Stevie Nicks Live in Pittsburgh, PA September 27, 2023

Stevie Nicks delivers the hits and stories in Pittsburgh concert

MIKE PALM 

Triblive.com

Photo: Renee Klaas Piatt

Much as she’s done for the past 40-plus years of her solo career, Stevie Nicks enchanted Pittsburgh concert-goers with a career-spanning show Wednesday night.

Nicks dazzled through a nearly two-hour show at PPG Paints Arena, soaring through Fleetwood Mac classics like “Dreams” and “Gypsy” while delving into her solo career, with hits like “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

Dressed all in black, the 75-year-old Nicks didn’t venture too far from her mic stand except for occasional off-stage wardrobe updates — a variety of shawls, of course — or for light dancing near her guitarists.

Playing the part of enthusiastic storyteller, Nicks offered commentary and insight into many of her songs while introducing them. First, she expressed satisfaction with being indoors after a rain-drenched show in Boston last week where she was forced to wear a velvet hat on stage for the first time in 30 years.

Appropriately, she opened Wednesday’s show with “Outside the Rain,” which segued seamlessly into Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

After the synth-driven “If Anyone Falls,” Nicks told the story of how one of her most famous songs — from her debut solo album “Bella Donna” — came to life, thanks to producer Jimmy Iovine.

“(He said) ‘Well, it’s a great record, and we love it, but guess what? There is no single,’” Nicks recalled of the conversation. “By now, this guy is also my boyfriend. ‘There’s no single. Did you think about telling me that last week or something? Do I have to write a single or dig through my vault of songs and find another song that we didn’t put on there already? He goes, ‘No, no … I have a plan.’”

That plan turned out to be a collaboration with Tom Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which helped Nicks’ debut record rocket to No. 1 on the Billboard charts back in 1981.

One of her most recent songs (relatively speaking), 2001’s “Fall From Grace” rocked with Nicks offering her most emphatic singing of the night and some minor head bopping.

In 1966, Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield wrote “For What It’s Worth” about the Sunset Strip Riots in Los Angeles, and Nicks had long admired it, releasing a cover of it last year.

“He managed to write a protest song but yet write it in a way where it’s like, you’re on this side, and you’re on this side, and you’re down the middle and he doesn’t really care,” Nicks said. “He’s just writing a song to ask everybody to stand back and listen. Listen to some music. Listen to your friends, and don’t be nuts and try to destroy everything.”

Nicks called Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” her foundation song, recalling a time in 1975 where she and Lindsey Buckingham came into a lot of money but she needed to stay grounded. She pulled her mattress onto the floor, declaring “I am still Stevie.”

“And much to my surprise — you would probably not believe this — but I still do this every once in a while,” she said. “I put the mattress back on the floor, back to my roots. So if you ever need to just bring your foundation back to where you wish it would have stayed, that’s what you do.”

“Wild Heart” flowed into “Bella Donna” before an electric version of “Stand Back,” complete with black and yellow lights on the stage and video screen, as well as Nicks’ black-with-gold-highlights shawl.

In her most serious moment, Nicks reflected on 2011’s “Soldier’s Angel” — written after visiting injured troops at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — taking on new meaning in light of the conflict in Ukraine.

An extended version of “Gold Dust Woman” led to “I Sing For the Things,” which had originally been cut from Nicks’ debut album. The crowd came back to life as the drums and guitar kicked in for the intro on “Edge of Seventeen,” another highlight of the set.

Two of the three songs in the encore paid tribute to close friends she had lost. A cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’” included archival photos of Nicks and Petty, and the closing “Landslide,” a Fleetwood Mac classic, honored bandmate Christine McVie, who died in November 2022.

In between those two came another Fleetwood Mac hit, “Rhiannon,” which drew the largest cheers and helped send the audience home satisfied.

Judging by the restroom lines, the crowd skewed heavily female, and there might not have been this many Pittsburgh women sporting fancy hats since Easter or maybe the Kentucky Derby.

Cil, a 20-year-old pop singer from Colorado, opened the show with 25 minutes of songs about love, albeit with a younger viewpoint.

Stevie Nicks setlist

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
• Fall From Grace
• For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Soldier's Angel
• Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
• I Sing for the Things
• Edge of Seventeen

Encore

• Free Fallin' (Tom Petty cover)
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)

Review: The ageless Stevie Nicks bewitches crowd at PPG Paints Arena

SCOTT MERVIS

PostGazette.com

With the departure of Lindsey Buckingham and the passing of Christine McVie, we may have seen the end of Fleetwood Mac.

While that situation plays out, or doesn’t, we are blessed to have the mystical gypsy of the band, Stevie Nicks, serenading us with those classic songs as well as the best of her solo career.

That on-and-off journey was launched 42 years ago with the instant success of “Bella Donna,” and now, at 75, Nicks is on a solo tour that brought her to PPG Paints Arena Wednesday for the first time since 2018.

Her devoted followers turned out strong in brimmed hats, shawls and lacy dresses, even some of the guys.

After the entry song of “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” from another fallen comrade, Tom Petty, Nicks emerged, all in black, bowed, and eased into “Outside the Rain,” a deeper track from her 1981 debut, “Bella Donna.”

Although it’s not a showy song, vocally, it was all we need to know that her uniquely rough and raspy voice still has the old magic. It was reinforced when the song segued into “Dreams,” one of the beloved entries from the FM catalog.

It’s not often that Pittsburgh is complimented for its lack of rain, but she greeted the crowd saying she did her previous show, with Billy Joel, in a steady Boston rain, with a hat pinned to her head, “and I can’t tell you how excited I was to get to this show.”

She prefaced her signature duet with the story of Jimmy Iovine telling her that her forthcoming solo debut album didn’t have a single.

His solution was to introduce her to Petty for what would become “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.”

“I love you, I love the Heartbreakers, I love this song,” she recalled telling Petty.

Rather than summoning the late Heartbreaker on video, she found a worthy duet partner in longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel, who sizzled throughout.

Nicks, once a shy frontwoman, continued in storyteller mode, providing the background, about the LA Sunset Riots in 1966, for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” The song endures for her, she said, because it’s about learning how to listen. She infused it with some added slide guitar, her blunt, husky delivery and a longer, echoey outro.

About 10 years after Stephen Stills wrote that song, she was joining a broke Fleetwood Mac, driving around with Buckingham in a car that didn’t go in reverse.

“I was the only one that had a job,” she said, “because [what] was Lindsey going to do?”

She was cleaning houses. He was perfecting his guitar chops, presumably.

It introduced “Gypsy,” which she referred to as one of FM’s “foundational songs.” It, of course, was another beauty with another stunning vocal over a spinning, carousel effect.

It was full-on hard-rock muscle for a show-stopping “Stand Back,” for which she donned a sparkly coat for the first of her witchy dances, sending the crowd into hysterics.

The strident “Soldier's Angel,” she explained, was added to the set to support Ukraine and express her disgust with Vladimir Putin, who she is convinced plans to take over all of Eastern Europe. “He is not going to stop.” Rod Stewart had a similar message here a few weeks ago, so this is clearly a hot topic with the boomer rockers.

An exquisite “Gold Dust Woman” was thick with drama and noisy atmosphere, climaxing with harrowing held notes and the shawl dance that’s the Stevie Nicks equivalent of Gene Simmons spitting fire.

Wachtel got to blaze away in an extended opening for the song that many were waiting for, “Edge of Seventeen.” It was an epic set-closer with the chugging riff, Nicks’ braying vocal and a round of solos going from organ to piano to guitar.

“You’ve been an awesome crowd…I love being in this city,” she said, before exiting the stage.

There were more hits stacked in the encore: a celebratory cover of “Free Fallin’,” a surprisingly hard-driving “Rhiannon” and finally, the lovely and bittersweet “Landslide” with just Nicks, Wachtel and keyboard.

This song is course, has her repeating “And I’m getting older too.”

Some of the 70-something rockers still packing arenas have lost a step or two, while others barely seem any different than they were 30 years ago. Maybe even better. Nicks clearly falls in the latter category. Rock goddess, indeed.

Stevie Nicks Announces 2024 North American Headlining Tour Dates

Stevie Nicks unveils seven additional headlining tour dates extending into 2024. She will kickstart the new year on February 10th in Atlantic City and sweep across the US enchanting audiences from New York, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana concluding on March 9th in Arlington, TX.

Tickets for all dates (minus Arlington, TX) go on sale beginning Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. at StevieNicksOfficial (pre-sales begin earlier this week)

February 10 – Atlantic City, NJ - Mark G Etess Arena

February 14 – Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena

February 21 – Greenville, SC - Bon Secours Wellness Arena

February 24 – Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live

February 28 – New Orleans, LA - Smoothie King Center

March 3 – Omaha, NE - CHI Health Center

March 6 – North Little Rock, AR - Simmons Bank Arena

Reviews... Stevie Nicks Live in Foxborough (Boston) Sept 23, 2023

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel a powerhouse pop tandem at rainy Gillette

By Maura Johnston

BostonGlobe

FOXBOROUGH — When the pugilistic pop composer Billy Joel and the bewitching singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks announced their joint tour earlier this year, it took a second for the pairing to click. Joel’s blend of classical training and punky New York attitude seem at odds with Nicks’s West Coast mystic visions, but the two share a theatricality — not to mention packed back catalogs — that made their show Saturday night at Gillette Stadium a top-to-bottom joyride.

The hit parade was a bit waterlogged, with rain falling steadily throughout the show. But the weather — which was also marked by decidedly autumnal temperatures — added a sense of drama to the proceedings while also proving that those filling the stadium were committed to seeing the whole night through. Nicks’s set spotlighted both her work with the tumultuous hitmakers Fleetwood Mac and her solo material, with a stunning extended run-through of the world-weary Mac track “Gold Dust Woman” and a fiery take on her grief-stricken solo hit “Edge of Seventeen.”

Mourning ran through the set, with Nicks’s former duet partner Tom Petty being paid tribute through versions of the tug-of-war duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Joel more than ably handling what Nicks called “the argument part” of Petty’s vocal) and the modern American standard “Free Fallin’.” Her former bandmate Christine McVie, who passed away last November, was given the spotlight during Nicks’s set-closing version of the yearning Fleetwood Mac smash “Landslide.” That song and “Free Fallin’” have both become modern touchstones of American pop, and Nicks’s presentation of both showed how crucial she and her collaborators have been to the modern pop firmament.

Joel opened his set with a take on his 1978 outta-my-face anthem “My Life” that he blended into Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” which succinctly summed up at least one facet of his appeal. His musical chops straddle the old and new worlds; his piano playing, as evidenced by the frequent close-ups on his keyboard that blazed across the video screens, hasn’t missed a beat, and he can still hit the high note that marks the yearning title track from 1983′s street-corner-music homage “An Innocent Man.” He’s able to channel that talent and knowledge of pop into songs that speak from a perspective marked by hunger, whether it’s for basic respect from the system (the chugging “Allentown”), bridge-and-tunnel transcendence (the strivers’ anthem “Movin’ Out [Anthony’s Song]”), or something more carnal (the New Wave-y chronicle of frustration “Sometimes a Fantasy”). Joel’s been in music’s upper echelons for four-plus decades, but his wisecracking, fighting spirit still shines through — and his pop craftsmanship makes joining in via singing along even easier.

Double play at Gillette: Joel and Nicks offer a classic show

Craig S. Semon

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

FOXBOROUGH _ Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks’ limited-run, double-bill concert pairing is being touted as “Two Icons, One Night.”

No argument here.

While one of these legendary artists has enough star power, rich musical legacy, and a cavalcade of hits to play to a packed house on their own, two on the same bill is rock ‘n’ roll heaven sent as became quite evident during a rain-soaked, sold-out show Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.

Despite having really nothing in common other than selling tons of records, composing some of the most memorable and beloved pop songs in the last 50 years, and emerging out of the ‘70s, Joel, who hasn’t played Foxborough gridiron since the summer of 2009 as part of the “Face to Face” tour with Sir Elton John, and Nicks, who has never played at the home of the Patriots, seems like an unlikely pairing indeed.

While they’re not quite as odd at each other as Elvis Costello hanging out with Burt Bacharach or as peculiar as Miley Cyrus fronting Metallica, Joel is New York brass/angry young man cool while Nicks is rock’s premiere earth mother/leather and lace enchantress.

And that’s what made this unlikely pairing so special and so much fun.

Joel, 74, who played roughly two hours, while Nicks, 75, who opened with an abbreviated hour-and-20-minute set, delivered two distinctly different and totally satisfying sets that were chock-full of nothing but great songs. And both delivered a killer encore worth the price of admission alone.

Early in his set, Joel braced the drenched crowd with some good news and bad news, starting with the bad news: “We don’t have anything new to play for you.” And then the good: “You don’t have to listen to any new (expletive).”  

Despite the fact that he hasn’t released a new pop album in 30 years, Joel’s voice sounded great and his songs sounded as fresh and relevant as ever.

Perched behind a black baby grand piano on a rotating circular stage, Joel pounded out Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” before breaking into his first of many beloved hits and crowd singalongs, “My Life,” during his longer, headlining set. Delivered with the same youthful vigor as he did when the song was first released 45 years earlier, Joel stood up at the end of the number to soak up the admiration from the drenched audience.

While the rain was enough to give the most delicate in the crowd a heart attack, ack, ack, ack, ack, ack, Joel kept the hit parade coming with a rousing version of “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” one of his great slice-of-angry-young-man’s-life vignette songs from 1977’s “The Stranger.”

Although it wasn’t needed to sell the song, the stormy seas saga “The Downeaster Alexa” received an added visual boost with sheets of rain crashing down on the crowd during Joel’s passionate plight of the Long Island fisherman.

With Taylor Swift no longer being the only recording artist with a memorable rain show at Gillette, Joel _ after amusingly doing impromptu versions of the Beatles’ “Rain” and The Everly Brothers’ “Crying in the Rain” _ cursed the Almighty up above with the defiant cries of “Is that the best you can do! Is that all you got!”

Retreating back to the standard setlist, Joel briefly lamented that he’s not in his 30s anymore, so the audience should pray for him to hit a couple of high notes on the falsetto favorite “An Innocent Man.” Brushing the sweat off his brow by song’s end, Joel nailed the crucial notes like a seasoned trooper.   

Snippets of The Regents’ “Barbara Ann” and Solomon Lindi’s original Evening Birds’ cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” served as a warm-up exercise for Joel’s modern-day doo-wop classic, “The Longest Time,” which had the singer dragging the mike stage from one end of the stage to the other.

After the elegant piano masterwork on “Vienna,” Joel gave Bruce Springsteen a run for his blue-collar champion crown with “Allentown,” one of the happiest songs ever recorded about factory closings.

With its swirling keyboards and percolating rhythms, Joel’s naughty little ‘80s relic about the middle of the night, 900 phone calls “Sometimes A Fantasy” is still his strongest bid for new wave rocker status, while “Only the Good Die Young” served up the singer at his bad boy best.

The soul-cleansing, life-affirming “The River of Dreams” was not only enough to lift the crowd’s spirits, it turned into a killer showstopper when percussionist and blessed pipes extraordinaire Crystal Taiefero got up from behind her drumkit and unleashed her inner-Tina Turner on “River Deep, Mountain High.”

Joel and company delivered a spectacular version of “Scenes from An Italian Restaurant,” which ended with the crowd waving Brenda and Eddy (the two main characters in the song) goodbye.

After getting a stagehand to replace his rain-soaked harmonica with a dry one, Joel introduced "a pretty good crowd for a Saturday (which it was)" to a series of familiar bar regulars sharing a drink they called loneliness (because it’s better than drinking alone) on the autobiographical musical character study “Piano Man.”

Joel kicked off a killer, five-song encore with the chart-topping, history lesson “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a true scorcher that every Baby Boomer should see performed once in their lifetime with the flickering images of the 118 pop culture references that the singer rattles off at breakneck speed.

Joel revisited the lovable bad boy with the blessed pipes of his youth (the same one that once won supermodel Christie Brinkley’s heart) on his lively ode to doo-wop, “Uptown Girl.”

After the snappy and irresistible “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (Joel’s first Number One), Joel went back to the piano for “Big Shot,” which was one of the heaviest rockers of the evening, followed by “You May Be Right.”

With her unmistakable raspy voice, elegant gypsy fashion sense, and spacy stage antics, Nicks proved she’s still an encompassing free-spirit who, despite the rain, is one with the cosmos but always seems to be at odds with affairs of the heart.

Whether it was the timeless, Fleetwood Mac classics (which included “Dreams” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rhianna,” and “Landslide”) or her stellar solo hits (including “If Anyone Falls in Love,” “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen”), Nicks proved she still has the power to conjure up the forces of nature.

Wearing a black, long-sleeve top, a grey frilly chiffon skirt, knee-high boots, a floppy hat, and donning a vast assortment of capes, scarves, and shawls throughout her set, Nicks' voice sounded youthful and robust and her teary-eyed ruminations and impassioned roars of defiance were vibrant and timeless.

One of the most distinctly female voices in pop, Nicks cast the audience under her spell immediately and often and nothing was going to rain on her hit parade, not even rain, even if she conjured up images of stormy skies with the appropriately titled opener “Outside the Rain,” which seamlessly segued into “Dreams,” the first of four Fleetwood Mac classics performed by her piping hot band led by guitar god and bespectacled rock legend Waddy Wachtel

Despite the golden-haired rock goddess calling the rain “awful,” the lines “Thunder only happens when it raining” and “When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know” (both from “Dreams”) became the unofficial mantra of the rain-soaked crowd that roared with approval.

Joel first popped up unannounced during Nicks’ set to fill in for the late Tom Petty in the Nicks-Petty duet smash “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Carrying an umbrella and wearing a bundled-up blazer, dungarees, sneakers, and a baseball cap advertising “Deux Ex Machina Custom Motorcycles,” Joel sang the song with gusto but the pairing was merely a nice gesture that lacked the infectious heat of the original.

Nicks adorned herself with a gold and black shawl for the showstopper “Stand Back” and while draped with a gold shawl showered the crowd with rock ‘n’ roll riches on the epic rocker “Gold Dust Woman.” With the pouring rain glimmering in the yellow stage lights, it looked like the audience was in the middle of a psychedelic gold rush.

After a heartfelt cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Free Fallin,’” Nicks closed her main set with a guitar-heavy, arena-rock version of "Edge of Seventeen," which turned into a lovefest with the diehard Nicks-ophiles in the audience pounding their fists in the air and shouting along with their idol.

During her encore, Nicks delivered the most tender and tortured number of the evening with her signature Fleetwood Mac ballad "Landslide." Paying tribute to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who died at 79 in November, this was Nicks at her emotionally unguarded best.

Fleetwood Mac this week on the charts around the world

Fleetwood Mac this week on the charts around the world. Previous week in brackets.  These are the most current charts as of September 22, 2023.

 

 

US Billboard Top 200

#34 - Rumours (32)

#81 - Rumours Live (debut)

#178 - Greatest Hits (146)

US Top Album Sales

#4  - Rumours Live (debut)

#23 - Rumours (22)

US Top 100 Current Album Sales

#4 - Rumours Live (debut)

US Top 25 Vinyl Albums

#7 - Rumours Live (debut)

#14 - Rumours (14)

Canada Top 100 Albums Chart

#31 - Rumours (re-entry)

UK Top 100 Albums Chart

#6  - 50 Years - Don't Stop (7) 5,220 sales

#26 - Rumours (22)

UK Top 100 Singles Chart

#84 - Dreams (74)

#85 - Everywhere (77)

UK Top 100 Album Sales

#22 - Rumours (23)

#41 - Rumours Live (9)

#86 - Greatest Hits (95)

UK Top 100 Album Downloads

#63 - Rumours (51)

UK Top 100 Physical Albums Chart

#21 - Rumours (21)

#39 - Rumours Live (9)

#90 - Greatest Hits (98)

UK Vinyl Albums Chart

#14 - Rumours (17)

Scotland Top 100 Albums Chart

#15 - Rumours (17)

#43 - Rumours Live (6)

#91 - Greatest Hits (85)

Ireland Top 100 Albums

#4  - 50 Years - Don't Stop (2

#21 - Rumours (20)

Australia Top 50 Albums

#27 - Rumours (26)

Austria Top 75 Albums Chart

#15 - Rumours (re-entry)

Belgium Top 50 Albums Chart

#19 - Rumours (re-entry)

Dutch Top 100 Albums Chart

#3 - Rumours (3)

France Top 150 Albums Chart

#51 - Rumours Live (debut)

Switzerland Top 100 Albums Chart

#17 - Rumours (re-entry) 

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours: Live’ Debuts at No.4 on Album Sales Chart

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours: Live’ Debuts in Top 10 on Album Sales Chart

Billboard

Fleetwood Mac’s from-the-vaults release Rumours: Live debuts at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 23). It’s the highest debut on the list for the band in more than 20 years, since the act’s last full-length studio album, Say You Will, opened at No. 2 in May 2003.

Comprised almost entirely of previously unreleased recordings, Rumours: Live captures the band’s Aug. 29, 1977, concert at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., during the act’s Rumours Tour. The trek was in support of its then-most-recent studio release Rumours, which had bowed earlier in 1977. That album would spend 31 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart – still the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a group. The set launched four top 10-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the group’s lone chart-topper, “Dreams.”

(Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales.)

Rumours: Live sold a little over 10,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 14, according to Luminate. Among the songs featured on the album are such Hot 100 hits as “Dreams,” “Oh Well,” “Landslide,” “Over My Head,” “Rhiannon,” “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way.” Rumours: Live was available to purchase as a digital download album or in three physical iterations (a 180-gram double vinyl set, a crystal-clear colored double vinyl set sold via Walmart, and a two-CD package). Vinyl accounted for 44.5% of the album’s first-week sales.

Fleetwood Mac “Rumours Live” 

Order CD or VINYL at Rhino.com

Rumours Live Vinyl | Rumours Live CD

Rumours Live On The Charts:

USA:

No. 4 - Top Selling Album 

No. 7 - Top Vinyl Album Sales 

No.81 - Billboard Top 200 

Scotland:

No. 6 - Top 100 Albums (debut)

UK:

No. 9 - Top 100 Album Sales (2,988 sales)

No.11 - Top 40 Vinyl Albums

No.19 - Top 100 Physical Albums

No.23 - Top 100 Download Albums

No.23 - Top 100 Streaming Albums

No.34 - Top 100 Albums Chart

New Zealand:

No.32 - Top 40 Albums Chart

France:

No.51 - Top 150 Albums Chart

FLEETWOOD MAC RUMOURS LIVE AVAILABLE SEPT 8

FLEETWOOD MAC RUMOURS LIVE

(2-CD OR 2-LP)

RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Order CD or VINYL at Rhino.com

Rumours Live Vinyl | Rumours Live CD

Fleetwood Mac was at the top of its game in August 1977 when the band returned to its adopted home in Southern California to play three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. Rumours had only been out a few weeks when the band left in February to tour the world, returning six months later to play three shows at The Forum for nearly 50,000 fans.

Rumours was the #1 album in America and well on its way to becoming one of the most successful ever released. Rumours eventually sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has just been certified 21x platinum in the U.S. The record has also been certified 14x Platinum in the U.K., and 13x Platinum in Australia and New Zealand, all countries where the album reached #1.

RUMOURS LIVE captures the energy and excitement of the band’s opening night at The Forum on August 29, 1977. The nearly 90-minute performance includes live versions of most of the songs from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the group’s first multi-platinum #1 album, which came out in 1975.

The concert remained unreleased for decades until 2021, when “Gold Dust Woman” from the show was included as a bonus track on Live: Deluxe Edition, Rhino’s expanded version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1980 concert album. The other 17 songs on the collection have never been released before.

RUMOURS LIVE will be available on September 8 as 2-CD and 2-LP sets. The black-vinyl version has two 180-gram records in a gatefold jacket with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Pre-order HERE. Also, a crystal clear-vinyl version of RUMOURS LIVE will be released the same day exclusively at Walmart.

The music will be available from digital and streaming platforms. Unreleased live version of “DREAMS” from RUMOURS LIVE is available now on all digitally platforms.

The concert’s setlist draws almost exclusively from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, the first two albums recorded by the band’s latest incarnation: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie, and the newest members, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. The lone nod to Fleetwood Mac’s other nine studio albums is a performance of “Oh Well,” a rock-guitar masterpiece originally released in 1969 and written by the band’s founder, guitarist Peter Green.

Engineer Ken Caillat, who helped record Rumours, also recorded the concert at The Forum using the Record Plant’s mobile recording truck. He captured the band’s impassioned performance at a moment of peak Rumours frenzy, including powerful versions of “Landslide,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Songbird,” and “The Chain.”

In the liner notes from RUMOURS LIVE, Sam Graham observes: “The songs are familiar: ‘Dreams,’ ‘Go Your Own Way,’ ‘Say You Love Me,’ ‘Over My Head,’ and on and on. But most of these live versions are more muscular, more ferocious, than the album recordings, driven by the powerhouse Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section and Buckingham’s febrile guitar playing; and instead of a rote recital of the hits, the group stretches out in concert, as songs like ‘Rhiannon,’ ‘World Turning,’ and ‘I’m So Afraid’ blossom into exuberant tours de force onstage.

Order the CD | Order the Vinyl

RUMOURS LIVE 2-LP Track Listing

LP One

Side One

1.    “Say You Love Me”

2.    “Monday Morning”

3.    “Dreams”

4.    “Oh Well”

5.    “Rhiannon”

Side Two

1.    “Oh Daddy”

2.    “Never Going Back Again”

3.    “Landslide”

4.    “Over My Head”

5.    “Gold Dust Woman”

LP Two

Side One

1.    “You Make Loving Fun”

2.    “I’m So Afraid”

3.    “Go Your Own Way”

4.    “World Turning”

Side Two

1.    “Blue Letter”

2.    “The Chain”

3.    “Second Hand News”

4.    “Songbird”

Mick Fleetwood and ‘Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro honor Christine McVie

Mick Fleetwood and ‘Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro honor Christine McVie on the late Fleetwood Mac Singer’s Birthday with a touching instrumental version of “Songbird”

The release of “Songbird” was years in the making. Fleetwood and Shimabukuro, who both live in Hawaii, have been eager to collaborate for over a decade. When the opportunity finally arose this spring to record some music at Fleetwood’s studio in Maui, it was Shimabukuro who suggested they record “Songbird.” Fleetwood recalls, “We cut it in April, and it turned out beautifully, but there was no plan yet to release it. But when I heard about Christine’s upcoming birthday, it felt like the right time to share this as a tribute to all the lovely music she created, both on her own and with Fleetwood Mac.”

“Songbird” holds a special place in the hearts of Fleetwood Mac fans around the world, and McVie’s impassioned vocals have made it an enduring classic since its debut on Rumours in 1977. That’s why Fleetwood says he was initially cautious about reinterpreting such a cherished song. “When something is that well known, it becomes hallowed ground to a certain extent. But when we did it, I remember there was a hush when we listened back, and we felt that we had touched on something.” At that moment, Fleetwood says, he felt McVie’s presence in a powerful way.

In his heartfelt dedication at the end of the instrumental, Fleetwood adapts a lyric from McVie’s original. He says, “As the songbird sings, now from the heavens, to you Christine, I wish you all the love in the world. But, most of all, I wish it from myself.”

Surprisingly, “Songbird” wasn’t the only Fleetwood Mac song inspiring them in the studio. The drummer reveals that the track’s soft, insistent rhythm was influenced by another instrumental piece, “Albatross.” Written by the band’s founder and guitarist Peter Green, the song topped the U.K. charts in 1969. Fleetwood describes the songs as musical siblings. “They’re as simple as can be, but Peter Green always used to say, less is more.”

Listen here: cmv.lnk.to/SongbirdMJ

Remastered Christine McVie Albums Set For November, 2023 Release

 

Rhino is celebrating Christine McVie today (Wed, July 12th) on what would have been the beloved singer-songwriter’s 80th birthday. While she has been deeply missed since her death last November, the music she made, both with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, continues to resonate with fans worldwide. In honor of McVie’s enduring legacy, Rhino is introducing new music and announcing plans to release remastered versions of her final two solo albums this fall.

Two new releases are available now with the first being a new Dolby Atmos and stereo mix of In The Meantime created by McVie’s nephew Dan Perfect, who helped write and produce the original in 2004. The collection also includes “Little Darlin’,” a previously unreleased gem unearthed from those recording sessions. The other release is by Mick Fleetwood, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, who pays tribute to his bandmate with a touching new instrumental version of “Songbird” featuring ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro.

Later this year, McVie’s work as a solo artist will get its due when Rhino reissues two of her albums on November 3rd. Christine McVie will be released on CD and LP. Also, a cola-bottle clear vinyl version will be available exclusively from Barnes & Noble. On the same day, In The Meantime will be released on CD and as a 2 LP set featuring a “songbird” etching on the final side.

IN THE MEAN TIME (Newly Remastered)

Pre-order the CD | Pre-order the Vinyl

CHRISTINE MCVIE (Newly Remastered)

Pre-order The CD | Pre-order the Vinyl

Unavailable on vinyl since its original release nearly 40 years ago

McVie’s solo journey began in 1970 with her debut, Christine Perfect, her maiden name. Soon after its release, she put her solo career on hold when she joined Fleetwood Mac as a full-time member. For the next 14 years, she wrote some of the band’s biggest hits (“Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”) before releasing her second solo album Christine McVie in 1984. The album peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, spending 23 weeks on the chart. The record produced two Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, “Got A Hold On Me” at No. 10 and “Love Will Show Us How” at No. 30. Notably, the album has been unavailable on vinyl since its original release nearly 40 years ago.

Although McVie semi-retired from Fleetwood Mac and public life in 1998, she continued to write music. In 2004, she returned with her third and final solo album, In The Meantime. McVie produced the album with her nephew, Dan Perfect. The album was remastered and remixed for the upcoming release, including the previously unreleased outtake, “Little Darlin’.” In The Meantime has never been available on vinyl until now.

McVie was involved in the creation of the new Atmos mixes for In The Meantime before she passed away last year. In the liner notes, Dan Perfect writes: “When my aunt Christine McVie died unexpectedly last year, plans were already afoot for the re-release of this solo album, which is perhaps her most personal and intimate project. Chris and I had been working for some time on remixing the original tracks in Dolby Atmos, and Chris was excited and intrigued by this process, which was bringing fresh life and contemporaneity to the songs… I dearly wish that she could have lived to see this re-release as she would have been delighted.”

The digital remastered version of "In The Meantime" is available now on streaming platforms.

The Tracklist for "In The Meantime" contains one extra track titled "Little Darlin'" which was titled "Come Out To Play" back in 2004 when it was released in Australia and on iTunes as a bonus. 

In The Meantime Tracklist

1 Friend (2023 Remaster)

2 You Are (2023 Remaster)

3 Northern Star (2023 Remaster)

4 Bad Journey (2023 Remaster)

5 Anything is Possible (2023 Remaster)

6 Calumny (2023 Remaster)

7 So Sincere (2023 Remaster)

8 Easy Come, Easy Go (2023 Remaster)

9 Liar (2023 Remaster)

10 Sweet Revenge (2023 Remaster)

11 Forgiveness (2023 Remaster)

12 Givin' It Back (2023 Remaster)

13 Little Darlin' (2023 Remaster)

Stevie Nicks Chicago Review "Finding beauty in the struggle and a voice amid heartbreak"

Stevie Nicks takes Chicago down memory lane in heartfelt United Center show - June 23, 2023

By  Selena Fragassi 

Photo: Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere

Chicago Sun Times

As much as she is a gifted songwriter, Nicks is also a great storyteller and had several yarns to spin with the crowd, including how her parents moved to Chicago while she was still enrolled at San Jose State University. It was the first move she didn’t make with her nomadic parents and fatefully led to her start in music.

Finding beauty in the struggle and a voice amid heartbreak has always been the cornerstone of Stevie Nicks’ unending talent. Her gift takes on even new weight in 2023, as the prolific singer-songwriter tours while mourning the loss of her “best friend” and Fleetwood Mac cohort Christine McVie who passed away unexpectedly last November.

“Someday I’ll talk to you about what it’s like to lose Christine. … I can’t do it yet, but maybe someday over a glass of wine,” Nicks said, her voice cracking with emotion as she wrapped up her moving headlining performance at United Center Friday night.

Nicks and her talented eight-part backing ensemble — led by the incredible guitarist/music director Waddy Wachtel — did so with a solemn salute of “Landslide,” one of the biggest and most poignant songs Nicks wrote for Fleetwood Mac in 1975. A confessional for navigating the way forward as life changes, it’s a message that takes on even more gravitas now.

Moving “Landslide” to the end and dedicating it to McVie, complete with a black-and-white photo montage of the two that played across the video screens, was one of the marked differences in Nicks’ latest 2-hour, 17-song set that otherwise largely mirrored her show under the stars at Ravinia last September. 

Even so, the emotional pull felt different nine months later. The celebration of seeing Nicks live was buffered by the thought that Fleetwood Mac is likely wrapped up, while a large part of Friday night also felt like a séance for the giant ghosts of music past, with Nicks as the audience medium. It added to the ongoing sense of urgency to see the legends while we still can (and no doubt led to a near-capacity crowd at the UC). 

There was a Prince tribute during the “white-winged dove” of “Edge of Seventeen” as well as Nicks’ ongoing tributes to late friend Tom Petty. In addition to a heartfelt serenade of “Free Fallin’,” Nicks dug out her 1981 duet with the Heartbreakers frontman, the ever-catchy “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” She prefaced it by recalling what a timely gift it was from Petty, as her record label scrambled to find a single to help explode her debut solo album “Bella Donna.” 

That LP was much of the focus of the night, with 75-year-old Nicks sounding as pristine as ever and celebrating by donning the original shawl “cape” she wore during the “Bella Donna” promo shots and videos (and the one she originally wore for “Gold Dust Woman”). It was her only costume change of the night, met with uproarious applause as she did little twirls around the stage.

As much as she is a gifted songwriter, Nicks is also a great storyteller and had several yarns to spin with the crowd, including how her parents moved to Chicago while she was still enrolled at San Jose State University. She noted it was the first move she didn’t make with her nomadic parents and fatefully led to her start in music. “It’s a good thing I didn’t change my mind,” Nicks joked.

Later, she covered Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” talking about Stephen Stills writing it in homage to the Sunset Strip curfew riots in the ‘60s.

“This song has traveled all the way from 1966 to 2023 and still makes a statement,” Nicks said, sharing that had she been old enough and in L.A. at the time, she would have participated in the demonstrations. 

Her hippie heart continued to shine with a moving delivery of “Soldier’s Angel,” from her 2011 album “In Your Dreams.” Originally written after Nicks visited American soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the early 2000s, on this tour it’s being revisited as a tribute to the people of Ukraine.

“I stand for democracy, I stand for freedom, I stand for Ukraine,” Nicks shared, reading a speech from a teleprompter in order to not mince words. The number ended with blue and yellow flashing lights on the video screens and a QR code that audience members could scan to donate to the UN’s crisis relief fund.

Finding throughlines of past and present and adapting archive songs to modern context is the true mark of a legacy artist, and the practice is just one part of what makes Nicks so alluring and worshipped by multi-generations, even though it’s been nearly 10 years since she released a new album. Droves of fans came bedecked in flower crowns and their best witchy wear, some with binoculars to get a closer look at the woman who has inspired a whole new legion of singer-songwriters (see her close relationships with Taylor Swift and Haim, and even Riley Keough’s eponymous lead character from “Daisy Jones.”

And she’s clearly not done yet, promising to see everyone “next time.”

Nicks’ tour continues through 2024 coupled with co-headlining dates with Billy Joel.

SET LIST

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
• Fall From Grace
• For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield)
• Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Soldier’s Angel
• Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
• I Sing for the Things
• Edge of Seventeen
• Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty) 
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• Landslide (Fleetwood Mac) 

Chicago Review Onstage, Stevie Nicks remains an original: a free-spirited blend of siren, gypsy, canyon queen and enchanted sorceress.

Review: Stevie Nicks’ musical legacy was in the room with her at the United Center on June 23, 2023

By Bob Gendron

Chicago Tribune

In the waning moments of her concert Friday at a rafters-packed United Center, Stevie Nicks sang about getting older. She echoed the sentiments in back-to-back lines of “Landslide,” a classic she has performed across six decades.

Yet as black-and-white pictures of Christine McVie — Nicks’ longtime Fleetwood Mac cohort and best friend who died last November — flashed on a curved projection screen behind her, the words took on added weight. Nicks, recognizing how circumstance forever changed the lyrical meaning, struck a decidedly submissive and reverent tone. The interpretive shift and photos of McVie weren’t the only reminders of time’s finite qualities during the 110-minute set.

Now 75, Nicks is in the victory-lap stretch of her long career. This July, she’ll be feted with a career-spanning box set documenting her solo work. The release (by Rhino) coincides with her current tour on which she’s appearing with Billy Joel for select stadium dates. These profile boosts follow a 2022 summer-fall trek that brought her to Ravinia, and her 2019 feat of becoming the first woman to be twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The attention showered on Nicks in the past decade-plus seems overdue. Despite her distinguished role in Fleetwood Mac, she often stood in the shadows of male colleagues and dealt with the double standards of a chauvinistic era. Though her situation paralleled those faced by many female artists who traded in rock ‘n’ roll during the ‘70s and ‘80s, Nicks’ songwriting acumen, unique voice and inner strength helped transform her into an icon embraced by subsequent generations.

Her wide-ranging impact could be seen throughout the United Center crowd, which skewed younger — median age falling between late 30s and early 40s — than at most shows by baby boomers. Celebrating the singer’s trademark fashions, some fans arrived adorned in frilly jackets, wide-brimmed hats or chiffon shawls.

Dressed in black, Nicks wore a few signature accessories of her own. When performing “Bella Donna,” she modeled the original cape she was pictured wearing on the back cover of that title track’s 1981 LP and proudly boasted about its pristine condition. The old cape used for her 1983 synth-heavy single “Stand Back” also emerged but didn’t merit the same royal treatment. After noting its holes and repairs, Nicks tossed the garment aside like a dirty T-shirt ready for the laundry. It’s unclear if she realized the humor of her actions.

Amicable and sincere, Nicks appeared to dwell in her own universe. She came across less as a famous rock star and more as an eager storyteller. Talking a mile a minute, Nicks framed a majority of songs with introductions or outros. Her combination of personal histories and frank disclosures supplied context and color — not to mention trivia fodder. A prime example: Who knew she penned “Gold Dust Woman” after passing a street named Gold Dust Lane?

Nicks’ candor applied to matters lighthearted (the need for an album to have a hit single in order to get attention in the ‘80s; her tendency to go off on a tangent) and serious. In terms of the latter, after the final acoustic passages of the closing “Landslide” faded and the music stopped, she admitted she will one day discuss what it feels like to lose McVie. Nicks isn’t ready yet.

The singer also addressed her collaborative experience with Tom Petty, increased the heat on a rendition of their 1981 duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and paid the late artist tribute with a well-meaning albeit flat cover of “Free Fallin’.” Another bygone great, Prince, received his due in the form of his picture being displayed during two songs. Nicks also punctuated the end of an invigorating version of “Edge of Seventeen” with a lyric from Prince’s “When Doves Cry.”

Backed by an ace band anchored by veteran guitarist Waddy Wachtel and drummer Drew Hester, Nicks sang with a sharpness that projected above the eight-piece support group. Her range is considerably lower from that of her heyday and proved most convincing on upbeat fare. Occasionally, Nicks’ voice betrayed her, turning pinched and nasally on upper-register passages. Two backing vocalists assisted with highs, choruses and extended notes.

Onstage, Nicks remains an original: a free-spirited blend of siren, gypsy, canyon queen and enchanted sorceress. With the longest strands of her hair nearly reaching her waist, and a mix of beads and ribbons lining her angled microphone stand, she gave the mysticism and dreams in her narratives visual reference points. Those extended to Nicks’ theatrical movements — outstretched arms, palms-up gestures, cape clutches, slow twirls, forward bends, head-in-hands signals, grandiose bows. For the finale of an epic “Gold Dust Woman,” she stood in front of an amplifier and worshipped distortion.

Though Nicks and company played just one song released in the last two decades, the present revealed itself in other ways. The collective’s folk-blues reading of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” invoked themes of division, confrontation and paranoia fracturing the American landscape. “Fall From Grace” burned with an intensity that mirrored the courage, independence and outspokenness of a crop of younger, modern artists Nicks inspired.

Nothing, however, resonated with as much relevance as “Soldier’s Angel.” Concerned she might lose focus, Nicks read her explanation of the 2011 tune from a Teleprompter and apologized for doing so. Played as devastating images from the Russian invasion of Ukraine provided the backdrop, the song sounded a clarion call for righteousness, justice and democracy before concluding with an image of the Ukrainian flag.

The answer to the question Nicks has asked in another, more renowned song for decades — “Do you know how to pick up the pieces and go home?” — seldom seemed so uncertain or necessary.

Toronto Review An inspiring performance that proved once again why Stevie Nicks will always be their “Bella Donna

Review: Stevie Nicks wows Toronto in four-star show

June 20, 2023 at the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto

By Nick Krewen

Toronto Star

Heartfelt tributes to fallen comrades.

Photo: Mystical Amanda

If there was a memorable arc to Stevie Nicks’ overall performance during her two-hour concert at Scotiabank Arena Tuesday night, it was the respect and love she accorded a couple of her artist friends who are no longer with us.

The first one was a bit of surprise in terms of the amount of devotion she offered: Tom Petty, who unexpectedly left this mortal coil in 2017. Nicks referenced Petty several times throughout the evening: first through his recording of “Runnin’ Down a Dream” that blared over the speakers as Nicks and her eight-piece band took to the stage.

Then, four songs in, Nicks told a story of how Petty had “saved” the album “Bella Donna” from becoming “a flop” — as her then-boyfriend-producer Jimmy Iovine told her — by not only providing the hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” but volunteering to duet with her on it.

And, to complete the homage, for her first encore, Nicks and crew performed “Free Fallin’,” Petty’s hit from what was arguably his best album, “Full Moon Fever” in 1989.

But the most poignant moment occurred during the evening’s finale, as Nicks — doubly blessed as a solo artist and as a charter member of the most popular version of Fleetwood Mac — performed a tender, acoustic rendition of “Landslide” as candid images of her and the late Christine McVie flashed on a big screen above the singer and her accompanists. McVie, also a Fleetwood Mac legend, died last November at 79.

These acknowledgments, while emotive, are not to suggest that the Nicks concert presented to an estimated 15,000 devotees was anything but celebratory. All of her fans had a blast.

At 75, Nicks’ distinctive husky alto still delivers the goods. Dressed in a black top, chiffon skirt, leggings and boots, with her waist-length blond hair cascading over her shoulders, the only notable concession to maybe feeling a little older was that the twirling and pirouettes of earlier performances are no longer part of her physical repertoire.

Not that it mattered to her flock: Nicks has always commanded a blind adoration with her bohemian ways, from her philosophically romantic poetry to her distinctive sense of fashion.

Judging by the number of Stevie look-a-likes of all ages who came dressed in honour of their idol, that impact remains multi-generational.

Following a poised and well-received solo set from Tenille Townes of Grand Prairie, Alta. — her blazing cover of “At Last” and her original “Somebody’s Daughter,” among others, won a warm ovation — their heroine Nicks could do no wrong as she dipped into her solo catalogue and that of Fleetwood Mac. The crowd was rewarded almost immediately as the opener “Bella Donna” melted into “Dreams,” the first of five group numbers included in the 17-song setlist.

It was clear from the fact that Nicks introduced practically every song with a little story that she considers herself a songwriter first.

In discussing the inspiration behind “Gypsy,” she told the audience how the virtually overnight transition from waitress and cleaning lady to Fleetwood Mac star “weirded me out,” to the point where she instigated a ritual to ground herself.

“So whenever that would happen, I would take my mattress off of my bed frame, put it on the floor, and then I would just sit down on this bed and I would say, ‘I am still Stevie.’”

Another tale focused on politics and world concern, as she dedicated a song from her album “In Your Dreams” to embattled Ukraine.

“I wrote this song for returning American soldiers that I visited at Walter Reed hospital. When the attacks on Ukraine began, I thought these words became their words and I brought the song back. In my opinion, Ukraine is fighting for all of us. I stand for democracy. I stand for freedom. I stand for Ukraine. No surrender! This is ‘Soldier’s Angel.’”

Whether it was matters of the world or matters of the heart, Nicks and her crackerjack band — including guitarist Waddy Wachtel and keyboardist Darrell Smith — offered flawless executions of her material, with some live versions transcending their recorded originals.

One of the more amazing workouts was “Gold Dust Woman.” With Wachtel offering a splendid solo and Drew Hester hammering it out on the drums, the momentum between the five jamming instrumentalists kept building until the song exploded into an exciting climax.

The same feverish effect happened with “Edge of Seventeen”: Wachtel began with a gritty, electrifying solo that eventually morphed into the recognizable opening riffs of the tune, bringing the cheering crowd to their feet. Nicks and her backing singers Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin then prodded each other to sing more powerfully, and the overall result was an adrenalin high for both artist and audience, one of the show’s many highlights.

An exultant “Stand Back” and a vigorous “Rhiannon” also made their way into the Stevie Nicks highlight reel — and the singer and songwriter seemed moved enough to promise there would be at least one more visit in the not-too-distant future.

“Thank you everybody, you have been an awesome audience from the very beginning,” said Nicks. “You mean so much to me. You know, I’m 75 years old. And I stand for a lot of things, as you know, but one thing, for all you women out there … if I can do this at 75 years old, you can do anything.

“Join a basketball team! Take flying lessons. So, with that little proverb from Stevie, I loved being here and I love the fact that you shared your home here with me, and we’ll be back to see you and you’re so awesome, we have to come back here and redo this, at least one more time. Thank you!”

The gratitude was palpable on both counts: an entertainer appreciative of an audience that has unquestioningly embraced her for going on 50 years and a crowd who received an inspiring performance that proved once again why Stevie Nicks will always be their “Bella Donna.”

You just know she’s going to make good on her word just for them.

Philadelphia Review Stevie Nicks’ singing was on another level and her banter was fun and bubbly

A stadium-sized singalong with Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks at The Linc

Two songwriting legends gave stellar performances in Philly on Friday, June 16, 2023.

Photo: nikkejones85 on Instagram

By Maureen Walsh and John Vettese

xpn.org

It’s easy to understand why a double-header of pop songwriting icons Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks drew a capacity crowd to Lincoln Financial Field on Friday night. Both artists have been active since the late 60s; both are behind an array of hit songs stretching into the 90s, and their popularity extends to present day, with a strong cross-generational appeal. The Philadelphia crowd was made up of life-long fans who probably first heard both artists on WIOQ 40 years ago; younger fans experiencing Nicks and Joel for the first time; and the crossover of parents in collective rapture with their children. And for the performers’ part, both artists sounded stellar, were backed by exemplary bands, played a robust mix of hits and deep cuts, and put their lively personalities on full display.

Nicks opened her set with “Outside the Rain” — appropriate given the thunderstorm forecast and tornado warnings we spent all day monitoring on our Accuweather apps — followed by its sister song “Dreams.” The crowd was pleasantly surprised by the Fleetwood Mac classic turned Tik Tok sensation appearing so early in the set, but that was not the only surprise. We soon were regaled with tourmate Billy Joel’s presence on “Stop Dragging My Heart Around;” he took the stage in a party mask, singing Tom Petty’s verse before revealing his face for the chorus. Nicks’ set continued with even more unexpected moments. There were deep cuts such as “If Anyone Falls,” and Rock A Little‘s “I Sing For the Things,” a song Nicks is playing live for the first time on this tour. She also sang a few covers, the highlight being a heartfelt and powerful cover “Free Fallin'” looking up to the sky and her old friend Petty towards the end.

Nicks couldn’t leave out the hits, of course. “Landslide,” was gorgeous, “Edge of Seventeen,” was explosive with smoking solos courtesy of longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel.  “Stand Back,” was taken to the stratosphere thanks to backing vocals by Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin, and an epic jam on “Gold Dust Woman” was a set centerpiece, with intentionally disorienting camerawork on the big screens adding to the song’s psychedelic feeling.

Nicks’ singing was on another level and her banter was fun and bubbly, talking issues with men and offering life lessons about staying true to yourself. She donned a different shawl for nearly every song, including the very one she wore on the back cover of her solo debut Bella Donna. It was a memorable set of music and her and her band left the crowd wanting more even after her encore.

Billy Joel pays tribute to Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks enchants at co-headlining concert

Melissa Ruggieri

USA TODAY

As with recent performances, Nicks took the stage at sunset for about an hour and 45 minutes and Joel closed the night with two hours of radio fodder and fan favorites (hi, “Captain Jack”).

Though no one expects – or wants – any drastic deviations from their adroitly crafted setlists, a couple of spotlight moments emerged.

Joel, 74, offered Tom Petty-esque vocals to counter Nicks, 75, on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (it wasn’t the tidiest of duets as Joel missed his cue to start singing and then his microphone blanked for several seconds). And during Joel’s percussive “River of Dreams,” he and his exemplary band swung into Tina Turner's “River Deep, Mountain High,” with the multifaceted Crystal Taliefero belting and brass masters Mark Rivera and Carl Fischer coating the tribute with spiky horns.

Stevie Nicks conjures spirits, expels emotions

Nicks, looking resplendent in layers of black, her crimped blond hair flowing halfway down her back, offered her comforting warble on both solo and Fleetwood Mac treasures.

The overlooked “If Anyone Falls” paired with “Gypsy,” allowing Nicks’ two backup singers to add plushness to the choruses.

Nicks’ songs are as layered as her chiffon skirts, their melody and meaning requiring hours of dissection. The poetry in the title tracks of her early solo releases, “Bella Donna” (1981) and “The Wild Heart” (1983), coupled with the galloping beat powering “Stand Back” and urgent guitar riffing in “Edge of Seventeen” reminded of Nicks’ unique song styling.

Her hand-fluttering bows and dramatic dips, too, are all distinctively Stevie.

Nicks is also always expelling emotion, whether playing air drums and conjuring the spirits during the ominously thumping “Gold Dust Woman” or quietly singing the pensive rumination on aging, “Landslide.” During that final song, photos of Nicks and her beloved bandmate, the late Christine McVie, scrolled one of the three screens looming above the stage, making an already wistful moment heartbreaking.

Nicks felt it, too, as she stammered at song’s end, “Can’t speak,” and blew the crowd a kiss before smiling and stating a simple, “Thank you.”