Saturday, November 19, 2016

Out with the old. In with the new(er). Setlist change at Stevie Nicks Bethlehem show.

In a shocking move, Stevie dropped "Dreams/Outside The Rain" from the set and added in "Gypsy". Interesting that it took almost half the tour to change things up a little - although she did warn that this may happen in pre-tour press. Also interesting that it was "Dreams"!  Usually its the lessor known songs that get the boot first before a staple. But it's cool... shakes things up a bit, keeps it interesting for everyone.

REVIEW: Stevie Nicks at Sands Bethlehem Event Center is older, but still bewitching
by John J. Moser
Mcall.com

PHOTO: Chris Shipley / The Morning Call



Stevie Nicks has always seemed to know more than the rest of us — more about affairs of the heart, more about the meaning of life, more about the future.

You could tell it in the way she told us in the 1982 Fleetwood Mac song “Gypsy” that “Lightning strikes/maybe once/maybe twice,” or in 1975’s “Landslide” that “time makes you bolder/Even children get older/And I'm getting older, too.”

Now Nicks really is getting older — she turned 68 this year — and all those things she sang about 40 years ago (!) seem to have been realized, both by her and her audience.

Full review with 35 photos in the gallery at Mcall.com

Stevie Nicks 'Bella Donna' (Deluxe Edition) Enters Billboard Top 200 Chart


Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna (Deluxe Edition) - No. 128: A new expanded version of Stevie Nicks’ 1981 solo debut album, Bella Donna, arrives on the chart with 5,000 units earned. The original album reached No. 1, and remains Nicks’ only solo chart-topper.

The revamped deluxe title -- which features 25 additional tracks -- charts separately from the original album, and its sales history is also tracked independently of the original release.

The original Bella Donna album climbed to No. 1 on the list dated Sept. 5, 1981 and also marked the icon’s first of so-far nine top 40-charting efforts. She most recently visited the top 40 with her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, which debuted and peaked at No. 7.

Bella Donna also sports the most top 40-charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100 of any Nicks album, as it launched four hits into the region. Its lead-off single, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, peaked at No. 3 (for six weeks!). It was followed by “Leather and Lace,” with Don Henley (which reached No. 6), “Edge of Seventeen” (No. 11) and “After the Glitter Fades” (No. 32).

Source

Bella Donna along with The Wild Heart chart on the Top Catalog Albums Chart coming in at #7 and #15.  On the Top 100 Album Sales Chart for the week Bella Donna enters at #59 with The Wild Heart entering at #85 with sales of 4,302 and 3,175 units.

Top Catalog Albums Chart
7 - Bella Donna (Deluxe Edition)
15 - Wild Heart (Deluxe Edition)


Top 100 Album Sales Chart
59 - Bella Donna (Deluxe Edition) - 4,302
85 - Wild Heart (Deluxe Edition) - 3,175

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Review Stevie Nicks Live in Washington with The Pretenders November 14, 2016

Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde inspire fans at Verizon Center
By Joseph Szadkowski
The Washington Times


WASHINGTON, DC — Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde, two grande dames of rock and roll, delivered their distinct musical styles to a near-capacity crowd on Monday night at the Verizon Center.

Both female forces reminded fans of their combined, nearly 90 years of expertise in crafting hit songs, with an over 3-hour-long performance.

First up, Miss Hynde, dressed in red Colonial regiment coat, Elvis T-shirt and skin-tight jeans, led her Pretenders through a 16-song, hourlong set featuring tunes from the band’s latest album “Alone,” along with a radio friendly mix of her more iconic hits.

She apparently tailored the milder set to the throngs of Stevie Nicks admirers, most of which were probably unaware of her more punkish, bad girl roots.

That meant a kindler romp through her charting years with “Message of Love,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “I’ll Stand by You,” “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” “Stop Your Sobbing,” “My City Was Gone” and “Brass in Pocket” leading the way.

Review Stevie Nicks with The Pretenders Live in Boston November 15, 2016

This is the kind of package that never could have happened in 1981. But in 2016 this bill makes sense.
By Jim Sullivan
Capecodtimes


BOSTON – Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders, together on tour. This is the kind of package that never could have happened, say, in 1981. The Pretenders were the hard-edged, snarling voice of Anglo-American new wave, having released two A-level albums, “Pretenders” and “Pretenders II.” Nicks was the ethereal, ever-twirling enchantress from the multi-platinum Fleetwood Mac, who with the “Bella Donna” album had started her soft-rock solo career.

But in 2016 this bill makes sense. There’s nothing divisive about the camps of fans anymore (if there ever was), and the prospective demo is almost the same, the 50+ pop/rock market. (Nicks also guested on “American Horror Story” playing a version of herself, probably earning some young fans.) The Pretenders’ lead singer-guitarist-songwriter Chrissie Hynde is 65; Nicks, 68; and they both wear it well. The two hooked up and had fun during Nicks’ set for a rendition of the duet hit Nicks scored with Tom Petty, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Hynde taking Petty’s vocal.

Review Stevie Nicks Live in Columbia, SC November 12, 2016

Stevie Nicks, Pretenders Lived Up to Their Legacies at Colonial Life Arena
By Erika Ryan
Free-Times.com

Stevie Nicks, Pretenders; Colonial Life Arena, Columbia; Nov. 12, 2016

Over the screams of hundreds of middle-aged women, many in black shawls, a familiar voice told the crowd, “This is not the same Stevie Nicks set you’ve seen a hundred times.” And it wasn’t. After performing Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits for 40 years, it was clear Stevie Nicks wanted us to know she’s also a solo artist, and has been for a while.

While Saturday night’s show spotlighted her September 2014 release 24 Karat Gold, she still touched on a few classics — Nicks’ renditions of “Gold Dust Woman” and “Dreams” sounded as timeless as ever. But for someone with a career as monumental as hers, sheer star power can often overpower the fact that some of the songs are unfamiliar.

“It’s a brave new world when you get to be my age — you get to do whatever you want,” she told the crowd.

24 Karat Gold is Nicks’ Songs From the Vault, so the majority of her set comprised older, lesser known songs and solo tracks she wrote years ago. She was a personable performer — throughout the show she told stories about her career and the background behind many of her songs; she even brought out one of the original shawls she wore in photos for her 1981 solo debut, Bella Donna.

Nicks took breaks between songs to talk about musical peers that influenced her, specifically Tom Petty and Prince, which later led to a Prince tribute during “Edge of Seventeen” — “I’m so sad that he’s not here with us,” she said, “but he is here with us.”

Although the Pretenders were technically Nicks’ opener, they still put on an impressive show. Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde came out with a jam-packed set, featuring plenty of songs off the band’s new album, Alone, released in October, as well as some familiar favorites.

“We’re going to play a song off our new album, you probably haven’t heard it,” Hynde joked at one point.

Alone still feels like the Pretenders, containing a modern update to their New Wave roots. The catchiness of the album translated seamlessly to the stage, as the band displayed the same infectious energy they always have — especially Hynde, whose intensity hasn’t waned.

Unlike many opening acts, the Pretenders held the crowd’s attention and enthusiasm just as well as Nicks. After only being on the stage for two songs, Nicks brought Hynde back to duet on the crowd favorite “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” sung on record with help from Tom Petty.

Both Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders delivered performances that were a tribute to long, successful careers, which was exactly what the crowd wanted. After years of touring, not every rock legend retains a fire for playing live. But Hynde and Nicks left no doubt that they still have it.


Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Reviews Stevie Nicks Live in Boston November 15, 2016

Stevie Nicks wows with ‘24 Karat Gold’ show
by Jed Gottlieb
Boston Herald

PHOTOS

Stevie Nicks doesn’t need Fleetwood Mac.

I’m so happy she has the Mac, because they’re amazing. But Nicks’ solo catalog does fine filling two hours — as she proved last night at a packed TD Garden.

The golden goddess in gossamer has huge, instantly-recognizable hits. In the ’80s she had ten Top 40 singles (not including her Mac smashes). But last night proved her “forgotten” works have equal force and beauty.

For this run of shows, she dug up brilliant pop nuggets “Bella Donna” and “If Anyone Falls,” gone from her live set since 1981 and 1983 respectively. She debuted “Wild Heart” — how had she never played that on a jaunt she dubbed “The Wild Heart Tour?” Even “Crying in the Night,” from the long-deleted, 1973 “Buckingham Nicks,” got the love it always deserved.

But Nicks went deeper. The singer devoted much of the evening to tracks from “24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault,” made up of recently re-recorded demos. A little too polished on record, the material got nicely roughed up by the eight-piece band. The best of the bunch, “Starshine” dated back to 1979, when she stopped by Tom Petty’s house to have the Heartbreakers cut it with her.

“I showed up with Hershey’s powder in case I wanted to make chocolate milk,” she said. “And my guitar.”

Nicks also told stories: making records with Petty and Lindsey Buckingham, writing songs for Waylon Jennings that turned out to be duets with Don Henley, the value of high quality silk for your capes

The songs and stories made the night unique. The hits made it perfect. As she said herself, “‘Rhiannon’ has been with me at every show since 1975.” And last night “Rhiannon” was joined by “Edge of Seventeen,” “Stand Back” and — as a duet with opener Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders — “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”

Hynde and her band kicked things off with a tough, tight set true to their raw, rock ‘n’ roll legacy. But after a few ragged numbers, Hynde slipped in the most tender tune in her catalog: “Hymn to Her.” After the mystic moment, she quietly added, “That was for Hillary.” A few minutes later, she followed it up with new song “Holy Commotion” saying, “It’s about how white surprises aren’t Christians. So do what you want with that.” Lovely to see Hynde remains equal parts punk and pop.

A trunk of treasures from Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders at TD Garden
By Maura Johnston
Boston Globe

PHOTOS

Stevie Nicks’s current tour is called the 24 Karat Gold Tour, a reference to the vault of songs that the Los Angeles-based artist has amassed over her career as a singer, songwriter, and muse. The vault’s full name? “The Gothic Trunk of 24 Karat Gold Songs” — an appellation that sums up her legacy’s many riches, among them the mega-selling albums she recorded with her band Fleetwood Mac, her indelible solo hits, her collaborations with the likes of Tom Petty and Don Henley, and her penchant for flowy outfits.

Nicks’s first two solo albums, 1981’s “Bella Donna” and 1983’s “The Wild Heart,” were reissued earlier this month. To look back on them now is to remember how blockbuster they were, spawning sinewy, catchy singles that ruled the then-nascent MTV and allowing Nicks’s singular take on American gothic — a swirl of black lace, sweeping capes, and blonde hair — to captivate a broadcast audience. Tuesday night’s exuberant show focused on those two albums while also looking backward and forward at her decades-spanning body of work.

The band, led by her longtime music director Waddy Wachtel, muscled through the set, adding heft to Fleetwood Mac chestnuts like “Gold Dust Woman” and “Rhiannon” and fleshing out the taut “Stand Back” with a guitar solo worthy of its inspiration, Prince. (A photo of the late polymath performing with Nicks appeared on the video backdrop at the song’s conclusion, and images of him also floated onscreen during “Edge of Seventeen.”) Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, the proto-Britpop outfit who powered through an hourlong set before Nicks took the stage, helped fill in for Tom Petty on a particularly boisterous version of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

Between songs, Nicks offered up a slew of origin stories — workshopping “Leather and Lace” with her then-boyfriend Henley, who would later duet with her on the recorded version; the tour-occasioned breakups that inspired the recently unearthed “Belle Fleur.” (”That’s kind of the story of how relationships end when you’re with me,” she said.) A stirring version of 2005’s “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream),” which ended with a fur-swaddled Nicks thrashing as the music churned around her, was followed by her confession that it was probably her favorite song of the past quarter-century, and that it was inspired by “Twilight,” the brooding vampire romance that definitely has a bit of Nicks in its DNA.

But perhaps the biggest treat of the night, aside from Nicks strutting through 19 pieces of her catalog, was the way Nicks related to the audience as a clutch of potential peers, creative fireworks waiting to be lit. “If you are a creative person — which you all are — you can always go out and follow your dream,” said Nicks after performing the 1973 Buckingham/Nicks track “Crying in the Night.” “And 43 years later, you can stand on a stage, or in your house, and do something you wanted to do since you were 21 years old when you’re 68 years old.” The message was only made stronger by its messenger, a woman who honors the power of words with every song she writes, and who remains one of rock ’n’ roll’s brightest lights.