Article by: JON BREAM
This summer, Stevie Nicks was invited to sing on TV's "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice." This month, she joined Jeff Bridges and John Fogerty at a benefit for wounded soldiers in Sturgis, S.D. In May, her Fleetwood Mac songs were featured on a "Glee" episode.
Why is the witchy woman so suddenly in demand?
It probably has a lot to do with "In Your Dreams," her first solo album in 10 years and her best since 1981's "Bella Donna."
"I have to tip my top hat to Dave Stewart" of Eurythmics, she said, who produced the album. "I think the seven songs that he and I wrote together mixed in with the five songs that I wrote by myself made for a much more interesting and diversified record," said Nicks, who performs Wednesday at Mystic Lake Casino amphitheater.
As a musician, Nicks, 63, knows she's limited. She didn't expect to be writing with Stewart but she sent him 40 pages of poetry. He came to her house and said, "Let's do this one."
Recalled Nicks: "In my head, I'm like, 'You don't think we're really going to sit in this room and write a song together, 'cause I don't do that.' But he was so kind and so sweet and no ego, and we just started playing, and in 15 minutes we finished 'You May Be the One.'
"Suddenly, I had an epiphany. Wow! That worked. And this is a really great song with no grief. I don't feel punished or like something was taken away from me. I don't miss spending two months sitting at my piano in tears."
One of her own songs on "In Your Dreams" actually dates back to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" days in the mid-1970s. She knew she had "Secret Love" on a cassette somewhere but couldn't find it. Then her assistant discovered it on YouTube. It turns out that Nicks had actually recorded it for "Bella Donna" but never released it. Keyboardist Benmont Tench, the musical director for that album, was the only person to remember it.
"Ben told me that the other day," Nicks said. "Now my whole story about having no idea [what happened to the song] has gone to hell in a handbag. I remember we recorded a lot of songs for 'Bella Donna'; I just did not remember that."
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