Stevie Nicks Delivers, Still Rocking

Nicks twirled a few times on Saturday June 30th at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA

Two Reviews:
Timesleader.com
TheTimesTribune.com

Stevie Nicks Concert Review - Verona, NY - Turning Stone Concert Review

Her strong, pure voice soars in Turning Stone concert

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

By Mark Bialczak Staff writer Syracus.com

Stevie Nicks was in fine voice Tuesday night at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino's Event Center.

Front and center amid her seven musicians and three backup vocalists, the woman who put much of the mystery into Fleetwood Mac belted out the hits like a true rock star.

One year removed from her 60th birthday, Nicks looked and sounded much like the energetic star who delivered to America a long line of hits, from the Buckingham Nicks start of 1971 to the full-blown Fleetwood Mac days to the solo career that bloomed because the three or four songs per album she was allowed to contribute to "The Mac," as she called them, weren't enough to satisfy her songwriting talents.

She told the just-about-capacity crowd just that early on during the concert. Nicks would be in a chatty mood, she explained, because she wanted to talk about all those great songs of hers.

From the first song of the night, "Stand Back," it was obvious that Nicks' pure, soaring rock voice still sizzles. It was vintage Nicks, dressed mostly in black, numerous strands of beads draped from her microphone stand, body ready to twirl with arms extended as if she really believed a wind beneath the balloon sleeves of her outfit could carry her off into the clouds.

Her band, led by her longtime friend and music director Waddy Wachtel on a very demonstrative guitar, was forever ready to help Nicks drive home the point with equal parts melody and power.

Between songs, Nicks smiled a whole lot.

"In 1981, going solo from the Mac was a very dangerous thing to do," she said. "I didn't want to split up the band, but I needed a vehicle to do more than three or four songs a record as a songwriter. So we put out the album 'Belladonna.' " The rest, she declared, was made rock 'n' roll history.

"I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying with me all these years," Nicks said, fanning her eyes as if to dry tears. "And, with that said: Let's rock."

So rock they did, mixing pretty pieces like "Enchanted" with bona fide monster hits like "If Anyone Falls" and "Rhiannon."

Before launching into the gorgeous and piping hot "Dreams," Nicks described how she wrote the song while lying on Sly Stone's black velvet bed. "I took in the greatness of Sly," she declared. "I played it for the Mac, and we recorded it that day." With that classic line, "Thunder only happens when it's raining . . .," who wouldn't have?

Nicks revealed how she and guitar partner Lindsey Buckingham wrote "Sorcery" in the time when they felt lost because the Buckingham Nicks album was out of the stores and bust after only three months.

The night kept reaching new peaks, with "Gold Dust Woman" leading into Tom Petty's "I Need to Know" and the Mac classic "Landslide." "I want you to interpret my songs," Nicks said. "But the last two years, I talked a little bit about what this one means." With the numerous photos of her parents and Nicks growing up from a child to a star performer, it was obvious that her message of "putting aside ego for family" means something important to her. "I'm getting older, too," she sang, as her life shone for all on the big screen backdrop.

She demonstrated she's definitely not too old to rock hard with her rollicking cover of Led Zeppelin's rowdy "Rock and Roll" for the first encore.

For the second, she chose her theatrical "Beauty and the Beast," lighted by a candelabra on the piano and complete with a black-and-white film production to match the story on the screen.

Nicks wasn't ready to go without one more statement. She told all that the music industry is in trouble. "So go to concerts, listen to the radio, do whatever you can for new music. Or else we'll be listening to the same classic rock for the next 20 years," she said.

Mark Bialczak can be reached at mbialczak@syracuse.com or 470-2175. His blog "Listen Up" is at http://blog.syracuse.com/listenup/.

Sales Update - Crystal Visions

Week 12 on the Billboard Top 200 - Crystal Visions Sales update:

Date / Chart # / Sales / Total Sales
04/14/07 #21 - 33,944
04/21/07 #52 - 20,884 = 54,828
04/28/07 #49 - 13,384 = 68,212
05/05/07 #71 - 9,687 = 77,899
05/12/07 #73 - 9,531 = 87,430
05/19/07 #91 - 7,829 = 95,259
05/26/07 #116 - 7,421 = 102,680
06/02/07 #138 - 5,535 = 108,215
06/09/07 #131 - 5,705 = 113,920
06/16/07 #108 - 6,558 = 120,478
06/23/07 #152 - 5,212 = 125,690
06/30/07 #169 - 5,320 = 131,010

Stevie Nicks in Canada

Stevie Nicks still wonderful
By JANE STEVENSON
The Toronto Sun

RAMA, Ont. -- Stevie Nicks was down, but not out, on Thursday night as she opened the first of two soldout solo shows at Casino Rama. .

The 59-year-old songbird and sometime Fleetwood Mac member fell down on stage toward the end of her hour-and 45-minute performance during an extended and lively version of her signature solo track, Edge of Seventeen. Nicks, who said backstage later that she had a bum knee that was now extremely swollen, was helped to her feet by one of her three female backup singers and none of her seven male band members, who seemed oblivious to her plight. Ever the trouper, the singer -- who still favours platform suede boots -- shook it off, laughing, and strongly finished the tune, and even came back for a two-song encore including a cover of Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll.

Touring in support of a greatest-hits album, Crystal Visions, Nicks claimed she loved to come to Canada because everyone was so nice. "As much as I love my country, they aren't that nice," the Phoenix native said.

The theatrical singer, who loves flowing dresses, velvet coats and top hats, shawls, black leather clothes, and the aforementioned boots (and made about a half-dozen costume changes) had a mic stand dripping in necklaces and scarves, and never missed a moment to interpretive dance or twirl on the spot.

In response, the audience rushed the stage from the moment Nicks opened her show with crowd favourite Stand Back, followed later by some Fleetwood Mac gems as Rhiannon, Dreams and Gold Dust Woman, the latter one of the set highlights as she really let it rip vocally.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Nicks astonishingly sounds exactly as she did almost 40 years ago when she was starting out. But it was the poignant Landslide, the song from the 1973 landmark Buckingham Nicks album, that put a lump in everyone's throat -- as she sang in front of a backdrop of images of her family, most prominently her elderly and fragile father.

This is a performer who wears her heart on her sleeve, and we love her for it.

Nicks' last song was her own Beauty and the Beast, another tearjerker as a black-and-white film acting out the tragic fairytale played behind her on a large backdrop.

The singer, who also made a point of shaking the hands of most of the fans gathered at the front of the stage, wound down the evening with a last-minute plea for the music industry, which she pointed out was in "a sad state."

"Go to concerts, buy albums, listen to the radio," she pleaded as she took her final bows with her entire band.

Stand Back (Remix) hits the charts

Stevie's recently remixed 1983 hit "Stand Back" debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts June 23rd at #31. Currently the track is sitting at #19.

Nine (9) different mixes of the track can be purchased through itunes.

Billboard Issue Date: 06/23/07

#31 - Stand Back

Billboard Issue Date:06/30/07

#19 - Stand Back

Stevie Nicks - Other Side Of The Mirror outtake photo unearthed!

An old NEW "Other Side Of The Mirror" era photo was discovered today on this site. It's quite nice actually. Photovision