Saturday, October 08, 2022

Stevie Nicks dedicates Landslide to John McVie at Hollywood Bowl

Stevie Nicks, Timeless As Ever At The Hollywood Bowl
The iconic singer's performance was full of classic hits, touching tributes, and yes, lots of shawls.

BY BRITTANY SPANOS


Most people were winding things down on Monday night in Los Angeles yesterday, but the streets near the Hollywood Bowl were buzzing with thousands of fans doing their best Stevie Nicks impressions. They wandered toward the venue, paying homage to the rock star’s many eras, wearing outfits that captured her effortless Southern California Seventies glam or showing off examples of her witchy drapery, capturing the style and spirit that make Nicks a timeless icon.

Those fans were there to attend her sold-out show at the historic venue on Monday evening. The performance was part of a tour she kicked off earlier this year, which she’s scheduled in spurts between festival sets and shows at select US cities.

Nicks’ longtime friend Vanessa Carlton opened the night with a brief set that, of course, included a venue-wide sing-along to “A Thousand Miles.” Shortly before 9 p.m., the stage lights dimmed and Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” blasted from the sound system. It would be the first of many touching tributes to Petty, who made Nicks an honorary Heartbreaker. It’s an gesture she’s taken seriously ever since.

Nicks’ setlist focused heavily on Bella Donna, The Wild Heart and her Fleetwood Mac classics, a decade-long stretch of career home-runs that showed she was a living legend before time had the chance to do so itself. After opening with “Outside the Rain,” she got “Dreams” out of the way, prompting a beautiful bit of harmonizing from the audience.

Any fan of Nicks knows that she’s a natural born storyteller, and on stage and in interviews, she’s more than happy to share long-winded tales of her life, her songs, and her famous friends and lovers. Early on, Nicks made a promise that she would rein it in for the night with her stories, even though this particular show had an audience full of some of her closest confidantes.”I have so much to say,” she promised. Some fans giggled and would have been happy to bask in as many tales she would have liked to spin.

She made good on her promise to keep it short and sweet, though: Before “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” her hit 1981 duet with Petty, she recalled how her producer and then-boyfriend Jimmy Iovine (who was seated in the crowd) told her she needed a single for her solo debut. He then clued her in on the Petty-penned track. Just as she launched into her recently released cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” she sang the praises of songwriter Stephen Stills. And she prefaced a twirl-filled “Gypsy” with some life advice about pulling your mattress off the bed frame to remind yourself who you are. Later, she dedicated In Your Dreams’ “Soldier’s Angel” to the people of Ukraine, singing it in tribute to one Ukrainian woman, in particular, named Julia who had sent Nicks a paining of sunflowers that she displayed on screen as the song began.

As Nicks sang her way through her past, she continued to breathe new life into some of rock music’s most classic and enduring songs. She belted “Wild Heart” as effortlessly as she did nearly 40 years ago (after dedicating it to comedian Kathy Griffin, naturally). During “Gold Dust Woman,” she embodied the same feverish, frenetic stage presence that made her Seventies performances of the song so iconic, moving as if possessed by the guitar solo while wrapped in a golden shawl (one of four she pulled out during the night, including the blue one she wore on the back cover of Bella Donna).

The final stretch of the show was an unrelenting series of hits. “Landslide” was dedicated to her many godchildren as well as John McVie, her close friend and “therapist.” The main set concluded with an extended cut of “Edge of Seventeen,” before the encored kicked back off with a cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’.” The song fit her like a glove, a true tribute to one of her best friends and musical heroes, whose likeness was displayed on a slideshow behind Nicks as she sang it. She ended the song by staring at some lingering shots of the him and her together, performing on stage later in his life.

Unlike other shows on this tour, Nicks skipped frequent show closer “Rock and Roll” (a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic) in favor of her own “Rhiannon,” a more fitting finale. The Bowl’s attendees ranged from teens to Boomers, and in that moment, like many before it, it didn’t matter how or when Nicks’ songs found their way into your life. The show erupted into one final, loud, sing-along before the truly timeless star twirled off into the California night.








Sunday, October 02, 2022

Lindsey Cancels the Remaining European Dates of Tour


Lindsey performed in London on Oct 1st and Berlin prior to that on Sept 28th. The first 5 dates of his European tour were canceled due to illness. He also canceled the remaining dates of his European tour due to illness.
• Glasgow Oct 3
• Liverpool Oct 4
• Dublin Oct 6

Not sure what the health issue is but he did have covid which caused the first rescheduling of the Euro dates, this could be a relapse. Get well Lindsey! 

His tour resumes in the US on October 26th.

10/26/2022 - Bristol, TN - Paramount Center for the Arts
10/27/2022 - Louisville, KY - Kentucky Center for the Arts (Brown Theatre)
10/29/2022 - Des Moines, IA - Hoyt Sherman Place
10/31/2022 - Eau Claire, WI - University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (Pablo Center at the Confluence)

NOVEMBER, 2022
11/1/2022 - Green Bay, WI - Meyer Theatre
11/3/2022 - Nashville, IN - Brown County Music Center
11/4/2022 - Elkhart, IN - Lerner Theatre
11/6/2022 - York, PA - Appell Center for the Performing Arts
11/7/2022 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount
11/9/2022 - Port Chester, NY - The Capitol Theatre
11/10/2022 - New London, CT - Garde Arts Center
11/12/2022 - New Brunswick, NJ - State Theatre New Jersey
11/13/2022 - Annapolis, MD - Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
11/15/2022 - Roanoke, VA - Jefferson Center
11/16/2022 - Durham, NC - Carolina Theatre
11/18/2022 - Nashville, TN - CMA Theatre (Country Music Hall of Fame)
11/19/2022 - Augusta, GA - The Bell Auditorium

Photo: Matthew John Benton

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

REVIEW Stevie Nicks Live in Bridgeport, CT Sept 24, 2022

Stevie Nicks returns to Bridgeport for Sound On Sound headlining performance
Andrew DaRosa


After her last appearance almost 20 years ago, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks returned to Bridgeport on Saturday for a headlining appearance at Sound On Sound music festival. The 74-year-old singer-songwriter led the audience in an hour-and-a-half performance that saw Nicks perform hits from all eras of her career.

Nicks, who was rather talkative during the show, introduced songs like a show-and-tell presentation — offering insights and stories behind songs like “Gypsy” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Fans of Nicks’ Fleetwood Mac work walked away pleased as the singer of group belted classics like “Landslide,” “Dreams” and “Rhiannon.”

One surprise moment of the show was a rendition of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," which Nicks recently recorded and released on streaming platforms on Sept. 23. Nicks told the crowd that she has always admired the songwriting craft of Stephen Stills, and wanted to record her own version of the song. 

Nicks' last solo show in Connecticut occurred at Mohegan Sun Arena in 2016 while Fleetwood Mac's last Connecticut performance happened in 2019, according to setlist.fm. The last time Nicks performed in the Park City was in 2003 with Fleetwood Mac at the Arena At Harbor Yard (now-Total Mortgage Arena).

Friday, September 23, 2022

NEW INTERVIEW Stevie Nicks on why she recorded "For What It's Worth"

 





Stevie joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss her cover of “For What It’s Worth.”

About Her History With Stephen Stills’ Song “For What It’s Worth”...

So, I'll tell you why I used it. Since 1966, when it was first written, I was a big Buffalo Springfield fan. So then, we moved quickly towards the future, and say 1968 is probably when I really started listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash. So, what happened was, is that then I really became a big fan of that song. And, even in those early days, that was right when I joined the band with Lindsey, it was 1968 in San Francisco. And, in my little head, thinking that, "Yes, of course this is going to work out." I said, "I'm going to record that song someday.”

Why She Decided To Release The Cover Now...

It took a whole long time to do it, but the reason that I recorded it was because a week after the Uvalde shooting, I recorded it. I just said... It just came into my head. Sometimes you're just sitting on the couch, and sometimes it'll just come into your head, and you didn't even look for it, and it just comes. So, I thought, okay, I'm going to record it. And, I called my favorite producer, Greg Kurstin, and I said, "I would like to record this." And, he goes like, "Okay, great." He recorded it, he played everything except the lead guitar solo by Waddy Watchel. And, I went in and sang it, and with this whole COVID thing, it's not all so easy to just do that, but we did it, and we wanted to put it through a record company, because it was early in the summer. And so, that of course then takes a while, and then I had to go back on the road. So, it was not ever a protest song. Stephen Stills wrote it about the kids on the Sunset Strip getting together to go to the Roxy, and Troubadour, and everything. And then, the police said, "Well, you can't be keeping everybody in the Hills awake. So, you have to be gone by 10 o'clock." And, of course, I don't go to bed till eight in the morning. So, just imagine. It's like, you have to be off the streets at 10 o'clock, and they're like, "Are you serious? That's not going to happen." So, it turned into riots. I mean, they were like, "You're not going to tell us when we have to go to bed. So, we're not going to leave." So, that's really what he wrote it about. I had no idea, but it is. That's the truth.

How She Approached Covering The Song and What She Hopes Fans Get Out Of Listening To It...

So, everybody has their own meaning for that song, but I just think that somewhere in Stephen Still's amazing songwriting, visionary, whatever you want to say, for what it's worth, he managed, in that song, to cover everything. To cover everything that everybody's complaining about, and fighting against, in the entire world. He managed, in that song, to touch on everything so subtly… you could have said, "Okay, is that song about gun violence? Is that song about women's rights? Is it about immigration?" You wouldn't have had any idea exactly what it was about, but you could take it all in to be about anything that you personally wanted it to be about. But, I know, if I'm going to sing some really famous rockstar guy’s song, I better sing it well, or I'm going to get totally panned. So, I put everything I have into doing an interpretation of a song written by a man and sung by a man... especially such a famous man and songwriter as Stephen Stills. So I really did try to stay as within Stephen's realm as I could. And that's really, basically what I tell the audience is, "This is a song I long wanted to record. This seemed to be the right time. And I hope that you, whatever you're..." I don't know if I ever said whatever your views on anything are, I hope that you can rise above that and take it for what it is. And also, I just hope you like the song.

The witchiest women in pop, the great Stevie Nicks Live in Bangor Maine

Stevie Nicks as talented and charming as ever in Bangor show
The Fleetwood Mac singer's set Thursday was wide-ranging and pulled primarily from her solo career.


BY ROBERT KER
Photo: @hachetommy

The autumn equinox officially brought fall to Maine on Thursday, and with it blew in one of the witchiest women in pop music, the great Stevie Nicks. Possessing an extraordinarily rich catalogue of music and a fashion sense so distinct that if you saw dressed-up concert attendees at gas stations you’d know exactly where they were driving, she charmed the Bangor crowd with poise, presence and a voice that improbably hasn’t aged a day since she climbed onto the tour bus with Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

Autumn’s arrival also brought a noticeable drop in temperature and scattered showers that dampened concertgoers just enough to add some bite to the cool wind. This didn’t have any noticeable effect on the crowd’s spirits, however. The audience at Maine Savings Amphitheater was on its feet and boisterous throughout, screaming wildly whenever Nicks stepped away from the microphone to take flight into her trademark twirls – a more delicate prospect at age 74, making the effort all the more endearing. Coincidentally, she also opened the concert with a medley that directly referenced the weather conditions, beginning with “Outside the Rain” from her 1981 solo album “Bella Donna” and featuring a silky segue into the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams” (featuring the “thunder only happens when it’s raining” line in the chorus).

Throughout the set, she dipped more heavily into her solo catalogue than her Fleetwood Mac catalogue. Indeed, there were almost as many nods to her friend Tom Petty as there were to Fleetwood Mac – she came out on stage to Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” playing over the sound system, performed their duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and covered his “Free Fallin’.”

Her solo material, combined with her Mac material, proved how far-ranging her songwriting is, almost as if she wrote songs specifically for a full and satisfying concert set. If you wanted synthesizer-fueled dance songs, you had “If Anyone Falls” or “Stand Back.” You had barroom blues with “Enchanted,” soft-rock with “Gypsy” and power balladry with “Bella Donna.” This range, performed with a polished backing band, was all exercised to draw maximum drama and contrast from the material.

This was most evident in the two songs that closed out the set: “Gold Dust Woman,” the final song from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” and “Edge of Seventeen,” her biggest solo hit. “Gold Dust Woman” featured a long, drawn-out intro, before Nicks reemerged to the stage wearing a gold shawl. It also contained lengthy instrumental passages in the center and the end, with Nicks dancing with carefree abandon. At the song’s close, she stood with her back to the audience, raising her arms so that the shawl resembled wings.

On “Landslide,” the prior song, she sang the line “I’m getting older too” – a line she has been singing for nearly 50 years, with increasing pointedness with each passing year. Her songwriting balance of youthful energy, singular perspective and wise-beyond-her-years lyrics have aged remarkably, and she’s still interpreting her older material as if she wrote it yesterday, remaining endlessly vibrant even as we all grow older.

Thursday, September 22, 2022

NEW STEVIE NICKS SINGLE "FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH" OUT SEPTEMBER 22ND

 NEW MUSIC... Friday September 22nd

Stevie Nicks announced via her social media sites that she will release "For What It's Worth" a cover of Buffalo Springfield track written by Stephen Stills in 1969 on Friday September 22nd.

She's been performing the track live on the current tour and initially announced it during a concert that it was coming soon.

iHeart Radio had the exclusive premiere September 21st airing the track on it's classic rock stations.

Look for the song on all streaming platforms where ever you are at midnight.