Sunday, March 05, 2017

Review Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders - San Diego March 2, 2017

Review Stevie Nicks and her stories at Viejas Arena
by Leslie Hackett
The San Diego Union Tribune
Photo: Leslie Hackett
There’s a fine line that separates telling stories between songs and letting the music speak for itself. Last night at Viejas Arena, Stevie Nicks was on the wrong side of that line.

Sure, it’s fun to hear that “Every time that big black limo came to pick me up (to go out on tour), that would be the end of a relationship.” Or that one of her first Bella Donna-era shawls cost her a fortune, but at least, according to her frugal mother, she bought silk chiffon, which would last forever (as was proven when Nicks put it on mid-show).

but, when you go to a Stevie Nicks concert, it’s her captivating, raspy singing voice — the one that has been reeling in fans for nearly 50 years — you want to hear most of all. And that’s not what happened Thursday night.

The highlight of the night turned out to be the opening act. The Pretenders — with Chrissie Hynde, one of the two remaining survivors of the original Pretenders, at the helm — rocked the arena. The band took the stage at 7:15 p.m. and roared through 15 songs in its hour-and-15-minute set.

As for stories in between songs? There was just one.

Hynde told the audience that she and the band took a bus from their hotel to Hillcrest (which was met with a roar of applause). “I always like to get on the bus to see if there’s someone who can recognize me,” she said.

Hynde and the band members stopped in to pick up some vinyl at Record City (“Because vinyl is final!” she shouted), and she was particularly impressed by the healthy juice bars and vegetarian restaurant offerings in the area. “But it’s still not as great as my hometown — Akron, Ohio,” she said with a laugh.

While The Pretenders were the opening act, they aren’t just any opening act. The Pretenders, like Nicks, is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee band, and from opening song “Alone” to “I’ll Stand by You” to set-closer “Brass In Pocket,” they held true to the fact that they’re “gonna make you, make you, make you notice.”

As for Nicks’ musical performance, she stated from the beginning that it wasn’t going to be the traditional show she’s done a million times. Her 18-song set, which started at 8:45 p.m. and ended at 11 p.m., was mostly music from her solo albums, peppered with some Fleetwood Mac favorites, including the two encore songs of “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” Many of those Nicks played came from what she called her “gothic trunk of lost songs.”

Probably the most powerful of the night was “Stand Back,” a song Nicks wrote to the melody of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” and for which he played some of the musical track for on the 1983 “The Wild Heart” album version.

But, of course, it was an acoustic guitar and “Landslide” that pulled the whole show together. A song Nicks said she has tried over and over to walk away from the stage without playing remains a continual fan favorite, it continues to be a part of every show. Arms locking together and warm embraces could be seen among the diverse, multi-generational audience members — a sign that Nicks, even with all of her stories, can unite an audience and end on a high note.

Review Stevie Nicks with The Pretenders Live in Portland February 28, 2017

Stevie Nicks in Portland: Fleetwood Mac hits and gold dust memories
by David Greenwald
Oregonlive.com

Photo: David Greenwald - Check out the 45 photos in the gallery

"This is a journey," Stevie Nicks said on Tuesday night. "This is a trip. I'm just asking you to come with me."

From the days of "Fleetwood Mac," Nicks has had fans who would follow her anywhere. But at her Moda Center tour stop, she was looking for indulgence: an evening of storytelling and memories accompanying rare, revived tracks from across her band and solo career, some gathered on 2014's "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault."

"This is a journey," Stevie Nicks said on Tuesday night. "This is a trip. I'm just asking you to come with me."

From the days of "Fleetwood Mac," Nicks has had fans who would follow her anywhere. But at her Moda Center tour stop, she was looking for indulgence: an evening of storytelling and memories accompanying rare, revived tracks from across her band and solo career, some gathered on 2014's "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault."

Nicks didn't skimp on the hits, including Fleetwood Mac staples: "Gypsy," "Gold Dust Woman," "Rhiannon" and finally, "Landslide." But she was more excited to share songs such as "Crying in the Night," a soaring, harmony-bright Buckingham/Nicks track she hadn't performed ever until this tour. It would've been a No. 1 hit if she'd given it to the Eagles.

Nearly every song came with the background behind it, and the storytelling was as compelling as the music. Nicks has always deeply inhabited the characters in her songs, and along with her indelibly witchy popular image, perhaps been too convincing as a bohemian spell-caster. The minutes with Nicks, human being, were surprising and often hilarious: she lacks, say, Cher's comic timing, but she was nearly as amusing--and much more sincere.

"I used to drop by his house, only after calling, of course," she said of politely visiting Tom Petty, whose work inspired her solo debut, "Bella Donna." "I wanted to make a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers record, from a woman's perspective."

She picked up Petty duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" after their mutual producer, Jimmy Iovine, got serious and told her she didn't have a single. Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, who delivered a ferociously punk opening set, took the stage with visible joy to step into Petty's shoes for the song, and the two singers barely made it through without laughing at each other's moves.

And Nicks remembered the pre-fame days she spent waitressing and waiting for her musical breakthrough: it came for her and Lindsey Buckingham with Fleetwood Mac, and she sang "Belle Fleur" about the about the black limousine that whisked her away to rock fame and fortune. Making "Bella Donna" on her own a few years later meant convincing Fleetwood Mac she wasn't going to break up the band.

"Get it through your head!" she said, remembering the conversation.

She also paid tribute to the late Prince: after his "Little Red Corvette" inspired Nicks to write "Stand Back," she called him up for his blessing and 15 minutes later, he was at the studio to help record. On Tuesday night, the result--like so much of Prince's work--was remarkably current, a pulsing synth-rock freight-train that might've graced (or just inspired) 2011's '80s-reviving "Drive" soundtrack.

"Every time I sing that song, Prince is standing right there with me," she said.

On "Edge of Seventeen," she showcased his image on the video projections behind her, the song concluding with a nod to Prince's "When Doves Cry."

Hearing the Fleetwood Mac material apart from the band's gravity let it orbit in intriguing directions: "Gold Dust Woman" went through the heaviest transformation, gaining psychedelic weight to the point of stoner-metal. As the band went into a guitar break, Nicks head-banged, and a puff of cannabis smoke floated through section 122.

Among other revelations: it took the "Twilight" movies and their inspirational (!) teen vampire romance to lead Nicks back to the music industry after almost a decade away. She sang "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" with a visual of rippling water and a full moon behind her--if this music thing doesn't work out, Nicks has a future in fantasy screensavers.

But for every behind-the-scenes moment, Nicks also gave us the comforting familiar: costume changes, tambourines and spin moves, and the captivating voice whose quivering wisdom the 68-year-old Nicks has only grown into.

"You have to believe in your heart," she advised. On Tuesday, it was easy to believe in hers.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Reviews - Stevie Nicks with The Pretenders Salt Lake City, Utah Feb 25, 2017

'Talk to Me': Stevie Nicks chats up Vivint Arena in memorable SLC return
Doug Fox Daily Herald

Photo by: Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald - VIEW MORE

Stevie Nicks was in a chatty mood Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

Maybe it was because the rock icon was back in her onetime hometown of Salt Lake City. Maybe it was because she was excited to return to the road for the bonus round of her "24 Karat Gold Tour," with this show being just the second in a 20-date tour extension that kicked off Thursday in Reno following a two-month break. Maybe it was a side effect of the Gold Dust Woman's desire to sprinkle intimate insight and detail into the background of nearly every tune in her 18-song set.


Whatever the reason, Nicks split her two hours and 15 minutes on stage between singing and sharing stories from behind the music of her illustrious 44-year recording career. And you know what? Give us more shows like this -- ones where it's as if the artist is standing in your living room and carrying on a musical conversation at their own relaxed pace rather than punching some imaginary time clock monitoring exactly when they need to be off stage.


Nicks even joked about her gift of gab late in the performance.

"There's too many stories in my life," she said, before laughingly considering what her concerts might morph into another five or six years down the road. "Pretty soon, there won't be any music. It'll just be me sitting in a chair talking. It will be the cheapest show ever. I won't even need a band."

As bands do go, Nicks has always managed to surround herself with some amazing musicians, whether on stage or in the studio, a fact that was never more evident than it was Saturday night -- both in terms of live performance and with her revelations into each song's background. This has been true since she broke into music as a duo with partner/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, continued on with that pair's tenure in Fleetwood Mac, and been a constant throughout her solo career as well. Some of her best stories revolved impromptu recording sessions with Tom Petty's Heartbreakers and Prince, among others.

Both Prince and Tom Petty had notable influences in Saturday's set. Nicks told of how she wrote one of her biggest hits, "Stand Back," on her lone wedding day, literally working through her honeymoon night on it, after hearing Prince's "Little Red Corvette" on the radio for the first time. Recognizing Prince's influence on the song, she later rang him up from Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles to seek his permission to finish the track. He happened to be in town and showed up at the studio 15 minutes later, as Nicks said, "Dressed to the 9's in purple," to hear what they'd recorded.

"If you hate this, it's over, we will throw it in the trash right now,' " Nicks said she told Prince. "(But) he loved it. I said, 'Would you like to play on it?' And he said yes."

In true rock star fashion, Prince had brought a guitar with him in his car. He added some guitar and keyboards to the final track.

"He, like, finished in an hour," Nicks said. "(He said), 'I love it. Be seeing you.'

"Now when I sing it, he's right here," Nicks said, motioning just to her side on stage.

Nicks' collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is more obvious, since the band literally helped catapult her solo career with the duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" in 1981. Short of T.P. and the Heartbreakers personally showing up, it's hard to imagine a more spirited version of the tune being performed live than this tour's rendition. As she has been doing all tour, Chrissie Hynde, frontwoman of opening act The Pretenders, walked into the "Stop Draggin' " party like she was walking onto a yacht, strolling confidently out to thunderous applause during the first verse. There was so much genuine interaction between Nicks and Hynde, as well as guitarist Waddy Wachtel, that it was blatantly obvious how much fun everyone was having.

In the grand tradition of concert "walk-ons" -- where artists from other bands on the bill make a guest appearance in another's set -- the best ones tiptoe the tightrope between rehearsal and spontaneity. In this, "Stop Draggin' " was a huge early-set success. Although planned, it seemed to catch most of the crowd by surprise. Additionally, whether true or not, it appeared as if Nicks and Hynde almost decided on the fly who would take some of the lead vocal lines.

Nicks alluded to that after the song, saying that with so many singers -- five in this song, counting Wachtel and full-time backup singers Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin -- it is hard to keep track of who, exactly, is supposed to sing what.

"You tried your hardest just to smooth it over," Nicks laughingly said to Wachtel after the song, "but you just couldn't do it."

Wachtel, who in addition to lead guitar duties is also the band's musical director, has been with Nicks from the start. He literally performed as a session musician on the "Buckingham Nicks" album in 1973 that led to duo's destined decision to join Fleetwood Mac the following year. Wachtel has played on every one of Nicks' solo albums and tours, and his performance -- not to mention his wild frizzy hair -- also figures prominently in the band's live show.

Nicks' latest album, "24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault," provided the perfect template for her strong storytime approach. The album features a collection of songs that Nicks wrote and recorded over the years that for some reason never quite fit musically or timing wise into any of her other projects. Over time she metaphorically placed them in her "gothic trunk of lost songs."

She played three songs from that album -- "Belle Fleur," "If You Were My Love" and "Starshine." The latter song, which Nicks co-wrote and recorded with Petty and the Heartbreakers (she thinks around 1979), certainly sounded like it could have been a vintage single for either of them, and helped drive home the sometimes fickle nature of the music industry.

"I wasn't doing a record (at the time) and he wasn't doing a record," Nicks said. "If either of us had been doing a record, it would have been on it. So it went into the gothic trunk of lost songs."

Nicks' set was extremely well paced in terms of song selection and running order. She could have filled the entire show with hit singles -- but to her credit, she didn't. She only played four Fleetwood Mac songs, and branched out into much of her lesser-known solo material as well. In less-capable hands this might have been a bit of a gamble, but it was no threat to a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer of Nicks' stature.

To be sure, Nicks did scatter hits occasionally throughout the show, before backloading it with four songs guaranteed to garner a great reaction. An especially intense 10-minute version of "Gold Dust Woman" set the beginning of the end in motion. That was followed by the main set-closing "Edge of Seventeen." The encore featured "Rhiannon" and "Landslide," two songs from her Fleetwood Mac debut. Nicks noted that she has sang both those songs every single performance since they were written.

"I wrote this song in Aspen," she said of "Landslide." "I wish I'd written it here."

Nicks owned the crowd from the moment she walked on stage in her trademark platform heel boots, flowing black dress, black fingerless gloves and an ever-changing array of scarves, shawls, jackets and capes.

One such cape, by the way, was the silk chiffon one she wore on the "Bella Donna" album cover. The cape, she said, cost her $2,000 in 1981 and remains in perfect condition today. She laughed considering what her mother would have said at paying that initial exorbitant price tag.

"(But) $2,000 over 35 years is a very good price," Nicks noted.

That's very likely the sentiment anyone in attendance Saturday night will have years from now when they look at the price on their ticket stub. Seeing someone of Nicks' legend, caliber and overall talent, still performing at a very high level, is not an opportunity to be missed. You simply can't put a cost on gathering memories like that -- or missing out on them.

Adding to the value of the night's entertainment, The Pretenders, also a R&R Hall of Fame act, performed a tight 15-song, one-hour set. The band showcased both new and old material along with well-known hits "Back on the Chain Gang," "My City Was Gone," "Middle of the Road" and "Brass in Pocket."

Pretenders frontwoman Hynde runs the show, naturally, along with the animated efforts of lead guitarist James Walbourne, original drummer Martin Chambers, and the more laid-back efforts of bassist Nick Wilkinson and keyboardist Ricky Peterson. Peterson deserves special notice for pulling double duty, as he also is a member of Nicks' touring band.

In one sense, Nicks and Hynde are polar opposites. Hynde, rocking her signature fringe mop hairdo, hit the stage in skinny jeans, a T-shirt and a short-waisted pink tuxedo jacket, which she removed six songs in. But in another sense, Nicks and Hynde are kindred spirits who can rock with the best of them. As unlikely as it sounds, there are fewer sights more pure rock and roll than seeing the statuesque Hynde, bent at a three-quarters side angle, jamming on a harmonica with her Fender Telecaster slung behind her back during the end of "Middle of the Road." Perhaps you had to be there.

On any other night, The Pretenders would have been the talk of the town. In this tour, however, Nicks gets the final word.


Concert review: Stevie Nicks’ “gothic trunk of lost songs” filled with magic moments
By Eric Walden, 

"She was magical. Make sure you put that in your write-up," my wife insisted upon leaving Saturday's Stevie Nicks concert at Vivint SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City.

She had a point. How else to explain an artist I had no particular affinity for prior to entering the building delivering two and a quarter hours of the best concert-going experience of my adulthood?

Magic seems as good an explanation as any.

OK, so you could argue that many of the live performances — bolstered by two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, Hammond organist, grand pianist, two female backing vocalists, and the occasional Nicks-shaken tambourine — were infused with a depth and energy that isn't always apparent (to me, anyway) on her recordings.

Still …

That hardly tells the whole story, though Nicks proved quite adept at just that, often preceding or following the tunes that comprised the night's setlist — many pulled from her "gothic trunk of lost songs" — with meandering, colorful and humorous tales.

Among her topics of conversation:

• Her two-plus years growing up in Utah: "My parents threatened to send me to that Catholic [high] school downtown if I didn't get a B-plus average [at Wasatch Junior High]. … That place turned out to be a lot fun! It was coed! I didn't brag about it 'cause I knew they'd whip me out of that school and put me in a convent."

• Her humble pre-Fleetwood Mac career: "I was still a waitress and a cleaning lady, and I had a Toyota Corolla with no reverse. And all of a sudden I'm flying first class and riding in a limousine — something I never thought I'd do unless I was the one driving it."

• Her expensive-yet-theoretically-practical fashion proclivities: "This is the original 'Bella Donna' cape. My mother, if she were standing here, would fall over if she knew how much it cost. It was $2,000! It's made of silk chiffon! … But look at it — not even a loose thread anywhere. So, you take $2,000 and spread it over 30-something years … now, all of a sudden, if my mother was standing here today, she would say, 'That was a very good choice of fabric!' "

Nicks also spun yarns of having to promise not to break up Fleetwood Mac in order to make her first solo record (but giving her label a panic attack by quasi-joking that what she really wanted to do was join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), having nothing to do one night in Brisbane, Australia, and winding up "thoroughly and completely in love with the love story of Bella and Edward" after getting sucked into the first two "Twilight" films, and meeting a young Prince sometime between 1975-77 "when hardly anyone knew who he was" and remarking to him, "You don't say much do you? You need to talk a little more."

Of course, Nicks also has a way with words in her songs, and she proved equally enchanting there over the course of her 18-tune setlist, which included four selections apiece from Fleetwood, 1981's "Bella Donna" and 1983's "The Wild Heart," three from the 2014 rarities collection "24 Karat Gold," two from 2011's "In Your Dreams," and even one from her original "Buckingham Nicks" album from 1973.

She got the crowd rolling early by having The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde trade lines with her on her Petty duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (with guitarist Waddy Wachtel taking on Petty's parts). Other highlights included the ethereal, "Twilight"-inspired "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)," the unexpected electro rave-up "Stand Back" (an offshoot of Prince's "Little Red Corvette"), and the main-set closer "Edge of Seventeen," which had the audience dancing and singing along on all those "Whooooo! Whooooo! Whooooo!"s.

Really, though, just about everyone's favorite moments came in her Fleetwood performances. "Gypsy" got the crowd swaying, and the encore included "Rhiannon" and a sparse acoustic guitar and piano arrangement of "Landslide," but perhaps the singular moment of the entire evening was the hypnotic-and-transfixing-yet-swaggering run through "Gold Dust Woman."

Hynde and The Pretenders opened the night with a no-frills hour of straight-ahead rock, starting off a bit flat before settling in and catching a groove around their fourth song in. Her mid-set trifecta of "Back on the Chain Gang," "I'll Stand By You" and "Don't Get Me Wrong" would've been her inarguable highlight if not for her rousing, set-closing edition of "Brass in Pocket."

When The Pretenders wrapped up, Hynde told those assembled, "Stevie will be on in about 20 minutes. Don't go anywhere!"

Great advice — unless, of course, you'd simply already had too many magical moments in your life.


Tuesday, February 07, 2017

New Book: Love that Burns - A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac by Mick Fleetwood - will speak at SXSW



Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood is among a large group of speakers announced today for this year’s South by Southwest daytime conference lineup.

Fleetwood’s appearance is related to his upcoming book “Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac” via Genesis Publications.

Fleetwood Mac, a band that boasts some of the highest-selling records of all time, has weathered countless trials and tribulations on the road to success. Mick Fleetwood, legendary drummer and founding member speaks with Rolling Stone magazine's David Fricke, unravelling the dramatic history of a band that emerged from the British Blues Boom. The discussion will be illustrated with rare images selected from the forthcoming collaboration with Genesis Publications, the limited edition Love that Burns - A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac.

Love that Burns - A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac is Mick Fleetwood's account of the early blues era of Fleetwood Mac and the musical legacy of the uniquely talented Peter Green. Beautifully produced in the Genesis tradition, each handcrafted book, limited to 2,000 numbered copies worldwide, will be signed by the artist.

To celebrate the announcement of this collaboration, Genesis Publications are offering an exclusive SXSW VIP package to a small group of early book buyers. Join us at the official SXSW event, be among the first to secure your number in the edition, enjoy an invitation to a VIP 'meet & greet' and have your copy personally dedicated by Mick Fleetwood through a commemorative bookplate.

Mick will speak from 5-6PM on March 15 in Room 16AB of the Austin Convention Center. 

Includes:
Signed limited edition book
Meet & greet with Mick Fleetwood
Event Attendance: Mick Fleetwood in conversation with David Fricke
One day festival pass
Price: £455 / $555

For more information on the book visit: www.fleetwoodmacbook.com

Saturday, February 04, 2017

Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours': 10 Things You Didn't Know


Why "Silver Springs" was left off the LP, how the band's Rolling Stone cover shoot fueled Steve Nicks and Mick Fleetwood's affair, and more
By Jordan Runtagh
Rollingstone.com


Every Song on Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' Ranked
by Andrew Unterberger
Billboard.com

Why Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' Hits Home Right Now
Band confronted their own romantic chaos on 1977 masterpiece, asking tough questions that still resonate
By Rob Sheffield
Rollingstone.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood Reveal Secrets Behind Fleetwood Mac Rumours

Longest Running Rumor In Music Turns 40

Fleetwood Mac released 'Rumours' 40 years ago on February 4, 1977
Dallas, TX - February 1, 2017.  North American syndicated Rock radio show and website InTheStudio with Redbeard: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands  uncovers the stories behind the longest-running rumor in music history, 1977’s Grammy Award-winning album by Fleetwood Mac, Rumours.  

In the mid-‘70s there was no other band more professionally and personally linked together than the five members of Fleetwood Mac. Barely three years earlier California duo and couple Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had joined the British blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac collaborating on its breakout 1975 “White Album”, cementing the Mac’s long overdue commercial success while at the same time raising eye brows and ears around the world as to what could possibly come next.  

Truth be told, the members of Fleetwood Mac were literally living secret and separate lives. One as band members and the other as lovers falling apart. It was this tension filled environment that produced some of the most genuine emotion filled music of the decade. Fueled by their talent and ambition what would normally break bands apart, somehow kept them together and produced one of the biggest selling albums of all-time. 

Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Mick Fleetwood share their story to In The Studio host Redbeard, warts and all. 

“The album was really a catharsis of human emotions, if you like. And never at any one point, that I can remember, was it ever discussed by any one person that they wanted out, or that they couldnt’ handle it.” - Mick Fleetwood

“I mean “Go Your Own Way”, “The Chain”, “Dreams”, “Never Going Back Again”, “Don’t Stop” thinking about tomorrow, “Second Hand News”, “I Don’t Want to Know”, “Gold Dust Woman”… they were all about trying to make it through that particular period of time.”  - Stevie Nicks

“You’re talking about a situation during the making of Rumours which was very painful for me, working with someone I was still in love with, who didn’t want to be with me.”   - Lindsey Buckingham

FLEETWOOD MAC ‘Rumours’ /InTheStudio interview 
is available now to STREAM at: InTheStudio.net

Direct Link to InTheStudio broadcast affiliate radio station list: InTheStudio-RadioStations

Link to FLEETWOOD MAC website
Link to InTheStudio website