcing plans to release remastered versions of her final two solo albums this fall.

Two new releases are available now with the first being a new Dolby Atmos and stereo mix of In The Meantime created by McVie’s nephew Dan Perfect, who helped write and produce the original in 2004. The collection also includes “Little Darlin’,” a previously unreleased gem unearthed from those recording sessions. The other release is by Mick Fleetwood, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, who pays tribute to his bandmate with a touching new instrumental version of “Songbird” featuring ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro.

Later this year, McVie’s work as a solo artist will get its due when Rhino reissues two of her albums on November 3rd. Christine McVie will be released on CD and LP. Also, a cola-bottle clear vinyl version will be available exclusively from Barnes & Noble. On the same day, In The Meantime will be released on CD and as a 2 LP set featuring a “songbird” etching on the final side.

IN THE MEAN TIME (Newly Remastered)

1-CD | 1-LP

CHRISTINE MCVIE (Newly Remastered)

1-CD | 1-LP

A cola-bottle clear vinyl version will be available exclusively at Barnes and Noble or other brick and mortar stores

Unavailable on vinyl since its original release nearly 40 years ago

McVie’s solo journey began in 1970 with her debut, Christine Perfect, her maiden name. Soon after its release, she put her solo career on hold when she joined Fleetwood Mac as a full-time member. For the next 14 years, she wrote some of the band’s biggest hits (“Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”) before releasing her second solo album Christine McVie in 1984. The album peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, spending 23 weeks on the chart. The record produced two Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, “Got A Hold On Me” at No. 10 and “Love Will Show Us How” at No. 30. Notably, the album has been unavailable on vinyl since its original release nearly 40 years ago.

Although McVie semi-retired from Fleetwood Mac and public life in 1998, she continued to write music. In 2004, she returned with her third and final solo album, In The Meantime. McVie produced the album with her nephew, Dan Perfect. The album was remastered and remixed for the upcoming release, including the previously unreleased outtake, “Little Darlin’.” In The Meantime has never been available on vinyl until now.

McVie was involved in the creation of the new Atmos mixes for In The Meantime before she passed away last year. In the liner notes, Dan Perfect writes: “When my aunt Christine McVie died unexpectedly last year, plans were already afoot for the re-release of this solo album, which is perhaps her most personal and intimate project. Chris and I had been working for some time on remixing the original tracks in Dolby Atmos, and Chris was excited and intrigued by this process, which was bringing fresh life and contemporaneity to the songs… I dearly wish that she could have lived to see this re-release as she would have been delighted.”

The digital remastered version of "In The Meantime" is available now on streaming platforms.

The Tracklist for "In The Meantime" contains one extra track titled "Little Darlin'" which was titled "Come Out To Play" back in 2004 when it was released in Australia and on iTunes as a bonus. 

In The Meantime Tracklist

1 Friend (2023 Remaster)

2 You Are (2023 Remaster)

3 Northern Star (2023 Remaster)

4 Bad Journey (2023 Remaster)

5 Anything is Possible (2023 Remaster)

6 Calumny (2023 Remaster)

7 So Sincere (2023 Remaster)

8 Easy Come, Easy Go (2023 Remaster)

9 Liar (2023 Remaster)

10 Sweet Revenge (2023 Remaster)

11 Forgiveness (2023 Remaster)

12 Givin' It Back (2023 Remaster)

13 Little Darlin' (2023 Remaster)

Stevie Nicks Chicago Review "Finding beauty in the struggle and a voice amid heartbreak"

Stevie Nicks takes Chicago down memory lane in heartfelt United Center show - June 23, 2023

By  Selena Fragassi 

Photo: Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere

Chicago Sun Times

As much as she is a gifted songwriter, Nicks is also a great storyteller and had several yarns to spin with the crowd, including how her parents moved to Chicago while she was still enrolled at San Jose State University. It was the first move she didn’t make with her nomadic parents and fatefully led to her start in music.

Finding beauty in the struggle and a voice amid heartbreak has always been the cornerstone of Stevie Nicks’ unending talent. Her gift takes on even new weight in 2023, as the prolific singer-songwriter tours while mourning the loss of her “best friend” and Fleetwood Mac cohort Christine McVie who passed away unexpectedly last November.

“Someday I’ll talk to you about what it’s like to lose Christine. … I can’t do it yet, but maybe someday over a glass of wine,” Nicks said, her voice cracking with emotion as she wrapped up her moving headlining performance at United Center Friday night.

Nicks and her talented eight-part backing ensemble — led by the incredible guitarist/music director Waddy Wachtel — did so with a solemn salute of “Landslide,” one of the biggest and most poignant songs Nicks wrote for Fleetwood Mac in 1975. A confessional for navigating the way forward as life changes, it’s a message that takes on even more gravitas now.

Moving “Landslide” to the end and dedicating it to McVie, complete with a black-and-white photo montage of the two that played across the video screens, was one of the marked differences in Nicks’ latest 2-hour, 17-song set that otherwise largely mirrored her show under the stars at Ravinia last September. 

Even so, the emotional pull felt different nine months later. The celebration of seeing Nicks live was buffered by the thought that Fleetwood Mac is likely wrapped up, while a large part of Friday night also felt like a séance for the giant ghosts of music past, with Nicks as the audience medium. It added to the ongoing sense of urgency to see the legends while we still can (and no doubt led to a near-capacity crowd at the UC). 

There was a Prince tribute during the “white-winged dove” of “Edge of Seventeen” as well as Nicks’ ongoing tributes to late friend Tom Petty. In addition to a heartfelt serenade of “Free Fallin’,” Nicks dug out her 1981 duet with the Heartbreakers frontman, the ever-catchy “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” She prefaced it by recalling what a timely gift it was from Petty, as her record label scrambled to find a single to help explode her debut solo album “Bella Donna.” 

That LP was much of the focus of the night, with 75-year-old Nicks sounding as pristine as ever and celebrating by donning the original shawl “cape” she wore during the “Bella Donna” promo shots and videos (and the one she originally wore for “Gold Dust Woman”). It was her only costume change of the night, met with uproarious applause as she did little twirls around the stage.

As much as she is a gifted songwriter, Nicks is also a great storyteller and had several yarns to spin with the crowd, including how her parents moved to Chicago while she was still enrolled at San Jose State University. She noted it was the first move she didn’t make with her nomadic parents and fatefully led to her start in music. “It’s a good thing I didn’t change my mind,” Nicks joked.

Later, she covered Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” talking about Stephen Stills writing it in homage to the Sunset Strip curfew riots in the ‘60s.

“This song has traveled all the way from 1966 to 2023 and still makes a statement,” Nicks said, sharing that had she been old enough and in L.A. at the time, she would have participated in the demonstrations. 

Her hippie heart continued to shine with a moving delivery of “Soldier’s Angel,” from her 2011 album “In Your Dreams.” Originally written after Nicks visited American soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the early 2000s, on this tour it’s being revisited as a tribute to the people of Ukraine.

“I stand for democracy, I stand for freedom, I stand for Ukraine,” Nicks shared, reading a speech from a teleprompter in order to not mince words. The number ended with blue and yellow flashing lights on the video screens and a QR code that audience members could scan to donate to the UN’s crisis relief fund.

Finding throughlines of past and present and adapting archive songs to modern context is the true mark of a legacy artist, and the practice is just one part of what makes Nicks so alluring and worshipped by multi-generations, even though it’s been nearly 10 years since she released a new album. Droves of fans came bedecked in flower crowns and their best witchy wear, some with binoculars to get a closer look at the woman who has inspired a whole new legion of singer-songwriters (see her close relationships with Taylor Swift and Haim, and even Riley Keough’s eponymous lead character from “Daisy Jones.”

And she’s clearly not done yet, promising to see everyone “next time.”

Nicks’ tour continues through 2024 coupled with co-headlining dates with Billy Joel.

SET LIST

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
• Fall From Grace
• For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Soldier’s Angel
• Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
• I Sing for the Things
• Edge of Seventeen
• Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty) 
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac) 

Chicago Review Onstage, Stevie Nicks remains an original: a free-spirited blend of siren, gypsy, canyon queen and enchanted sorceress.

Review: Stevie Nicks’ musical legacy was in the room with her at the United Center on June 23, 2023

By Bob Gendron

Chicago Tribune

In the waning moments of her concert Friday at a rafters-packed United Center, Stevie Nicks sang about getting older. She echoed the sentiments in back-to-back lines of “Landslide,” a classic she has performed across six decades.

Yet as black-and-white pictures of Christine McVie — Nicks’ longtime Fleetwood Mac cohort and best friend who died last November — flashed on a curved projection screen behind her, the words took on added weight. Nicks, recognizing how circumstance forever changed the lyrical meaning, struck a decidedly submissive and reverent tone. The interpretive shift and photos of McVie weren’t the only reminders of time’s finite qualities during the 110-minute set.

Now 75, Nicks is in the victory-lap stretch of her long career. This July, she’ll be feted with a career-spanning box set documenting her solo work. The release (by Rhino) coincides with her current tour on which she’s appearing with Billy Joel for select stadium dates. These profile boosts follow a 2022 summer-fall trek that brought her to Ravinia, and her 2019 feat of becoming the first woman to be twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The attention showered on Nicks in the past decade-plus seems overdue. Despite her distinguished role in Fleetwood Mac, she often stood in the shadows of male colleagues and dealt with the double standards of a chauvinistic era. Though her situation paralleled those faced by many female artists who traded in rock ‘n’ roll during the ‘70s and ‘80s, Nicks’ songwriting acumen, unique voice and inner strength helped transform her into an icon embraced by subsequent generations.

Her wide-ranging impact could be seen throughout the United Center crowd, which skewed younger — median age falling between late 30s and early 40s — than at most shows by baby boomers. Celebrating the singer’s trademark fashions, some fans arrived adorned in frilly jackets, wide-brimmed hats or chiffon shawls.

Dressed in black, Nicks wore a few signature accessories of her own. When performing “Bella Donna,” she modeled the original cape she was pictured wearing on the back cover of that title track’s 1981 LP and proudly boasted about its pristine condition. The old cape used for her 1983 synth-heavy single “Stand Back” also emerged but didn’t merit the same royal treatment. After noting its holes and repairs, Nicks tossed the garment aside like a dirty T-shirt ready for the laundry. It’s unclear if she realized the humor of her actions.

Amicable and sincere, Nicks appeared to dwell in her own universe. She came across less as a famous rock star and more as an eager storyteller. Talking a mile a minute, Nicks framed a majority of songs with introductions or outros. Her combination of personal histories and frank disclosures supplied context and color — not to mention trivia fodder. A prime example: Who knew she penned “Gold Dust Woman” after passing a street named Gold Dust Lane?

Nicks’ candor applied to matters lighthearted (the need for an album to have a hit single in order to get attention in the ‘80s; her tendency to go off on a tangent) and serious. In terms of the latter, after the final acoustic passages of the closing “Landslide” faded and the music stopped, she admitted she will one day discuss what it feels like to lose McVie. Nicks isn’t ready yet.

The singer also addressed her collaborative experience with Tom Petty, increased the heat on a rendition of their 1981 duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and paid the late artist tribute with a well-meaning albeit flat cover of “Free Fallin’.” Another bygone great, Prince, received his due in the form of his picture being displayed during two songs. Nicks also punctuated the end of an invigorating version of “Edge of Seventeen” with a lyric from Prince’s “When Doves Cry.”

Backed by an ace band anchored by veteran guitarist Waddy Wachtel and drummer Drew Hester, Nicks sang with a sharpness that projected above the eight-piece support group. Her range is considerably lower from that of her heyday and proved most convincing on upbeat fare. Occasionally, Nicks’ voice betrayed her, turning pinched and nasally on upper-register passages. Two backing vocalists assisted with highs, choruses and extended notes.

Onstage, Nicks remains an original: a free-spirited blend of siren, gypsy, canyon queen and enchanted sorceress. With the longest strands of her hair nearly reaching her waist, and a mix of beads and ribbons lining her angled microphone stand, she gave the mysticism and dreams in her narratives visual reference points. Those extended to Nicks’ theatrical movements — outstretched arms, palms-up gestures, cape clutches, slow twirls, forward bends, head-in-hands signals, grandiose bows. For the finale of an epic “Gold Dust Woman,” she stood in front of an amplifier and worshipped distortion.

Though Nicks and company played just one song released in the last two decades, the present revealed itself in other ways. The collective’s folk-blues reading of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” invoked themes of division, confrontation and paranoia fracturing the American landscape. “Fall From Grace” burned with an intensity that mirrored the courage, independence and outspokenness of a crop of younger, modern artists Nicks inspired.

Nothing, however, resonated with as much relevance as “Soldier’s Angel.” Concerned she might lose focus, Nicks read her explanation of the 2011 tune from a Teleprompter and apologized for doing so. Played as devastating images from the Russian invasion of Ukraine provided the backdrop, the song sounded a clarion call for righteousness, justice and democracy before concluding with an image of the Ukrainian flag.

The answer to the question Nicks has asked in another, more renowned song for decades — “Do you know how to pick up the pieces and go home?” — seldom seemed so uncertain or necessary.