Saturday, May 07, 2011

Stevie Nicks sat down at a piano in an Australian hotel and declared: “I’m ready to make a record now.”

Buy on itunes HERE
Stevie Nicks found inspiration everywhere before digging into her first solo album in 10 years.

By NATALIE ROTMAN
Associated Press

She sat down at a piano in an Australian hotel and declared: “I’m ready to make a record now.”

“I really don’t care if anybody buys it, and I really don’t care if everybody steals it,” she says during an interview at her Pacific Palisades home. “What I need is to make a record for me, the artist. I need to create something now. So I am going to close my eyes to the music business and its problems, and go forth with a good heart and great belief and make a record.”

The result, “In Your Dreams,” was released this week.

The album features a song Nicks wrote in 1975, right after joining Fleetwood Mac. She never shared it with the band, “which is crazy because this is a very easy, simple, precise song that Lindsey Buckingham would’ve loved, and Fleetwood Mac would’ve loved,” she says. “ I put it away right after I joined the band, and for some reason, I never put it on any of my records either.”

Last year, she remembered the track that she’d stuffed into a box in her parents’ Phoenix home: “Something in my head, I saw the cassette in my head with the little ink that said, ‘Secret Love.’”It’s the first single from “In Your Dreams.”

Another song on the album was co-written with Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart (also a producer of the album) and titled by Reese Witherspoon.

The actress offered her Nashville home to Nicks and Stewart for a brief stay, noting that nothing is “cheaper than free.”

“Cheaper Than Free” is the album’s closing track. Sharing the writing process was new for Nicks, and also a happy surprise.

“ I really had that light, epiphany, where I realized why people wrote together,” says the 62-year-old, who previously considered songwriting a solo pursuit. “I suddenly understood why (John) Lennon and ( Paul) McCartney wrote together. I understood why other famous songwriting teams wrote together, because they each had something that the other person didn’t have. For Dave ( Stewart) and I, I have books of poetry and he has thousands of chords.”

Lindsey Buckingham back with new music | Singer-songwriter takes indie route

By ANDREW BARKER
Variety

Fleetwood Mac is not a band that has needed much help selling records -- its 1977 landmark "Rumours" has been certified 19-times platinum -- yet its sales gained a significant boost over the past week, with "Glee's" "Rumours" episode drawing inspiration from the record, and bumping the LP up to No. 2 on the iTunes album charts.

The sudden re-ignition of interest in the band couldn't have come at a better time. The band's Stevie Nicks' new record "In Your Dreams" has also breached the iTunes top 10, and there are some familiar faces in the liner notes -- most notably her former bandmate and paramour Lindsey Buckingham.

Buckingham, fresh off receiving ASCAP's Golden Note lifetime achievement kudo, also has new record "Seeds We Sow" on the horizon for the end of summer. As he tells Variety, another Mac album is certainly in the cards, though he admits "dealing with a whole ensemble" can be a slow process.

Buckingham showed an affinity for newer bands such as Arcade Fire and the Dirty Projectors, and later shared a few cutting comments on the state of pop radio -- "They're starting to figure out that you can't go on forever without melody." Mac's music has also seen heavy chunks of its DNA resurface in contempo artists like Jenny Lewis, Taylor Swift and Ryan Adams, though Buckingham is hesitant to claim his share of the credit.

"I don't ever presume that people are (directly influenced by me)," he says, "but it's nice to know that even when you aren't always stoking the machine, people still remember what you've done."

Buckingham has been no stranger to the difficulties of stoking that machine, having drawn label ire with Mac's experimental "Rumors" follow-up, "Tusk," and he's upfront about his struggles to drum up the proper exec enthusiasm for "Seeds." ("Even Rob Cavallo tried to glom it off on some other label," he says, speaking of the WBR chairman.) Hence, he plans to release this one independently.

"If you make music with the left side of your palette, you're going to lose X amount of listeners," he says of his solo work. "That's the tradeoff."

Appropriately, Buckingham says he's "drawn more and more inward" for his new material, with his experiences of aging and late fatherhood -- Buckingham has three young children -- taking the place of the anger and recriminations that were once his most persistent themes.

And of course, fatherhood requires he record at a slower pace, with none of the all-nighter sessions that used to be Mac's stock and trade.

"Mick (Fleetwood) was the one who always wanted to stay up all night in the studio," he remembers. "He would usually bring out the cocaine after dinner, and I guess there was a certain element of 'when in Rome … .' "

(Video) Stevie Nicks Appears at "Night of a Thousand Stevie's" via Video Message... So Cool!





Stevie Nicks recorded this very special message for fans attending the recent NIGHT OF 1000 STEVIES 21: THE WILD HEART in NYC. Stevie gives fashion tips, and delivers other charming and heartfelt thoughts on this NYC Stevie gathering. The video opened NOTS 21 on May 6, 2011 to a thunderous ovation from the 1000+ Stevies in attendance.

More on this annual event at mothernyc.com/stevie

Friday, May 06, 2011

[Update] Stevie Nicks "Secret Love" AC Chart Position

The first single release from Stevie's new album 'In Your Dreams' 'Secret Love' remains at # 21 in it's 10th week on the Adult Contemporary Chart.  This chart will appear in Billboard Magazine issue dated May 14, 2011.  The song has slipped in week over week radio plays by 8 spins but is still hanging on. 

Over on the Triple A chart the track dropped out of the top 30 this week after having spent a total of 8 weeks on.

Swedish & Norwegian Reviews - Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' "A Worthy Comeback"

Stevie Nicks "In Your Dreams" 3/5
by Markus Larsson
Aftonbladet.se

When reading Rolling Stone magazine, you get the impression Stevie Nicks first album in ten years is as good as Bella Donna (1981). Or at least as good as Tango in the night with Fleetwood Mac.

It is however many years since the reporters at Rolling Stone was something else than just ads for the multi record labels.

However, parts of Nicks new album is worthy. The (partly) 80s sound suites Nicks voice perfect, "Secret Love" shines and "Annabel Lee" is strongest track.
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Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' 3/5
by Per Hägred
Expressen

When Fleetwood Mac is so put on hold that even the bands home page is down, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks takes the moment to release some really good music.

This makes me think of Emmylou Harris, Marianne Faithful, and even Edith Piaf.
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Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' 4/6
by Morten Ståle Nielsen
Verdens gang

Tracking down the magic from the past.

In a try to follow up on the debut Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks finest work so far: An endless cred list, guests from The Heartbreakers and Fleetwood Mac, chiffon and tulle, and a classic Nicks album cover. And producer Dave Stewart...

Unfortunately Stewart co-writes some of the songs on the album, which is stupid, his songs isn't even half as distinctive as Nicks' (like 35 year old "Secret love").

Despite Stewart, when this album is good, it's really good, "Soldiers Angel" should fit in just fine on "Tusk"

Best track: Soldiers Angel.

These reviews were translated... So they may sound a little disjointed.  And thank you to Anna for sending them in :)

Stevie Nicks - Access Hollywood Video.. Talks Glee... Staying Youthful... and her New Album