Tom Petty MusiCares Tribute Lines Up Foo Fighters, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Kings Of Leon, Randy Newman, & More Stereogum
Tom Petty is this year’s MusiCares Person Of The Year, and the initial lineup for the accompanying tribute concert has been announced: Foo Fighters, Don Henley, Norah Jones, Kings Of Leon, Randy Newman, Stevie Nicks, Lucinda Williams, Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Lynne, George Strait, Jackson Browne, Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, Elle King, Regina Spektor, and the Bangles will all perform Petty songs. That’s quite a list! T Bone Burnett is the show’s musical director, and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers will close out the night with a performance of their own.
The MusicCares gala, which will be held on Feb. 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will begin with a silent auction followed by a dinner, the tribute concert, and the award presentation. GRAMMY week will conclude with the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on Feb. 12.
What did we do to deserve Stevie Nicks?
by: KEATON BELL Red Dirt Report
NORMAN, Okla. – For over 40 years, the Fleetwood Mac front-woman has managed to charm her way into the lives of anyone with two ears and a heart. Past the tales of cocaine binges and rock and roll excess lies an artist responsible for some of the most enduring music of the 20th century. How else do you explain the fact that in the year 2016, Stevie Nicks feels just as relevant today as she did when she released Bella Donna back in 1981?
Nicks has essentially raised her own coven of gold dust women, with acts such as Charli XCX, Haim, and Taylor Swift all openly citing her as a large influence. When she recently appeared on American Horror Story: Coven, you were just as excited as your parents were at the image of the 68-year old Nicks still kicking it, top hat and all. And would Florence + The Machine, with their mystical imagery and love-lorn lyrics, even exist today if it weren’t for the guiding influence of the original White Witch?
What it all boil’s down to is Nicks’ downright lovability. While her contemporaries focused on experimental sounds and forced musical intellectualism, Nicks has always been an unabashed softie. Her music is from the heart, often shamelessly emotional, and always sincere. You’re not just spinning a record when you put on Stevie Nicks, you’re listening to a woman bare her soul and asking you to do the same in return. That confessional style of music is universal, whether you’re young or old, male or female, a hopeless romantic or an eternal pessimist.
These attributes and more were all on display Sunday night when Nicks took the stage at the American Airlines Center as a part of her 24 Karat Gold Tour. I may have been just one of 20,000 adoring fans packed into the arena, but the intimacy and spirit Nicks performed with made you feel like it was a one-on-one experience.
Review: Stevie Nicks, the Pretenders dust off 24-karat rock classics at Amalie Arena in Tampa
by Jay Cridlin Tampabay.com + Photos
Right after playing her first Fleetwood Mac song of the night, Dreams, Stevie Nicks couldn't help but pat herself on the back.
"That is the only No. 1 single that Fleetwood Mac had since 1975," the singer told a crowd of just under 10,000 at Tampa's Amalie Arena on Wednesday, "proving that it is not easy to have a hit single in 1975 -- or 2016. However, it's my single, and it hangs in my living room."
Own that gold, sister; this is your tour. After three spins through Amalie with Fleetwood Mac since 2009, Nicks, 68, finally had the big stage all to herself. And to celebrate, she threw a show aimed squarely at her superfans.
For lifelong Stevie diehards, her so-called 24 Karat Gold Tour was worth its weight in you-know-what, as she dug deep into her catalog to play songs that have missed the cut on previous solo tours. Nearly half her setlist was culled her first two albums, 1981’s Bella Donna and 1983’s The Wild Heart, including some rarely if ever played live.
Nicks shared stories, too. She talked about writing songs with Tom Petty and Don Henley, talked about the Twilight franchise inspiring the dramatic piano number Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream), and took the crowd back more than 40 years for the slow-rolling Buckingham Nicks rocker Crying In the Night. She even showed off her original cape from the artwork for Bella Donna, fanning it into the front row of fans.
Nicks twirled (a little slower than usual, but hey, aren't we all) through several Fleetwood Mac hits, too, like the tripadelic Gold Dust Woman and gypsy anthem Rihannon. (“That old witch, she just doesn’t go away. She wants to be in every single set that I do.”) And smash solo singles like Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen, with those huge, arena-filling choruses, had the crowd screaming along.
But what proved most enlightening were those deeper cuts, those country-tinged rumblers like Gold and Braid, Wild Heart and Enchanted, with its pianos and twangy guitars. Bella Donna’s hypnotic harmonies turned to something approaching gospel at the end. It was warm, rolling, glittering and harmonious, often all at once.
“It’s really something to be able to pretend we’re up in my room and I’m playing demos for you,” Nicks said. “It’s so much fun for me, so fulfilling for me.”
Setting the stage for Nicks’ big night was another classic rock heroine, Chrissie Hynde, and her band the Pretenders, playing their first Tampa Bay show in a decade. They made up for lost time delivering their big '80s hits: Back On The Chain Gang, Private Life, My City Was Gone, Brass In Pocket.
And while Hynde's low, aching warble brought tenderness to the sparse and lovely Hymn To Her and yearning ballad I'll Stand By You, most of the set packed surprising bite. Hynde, 65, is swimming in serious mojo these days, purring, sneering and striking angular poses while crunching out tracks from the new, Dan Auerbach-produced Alone, such as the steel-tough title track, punkish Gotta Wait and snappy Holy Commotion. Older tracks like the spunky Message of Love and driving Middle of the Road sizzled with itchy angst.
Hynde also delivered the night’s only big political moment. Several bars into Don't Get Me Wrong, she stopped the song to talk, somewhat obliquely, about Donald Trump.
"I shouldn't do this," she said to some fans down front, adding that she doesn't usually get political. "But I have three words for you tonight: Ku Klux Klan. What do you think about that?"
As with Amy Schumer last month, Amalie Arena reacted with a mix of cheers and boos.
"Oh, Tampa, you are a funny one," Hynde sighed with a laugh. After handing the mic to a fan who briefly blurted something about Trump, she added: "See, for me, that's fun. F--- it. I'm here to have a good time."
Hynde came back during Nicks' set to take over Tom Petty's vocals on Stop Draggin' My Heart Around. The two women sang to each other like the best of pals as the swampy 1981 single chugged along.
"I made it to the top!" Hynde said, beaming.
When you get there, you can pretty much do whatever you want. That's how Nicks is rolling on this tour. For both her and her fans, it's working out just fine.
Stevie Nicks, Pretenders go deep in AAC show
By Robert Philpot dfw.com + Photo Gallery (15 Photos)
DALLAS Stevie Nicks announced early during her concert Sunday at the American Airlines Center that she would be shaking things up a bit, not playing the kind of set list her fans had been used to hearing for decades. Then she and her band quickly played her 1983 hit If Anyone Falls, a reassuring sign that although she’d be playing some unfamiliar material, the show wouldn’t be all obscurities.
And it wasn’t But it was weighted heavily toward deep cuts and non-hits, including a song that dated back to 1973 and her Buckingham-Nicks days, and others that for one reason or another never made it on to an album — at least till the 2014 release of 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault found a home for songs such as Starshine (which Nicks said she wrote while hanging out with Tom Petty) and Belle Fleur.
This is a risky strategy for a classic-rock artist, even if there’s advance publicity about it. On a “school night,” fans often want to hear the hits, but Nicks’ fan base is so passionate that the less-familiar songs were well-received, and in some cases — the title cut from The Wild Heart segueing into the title cut from Bella Donna — stirred a rapturous reaction.
But about a third of the show was hits, from Nicks’ solo career and from Fleetwood Mac, with some excellent twists and turns — bringing out Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, who opened the show, to do the Tom Petty parts on Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around; extending Gold Dust Woman with Nicks going into a possessed-looking dance (while the big-screen image of her appeared to be turning into melting gold) that ended with her hair covering her face; singing Leather & Lace with background singers Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin doing the Don Henley parts; the expected but still climactic intensity of Rhiannon, a song Nicks somehow manages it invest her entire self (and possibly more) in every time she performs it.
There was warmth and humor in Nicks’ show, during which she told the stories behind several songs (including how she wrote Leather & Lace for Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, then asked for it back when they split up, and how Prince’s Little Red Corvette helped inspire her hit Stand Back, which he played on). For all the intensity of her singing, the chattier portions of her show were laid-back and personal, including the long introduction of her band (longtime guitarist/musical director Waddy Wachtel, rhythm guitarist Carlos Rios, pianist Darrell Smith — who performed a lovely intro to Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream) — organist Ricky Peterson, bassist Al Ortiz, drummer Scott Crago and the background singers), all of whom she treated like old friends.
Speaking of old friends, the Pretenders blasted through a tight first act, with Hynde in a great mood, greater voice and appealing loose form. She came onstage wearing a cowboy hat and, a few songs in, doffed her jacket to reveal a sleeveless “Everything is Bigger in Texas” T-shirt. The band leaned hard on some of its earliest stuff — Mystery Achievement, Talk of the Town, Message of Love, the Kinks cover Stop Your Sobbing — but not at the expense of later songs like Back on the Chain Gang, Don’t Get Me Wrong and I’ll Stand By You.
And the band was on fire — starting off great and really getting locked in about midset, especially showy guitarist James Walbourne and Martin Chambers, the band’s longtime, sledgehammer-force drummer, with bassist Nick Wilkinson and pedal-steel player Eric Heywood making more subtle contributions.
Back in 1984, Hynde wrote the lines, “I’m not the kind I used to be/I got a kid, I’m 33, baby.” That was more than 30 years ago, but she seemed like she was 33 again Sunday night. She also wrote Time the Avenger, which she didn’t perform Sunday night, but she sure let us know that she’s not read for time to get her just yet.
Stevie Nicks casts a spell over Houston
By Joey Guerra Chron.com + Photo Gallery (30 photos)
Photo: Dave Rossman
It was a night of 1,000 Stevies both on and offstage.
The Fleetwood Mac singer's Saturday show at Toyota Center -- on Halloween weekend, no less -- inspired several fans to don shawls and scarves, floppy and top hats, lace and long, flowy robes.
Others honored the festivities in costumes and makeup. (A Joker here, a sexy cat there.)
Nicks' current 24 Karat Gold Tour is also showcasing a different side of the iconic singer. It included several songs she's rarely performed onstage. This was her third show of the tour, and her voice strengthened as it progressed.
She told the crowd she visited Houston to pick up Lily, a "tiny pink dog," in July. Much of the show was framed like a "Storytellers" TV special.
"Wild Heart," never before performed onstage, could be a hit for a country singer. The Edgar Allen Poe-inspired "Annabel Lee" boasted a rousing, rising chorus. "New Orleans" was originally a poem inspired by Hurricane Katrina. "Starshine" was originally a demo recorded in Tom Petty's basement.
Nicks performed "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" in a long, white coat. It was no mistake that it played like some sort of gothic drama.
"That was for Bella and Edward, who live in my heart, and the stories of 'Twilight,'" she said.
There were, of course, ample moments of classic Nicks. She swirled her scarves and shook her tambourine. And the crowd roared when she took a few signature spins during "Stand Back."
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, who opened the show, returned for a spirited "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around." Deep cut "Outside the Rain" effectively segued into "Dreams."
The final quartet of songs were for maximum fan appeal: a still-searing "Gold Dust Woman;" "Edge of Seventeen," featuring images of Prince flashing on the screens; a swirling "Rhiannon" and "Leather and Lace."
Women danced. Men sang along. And Nicks, in all her witchy allure, proved she still reigns supreme.
Live on Periscope:
Control Illusion shared approx. 90 minutes of the show last night. Check that out HERE.
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