Stevie Nicks Crystal Visions Tour Book

A couple of scans of the Crystal Visions Tour Book.

Stevie Nicks - Stand Back 2007 Remixes

A promotional disc has arrived for Stevie's classic track Stand Back.

Jumping Directly To Gig With Fleetwood Mac

Conservatory graduates Phil Nichols (left) and John Haley (right) bookend Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac and Engineer Mark Needham.

Imagine stepping out of recording school and having your first session be with Fleetwood Mac. That's exactly what happened to CRAS students John Haley and Phil Nichols. Haley and Nichols found saw their ship come in at Cornerstone Studios where they both were interning after graduating from the Conservatory.

"They were amazingly well-prepared, considering the situation we've thrown them into," remarked mix engineer Mark Needham, of Cake, Chris Isaak, and Elton John fame. "You've got 112 tracks of Pro Tools, a 48-track Sony 3348 digital machine, analog decks, and Neve automation all to lock up. They've handled every task I gave them, which is pretty sharp."

Student Phil Nichols comments. "I felt confident coming to work here in LA. The instructors made it clear exactly how it would be in the real world. They have the experience and want to make sure that you understand that and are prepared. In class, in sessions, in tutoring, the entire approach gives us a good foundation for working in the real world of recording music."

"The whole process of learning and coming up now is different than it was 20 years ago," explained Lindsey Buckingham "when rock and roll and the world around it were not as organized. There was a certain amount of luck, and I think you need the same amount of luck now, or even more. But there was also a certain amount of spontaneity that came from a lack of real understanding of what is correct and what isn't in the recording process. There is probably a good side and a bad side to having all of that harnessed, but I do admire the younger kids who are going in an learning a lot more, in a real sense of having a context of what it means to a broader understanding of music, and the techniques involved in recording music. I think that can only be a good thing. It certainly doesn't insure success anymore, though. It's just tough out there."

Haley offered the following advice: "Work harder than the guy who came before you. You are still proving yourself, so you have to have a really good work ethic. Be willing to put in lots of extra hours, all the time. You will be on the job as much as possible. Do your best to really help out."

Lindsey Buckingham Sundance Film Festival

WE Network Special Celebrates Confluence of Music and Film
Artists of Today, Tomorrow and All-Time Bring Four Special Nights of Music to Households Nationwide

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Sundance Film Festival may be known as the ultimate destination for independent film, but come Monday, June 4, at 10 p.m. EDT (9 p.m. CDT), the musical experience of Park City, Utah, comes to households nationwide as WE: Women’s Entertainment presents, “Park City: Where Music Meets Film, Presented by ZonePerfect® Nutrition Bars.”

Filmed in high-definition for four nights during the acclaimed festival, the intimate and mostly acoustic sets by Joss Stone, Sean Lennon, Lindsey Buckingham, Joan Osborne, Daniel Powter, Jonny Lang and others celebrate the unique and powerful relationship between film and music.

Grammy Award winning artist and producer Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds hosts the one-hour special, which intermixes documentary-style interviews and live performances set against the backdrop of the renowned Sundance Film Festival. Artist support filled the audience of A-list celebrities including Cuba Gooding Jr., Jessica Biel and Utah’s own Donny Osmond.

“Music has a profound impact on the film viewing experience,” said Edmonds. “It’s what makes a good film great, and a great film timeless. ‘Park City: Where Music Meets Film’ celebrates that one powerful idea with some of the hottest and most talented performers on stage today.”

“This was a truly successful event for everyone involved,” says executive producer Art Ford. “The artists, the producers, and sponsor, the great folks at ZonePerfect®, are able to reach their shared audience in this intimate atmosphere. Now all of America can share in the same experience with this television special.”

STARS
Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds
Joss Stone
Lindsey Buckingham
Sean Lennon
Joan Osborne
Shawn Colvin
Jonny Lang
Daniel Powter
Marc Broussard
Stanley Jordan
Shelby Lynne
Keb' Mo'
Bird York
Monte Montgomery

PRODUCER
Kenny Griswold
Dave Phillips
Art Ford
Michael McNamara

DIRECTOR
Michael McNamara

PRESENTING SPONSOR
ZonePerfect Nutrition(R) Bars

STEVIE NICKS - Greek Theatre - Los Angeles

May 21, 2007 03:57 PM
by Paul Gargano
LiveDaily Contributor

If Stevie Nicks could choose the perfect setting to perform her mystical passions of life and love, it very well may be the Greek Theater. Nestled amidst the sprawling greenery of Griffith Park in the Hollywood Hills, the venue played host to a crowd of nearly 6,000 Saturday night (5/19), the first of two sold-out nights in Los Angeles and only the second stop on the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman's current "Crystal Visions" solo tour.
Despite the 10-piece band that joined her onstage for the duration of the 14-song, 100-minute set, it may have been the towering trees that line the amphitheater that contributed the most color to the evenings proceedings, the softly-lit leaves rustling in the light spring breeze and offering an ambient backdrop to Nicks' retrospective night of classic rock and iconic pop.

"The real 'Crystal Vision' in my life is all of you, and I thank you for staying with me all these years. Now let's rock…" she casually said following the pulse of opener "Stand Back," offering her first of many chatty interludes. "Dreams" appropriately followed, one of the night's more buoyant pop excursions and also the track that features the title line of her newly released hits collection.

While more than half of the night's set could be found on the new "Crystal Visions" best-of set, the night wasn't all obvious hits, with fan favorite "Leather and Lace" absent and lesser-known piano ballad "Beauty and the Beast" serving as a grand and dramatic finale. With her long, blonde hair pulled up for the first time all night and classic black-and-white footage from Jean Cocteau's 1946 French film of the same name, "Le Belle Et La Bete," Nicks' closed the night with a song that explored the gray area within life's black and white extremes--a theme she had frequented throughout the performance.

Introducing "Sorcerer," which she recalled writing nearly 25 years ago, Nicks commented that the song captured both the "scary and fantastic" aspects of living in Los Angeles in the early '70s. Later in the set, she reminisced that "Fall From Grace" was both "the most loving and meanest song I've ever written."

The glue that held the set together was Nicks' vocals, her textured rasp adding imperfect yet inescapably comforting warmth, whether during the soft tenderness of her signature "Rhiannon," the middle-of-the-road country tone of "Enchanted," or the more animated hard-rock timbre of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll."

While she didn't dust off the Tom Petty-penned "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" from her solo debut ["Bella Donna," 1981], Nicks did dedicate a cover of his "I Need To Know" to her friend and recent tour mate, longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who took advantage of some rare time in the spotlight.

The band--Wachtel was joined by guitarist Carlos Rios, bassist Al Ortiz, drummer Jimmy Paxon; piano player Cornell Thigpen and organist Ricky Peterson; Fleetwood Mac percussionist Lenny Castro; and backing vocalists Lori Nicks, Jana Anderson and Sharon Salani--was dutiful with the arrangements, seldom stepping outside Nicks' shadow.

Thigpen accompanied Nicks on the into to "Rhiannon," the vocalists played their part during the acoustic "Landslide," and Paxon and Castro soloed from "Still of the Night" into the intro to "Edge of Seventeen," which featured Wachtel riding his dominant riff throughout the song. As if by plan, though, they all blended rather reverently into the background, doing just enough to create a musical blanket for Nicks to wrap her vocals around.

That provided everything the enthralled crowd could have asked for, and sometimes more, as their "Gold Dust Woman" wove her musical incantations into the night. It was a night atypical of Hollywood's storied pomp and circumstance, and more fitting of Nicks' legacy as rock's reigning Queen. She delivered like royalty.


Setlist:
"Stand Back"
"Dreams"
"If Anyone Falls in Love"
"Rhiannon"
"Enchanted"
"Sorcerer"
"Gold Dust Woman"
"I Need To Know"
"Landslide"
"Fall From Grace"
"Still of the Night"
"Edge of Seventeen"
(encore)
"Rock and Roll"
"Beauty and the Beast"

OFF THE RECORD with Joe Benson

Sunday (May 20th) OFF THE RECORD with Joe Benson will feature the music of — and Joe's brand new conversation with — Stevie Nicks.

Off The Record Site for a list of stations that will be streaming this broadcast